SAN ANTONIO, Texas (WSVN) — An IHOP waiter in Texas is credited with serving up justice to a would-be robber.
Elijah Arnold told Fox 29 that he jumped into action when a man entered the restaurant and popped open the cash register.
Arnold, who has a third-degree black belt, rushed to stop the suspect from getting away with the money. That’s when the man swung a crowbar at him.
“I’ve been in martial arts for a very long time and my instincts just took over. I deflected the crowbar and just tackled him to the ground,” Arnold recalled. “I got him in a submission hold where I held him until police got here.”
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Even as he held the man down, the robber wasn’t done trying to get away with the cash.
“Even on the ground when I was holding him, he was begging me, ‘Please let me go, just give me the money, you should understand this,’” Arnold said.
Arnold didn’t have sympathy for the man; after all, he had just gotten the job at IHOP a few weeks prior and had been recently homeless, according to Fox 29.
“That was my money in the register. It was my manager’s money in the register. And it was my IHOP’s money in the register,” Arnold said. “And I’m not going to let anybody take that.”
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