An axe-wielding burglar picked the wrong church to mess with on Thanksgiving after he attempted to break in by smashing a window. After hearing the security alarm go off, Pastor Nick Neves went to investigate and the two men got into a confrontation in Antioch.
Though Neves would’ve preferred to have helped the man rather than having to confront him, he did just that and with a background of training in martial arts, he was able to deal with the burglar without needing to injure him.
“I shouted at him to stop, and that the police were on their way, and he ran and I grabbed a hold of him and we ended up wrestling in the parking lot of the church,” Neves told NBC News. “I was able to pin him to the ground and he got up and try to get away several times, but basically just trying to wear him out because I knew I could outlast him.”
It reportedly look between 12-15 minutes of wrestling before the burglar exhausted himself and the police arrived. Neves told NBC that he likes to keep fit and has previously trained in multiple martial arts like kickboxing and jiu-jitsu. He described his experience as being “very helpful” so that he could “grapple with this gentleman without having to do much harm to him.”
The thief has not yet been publicly identified despite the images that have been released on social media.
(Antioch Police Department on Facebook)
Neves is proud of the service that his church is able to provide for those in need having recently provided groceries for 130 families. He described the confrontation as “ironic”.
“If he had come a couple of days earlier, he would have been blessed and get some food and be cared for but he decided instead to smash windows and desecrate property and do something that’s going to hurt the ministries.”
A long-time member of Neves’ Family First Church remarked that he was incredibly happy to find out that their “very tough” pastor wasn’t injured in the incident and that “we’re very grateful to God that he’s our pastor and not our enemy.”
