Antioch pastor recalls fighting off would-be alleged burglar on Thanksgiving with martial arts
"I told him to stop. He didn't want to stop. So, I ran after him. Grab a hold of him."
ANTIOCH, Calif. (KGO) -- It wasn't the normal festive start to Thanksgiving Pastor Nick Neves was expecting at First Family Church in Antioch.
"(The suspect) came at me through the kitchen holding a box of our (possessions). At that point, I told him to stop. He didn't want to stop. So, I ran after him. Grab a hold of him. But I didn't get ahold of him until we got out to the parking lot," explains Pastor Neves, who has been with the church for 20 years.
What the suspect didn't know is that Pastor Neves knows how to fight. He used his years of martial arts training in jiu-jitsu and kickboxing to overcome the would-be robber until the police came. He says they wrestled for 12 to 15 minutes.
"Just using positioning. I tried to maintain back control on the gentleman so that he wasn't able to strike at me very effectively. And try to keep control of his hands, so that if he had a weapon of some kind, I'd be able to keep him from getting that weapon and using it against me," says Pastor Neves.
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Just after midnight on Thanksgiving, Pastor Neves got an alert of the break-in. The damage totals a few thousand dollars, which can be a lot of money for a small church.
"What I didn't want to see is just him was run off and then come back later and rob us again. You can find that it becomes a pattern where you get victimized a lot if you don't do anything to standup for yourself," explains Neves.
Neves doesn't recommend chasing after a would-be assailant. But he says he does believe in standing up for justice.
"Being a loving person doesn't mean you have to be a weak person. Humility and strength are not antithesis to each other," says Pastor Neves. "If there is a situation where you have to standup for yourself, I don't think you have to apologize for that."
Antioch police arrested the suspect, who Neves believes is likely a homeless man. The Antioch Police Department did not return request for comment.
Neves says he will cooperate with the investigation. But he also hopes for a chance to talk to the suspect.
"Hopefully I get a chance to speak to this guy again. I hope I have an opportunity to meet him in better circumstances, and maybe to talk to him a little bit without the panic of him getting arrested," says Neves.
