A California pastor skilled in combined martial arts fought off an axe-carrying burglar who broke into his church on Thanksgiving.
The burglar used the axe to smash open a window on the First Household Church in Antioch within the early morning hours when he was confronted by Pastor Nick Neves, who had gone to test on the church after listening to the safety alarm go off.
The would-be thief, who has not been recognized, tried to struggle the preacher.
“I shouted at him to stop, and that the police were on their way,” Neves, 46, instructed NBC Information. “And he ran and I grabbed a hold of him and we ended up wrestling in the parking lot of the church.”
The pair grappled for almost quarter-hour because the Neves utilized a few of his coaching in varied martial arts.
“I like to stay fit,” Neves instructed the outlet. “And I studied some jiu jitsu and kickboxing and I have a mixed martial arts background.”
This coaching helped him “grapple with this gentleman without having to do much harm to him,” he stated. The pastor was in a position to maintain the intruder on the bottom till police arrived.
“I was able to pin him to the ground and he got up and try to get away several times,” the BJJ skilled pastor stated. “But basically just trying to wear him out because I knew I could outlast him.”
Neves walked away from the scuffle unscathed and the burglar was taken into custody, in line with the Antioch Police Division.
The pastor stated he wished the person would have merely walked by means of the church’s entrance door and he would have taken care of him. The church already supplies groceries for some 130 native households.
“It’s just ironic,” the pastor stated. “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.”
Longtime church member Jeff Strawther instructed NBC Information Neves is “very tough” and was grateful “that he’s our pastor and not our enemy.”
“It could’ve gone in [a] totally different direction and we thank God that it didn’t,” he stated.
