LAWTON, Okla_A would-be
thief picked the wrong house to attempt his burglary on. The man who lived
there happened to be a mixed-martial arts fighter. Tim Johnson said he was
relaxing at his home in southwest Lawton
Tuesday morning, when he saw a strange silhouette in the window. When he went
to check it out, he saw a burglar, stealing his tools from his front porch.
Johnson said he went outside to confront him and the thief started to fight. That
turned out to be the thief's second big mistake.
The fight
lasted about 15 minutes but he said he felt like it went on forever. Johnson,
who is well over six feet and packed with muscle, has been a MMA fighter and
coach for six years, so he was well prepared for this fight. He said before he
walked outside to confront the burglar, identified as Charles Smith, he
considered letting him go, but everything changed when Smith became combative.
"I come
around and I ask the guy, ‘what are you doing?' He looks at me and he is just stunned
and said ‘whoa whoa, I am sorry,' then he stands up and said what are you going
to do about it."
Johnson said
that's the moment his years of mixed martial arts training kicked into gear.
"I get him
in what's called a body triangle, where I wrap my leg around his torso and put
it behind my knee and I had my arm in a guillotine and then his phone fell out
of his pocket, so I picked the phone up and dialed 911, while I have him choked
up at the same time talking to the police."
He said he
managed to tell dispatch he'd nabbed a burglar and needed help, but Smith
knocked the phone out of his hand and managed to break free. The fight was on
again.
"So this
kind of a Ju Jitsu trick, I let him think he was going to get up, so I let him
get up and I gave him two really good shots to the ribs. I had to cause he
would not stop, after that I mounted him, got him in the rear-naked choke and
held him till the cops came."
Charles Smith
is now sitting in Comanche County Jail on charges unrelated to this crime.
Johnson said he decided not to press charges against him. He also said he also
could have seriously hurt Smith, but said that's not what martial art is about
and that's not the message he wants to send to his students.
"A lot of
them were wondering why I didn't hurt the guy more than I could have. Mixed
martial arts are to show discipline and self defense not to hurt, so that was a
great example of that."
Another
interesting twist to this fight, Johnson said Smith tried to bargain his
release by offering Johnson coffee and creamer he'd stolen from somewhere else.
Now, police and a few of Johnson's neighbors called him a super hero, but he
said he is just an ordinary guy put in some extraordinary circumstances.
Smith has been in trouble with the law before. Court records show he was
arrested on four warrants, including one for bogus checks and driving under a
suspended license.
