Successful Street Applications

[GeneChing]

I had a similar thing happen once in our kung fu class. Some fool tried to grab the tip jar from our neighboring pizzeria. The tip jar was one of those water cooler jugs and it was like a third full, so it weighed a ton. The perp came running down the back alley where we all trained. Of course, we all knew that pizzeria well as we spent many hours after class there, so when the store manager yelled 'stop that guy' we did. As luck would have it, we were working on staff sparring at the time, so there was about a dozen of us with eyebrow height rattan staffs. We were all warmed up and ready to bang. The perp gave up immediately. It makes me chuckle, just thinking back on it...

Tai chi class helps nab kidnap suspect in Asheville
Montford woman held at knifepoint
By Clarke Morrison • April 29, 2010

ASHEVILLE — Sharon Fahrer was looking out her kitchen window when the attacker surprised her from behind, put her in a chokehold, held a switchblade to her face and demanded her purse.

He might have made a clean escape, had it not been for the tai chi class practicing in nearby Montford Park.

The attack happened just after Fahrer, 60, and housemate Kaylen Marks had walked into their Montford Avenue home around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The suspect barged through the door behind them and demanded her purse, Fahrer said Wednesday.

“I was scared, but I remained calm,” she said.

Fahrer, coordinator of the Montford Music and Arts Festival, said she screamed as the man maneuvered her through the dining room to her purse in the foyer.

He asked her were her car keys where, and she said she didn't know, even though they were hanging around her neck.

That's when he fled out the door with her purse and toward the park, where Trey Crispin was getting ready to start his weekly tai chi class.

He spotted the man running and then heard Marks yell out that a man had stolen Fahrer's purse.

So Crispin and two of his students chased the man, while another student called 911.

The suspect ran behind a house.

“We fanned out,” he said. “Everybody kept their distance. We just kind of held position until he started making another move.”

Meanwhile, a police cruiser siren could be heard approaching the area.

“I said, ‘If you run, I'm going to chase you,'” Crispin said.

Officers soon apprehended the suspect, identified as Jeremy Chad Hall, 34, of Asheville.

Crispin said Fahrer's purse was found stashed behind a garage.

“There wasn't even a question about chasing the man,” he said. “It was nice that we could help out.”

Police charged Hall with first-degree kidnapping, breaking and entering and larceny, misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest, according to arrest warrants. He was jailed under $50,000 bond.

Hall spent nearly eight years in prison before his release last year, according to N.C. Department of Correction records.

His felony convictions date back to 1993, and include being a habitual felon, breaking and entering and larceny, embezzlement and breaking and entering motor vehicles.

Fahrer called what happened “a tremendous triumph of neighborhood and police cooperation.”

She also said she should have locked her door when she went into the house.

“That's the sort of lesson from this,” she said. “My message to other people is to make sure to lock your door.”

[GeneChing]

"Not very graceful" that's such a tai chi comment.

Police: Tai Chi Class Catches Crook
Jeremy Chad Hall Charged With Kidnapping, Larceny, Assault
John Eby, WYFF News 4 Reporter
POSTED: 11:12 pm EDT April 29, 2010
UPDATED: 12:26 pm EDT April 30, 2010

ASHEVILLE, N.C. --
Asheville police arrested an alleged thief Tuesday evening with the help of a tai chi class.

Jeremy Chad Hall, 34, is charged with first-degree kidnapping, breaking and entering, larceny, misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest.

Sharon Fahrer said she was standing in the kitchen of her Montford Avenue home when Hall robbed her.

Fahrer said, "All of a sudden, this person came up and puts me in a choke hold and shows me his knife and says, 'I want your purse.'"

She said she led him to the spot where she kept it; on the way she said he asked where she kept her car keys.

"I said, 'I don't know,'" she said. "They were around my neck, but you know, I figured if he's getting my purse, I'm not giving him my car keys."

She said he ran outside with her purse, straight into nearby Montford Park, where a tai chi class was practicing.

The teacher, Trey Crispin, said he saw the man running by.

"And he seemed out of sorts, in a hurry. Not very graceful," Crispin said.

When the class heard Fahrer's roommate screaming that someone had stolen a purse, the class snapped into action.

Crispin said two people went to check on Fahrer, one called 911, and two more followed him to confront the thief.

Crispin said that when he confronted the man, he acted as if he had done nothing wrong.

"He's like, 'No, no, I'm being chased by people!' And I was like, 'I understand, but if you run, I'm going to chase you.' And then he kind of like short-circuited and then took off," Crispin said.

Crispin said he and the students took positions around the man as he hid behind a nearby house.

When police arrived, the tai chi class made their move.

"I had my good friend Cory Pines to my left. He was running flank. And my good friend James coming up behind me, and we just kind of did a nice little pincer move..." Crispin said as he drew his hands to a point in front of him, "...right to a cruiser."

Fahrer said the capture was a victory for the historic Montford neighborhood, which has worked to set up a neighborhood watch and which she said works closely with police.

"I feel like this is a very close-knit place, that people are willing to help other people," she said.

As of Thursday evening, police said Hall was in the Buncombe County Detention Center under a $50,000 bond.

[TaichiMantis]

5 Maine students, including one trained in self defense, jump to aid of peer

BANGOR, Maine - Five female students, including one who'd recently completed a self-defense class, jumped to the aid of a fellow student, grabbing her knife-wielding attacker and holding him until police officers arrived at Husson University, officials said Wednesday.

Jesse Hladik put her new skills to work when she lunged for the hand holding a knife, while fellow students grabbed the man's other limbs and wrestled him to the ground. Hladik, 21, of Buckfield, said she knew the pressure points to make him drop the knife, thanks to the class.

"It was really scary, but I'm glad we got involved," said student Heather Mann, 18, of Rochester, N.H. "Because I really think he would have killed her."

Officers responding to the report of a domestic fight at 7:40 a.m. arrived to find 45-year-old Horst Wolk of Bangor subdued on the pavement. A campus officer cuffed him, and city police hauled him away.

John Michaud, professor of legal studies, heard the commotion and saw a pile of people on the pavement, while more women stood by, ready to jump in, if necessary.

"I was very impressed by the students," Michaud said. "How many times do you hear about people walking by incidents like this? These young ladies weren't going to walk by this incident." He said the young women disarmed the suspect and "had the situation well in hand."

Wolk has been charged with attempted murder, elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault and violating a protection order, said Bangor Police Sgt. Paul Edwards. He remained jailed Wednesday afternoon on $25,000 bail. There was no indication whether he had an attorney.

The incident unfolded in a parking lot next to Husson's O'Donnell Commons. Wolk, who isn't a student, rammed the victim's vehicle after she pulled into a parking space at 7:40 a.m., then jumped out of his vehicle with a knife in his hand, said Julie Green, Husson spokeswoman.

The injured woman, who was not identified, was treated at a local hospital and released.

Edwards said officers generally don't want bystanders to put themselves in harm's way.

"We would never recommend getting involved to the point where you might get hurt yourself and become a second victim. But am I proud of what they did? Of course I am. Am I glad they did it? Yeah. I'm happy because the outcome was good," Edwards said.

Hladik said she realized the importance of self defense.

"Not that the situation is going to happen again here, but it is so much better to know what I was doing, to make a little plan in a couple of seconds before doing something because I can't imagine being one of the girls without training and not knowing what to do," she said.

"I think that is bravery because they had never fought ... they had no idea what to do and they still stepped in."

[Xiao3 Meng4]

Aussie Ninjas. Do they have boomerang shuriken?

Three muggers in Australia got the fright of their lives when their attack was interrupted by five black-clad ninja warriors.

The thieves were assaulting a German medical exchange student in Sydney, but the alleyway where they struck was next to a school for ninja warriors.

One of the pupils raised the alarm after noticing the attack.

Police say they have arrested two men and charged them with robbery, and are still looking for a third suspect.

"We just ran outside and started running at them, yelling and everything," said ninja master Kaylan Soto who instructed his students to take action.

"These guys have turned around and seen five ninjas in black ninja uniforms running towards them. They just bolted."

The victim suffered minor injuries, and the men stole his mobile phone and iPod, according to police.

Mr Soto said the man could have escaped the assault with some training in ninjitsu - a Japanese martial art. As for the attackers, "They just picked the wrong spot," he added.

[GeneChing]

Kung Fu experts tackle Newport burglar
2:10pm Tuesday 29th June 2010

A BURGLAR picked the wrong house to raid in Newport - being caught red-handed by the former policeman owner and his son, who both have black belts in Kung Fu.

Lewis Welch, 20, was jailed for two and a half years yesterday after admitting burglary and two offences of battery during the raid on the home of former Gwent police constable Mohammed Deen at 11.10pm on June 2.

Welch, of Thames Close, Bettws, had woken Mr Deen's terrified daughter Rukeya, 19, by walking into her room, running out of the house in Maindee when she screamed at him, Newport crown court heard.

Mr Deen and son Hussan, 21, who gained his black belt the day before the raid, were on their way home from a local mosque when the dad saw Welch acting suspiciously outside their nearby home.

Mr Deen, a police constable between 1991 and 2001 commended for bravery after disarming a woman with a knife in 1995, heard his daughter's scream and looked over the wall where he saw three people filling up a bag.

Mr Deen said he was punched or kicked in the neck which dazed him but managed to hold on to Welch until he slipped from his grip and tried to make a run for it. His son rugby-tackled Welch.

Mr Deen said Welch punched his son in the face and cut his lip before a few members of the mosque came out and helped including Shufqut Khan and Mr Deen's brother Asif Deen, who broke his wrist in the struggle.

“He was very determined to get away. He fought like mad,” Mr Deen said.

Three people helped the father and son keep Welch down while they waited for the police, with Mr Deen holding him.

Welch had tried to get away with two laptops worth £1,100, £40 in cash, a hairdryer and a sports bag.

Mr Deen said the incident had left his daughter suffering from depression and said she no longer likes being in the house on her own.

He praised his son's actions, saying he was very proud of him.

“If it hadn’t been for him we wouldn’t have caught anyone that night,” he said.

Defence barrister Gareth Williams said Welch had accidentally landed on Mr Deen as he jumped over the wall to escape and then lashed out at him and his son in panic.

He said Welch had been released from prison three weeks earlier following a prior offence and needed money.

Judge Patrick Curran QC sentenced Welch to 29 months for burglary and concurrent sentences of one month each for both batteries.

These will run consecutively to the first term. Welch will serve half of a 30-month sentence.

"gained his black belt the day before the raid" I love it!

[GeneChing]

Would-be robber gets the point
June 27, 2010 3:41 PM
BY JAMES GILBERT - SUN STAFF WRITER

A knife-wielding, would-be thief should have thought twice about trying to steal the purse of local sword-wielding belly dancer.

“It was one of the weirdest things, one of those things you only see on TV,” said dancer Zarmineh Moody. “I guess it was like the police officer said: I had the bigger knife.”

The Yuma woman was the victim of an attempted armed robbery at the Fry's parking lot on 24th Street and 4th Avenue.

After having taught a class at World Gym, 5-foot 3-inch tall Moody said she stopped off at Fry's grocery store to do some quick shopping. While she was putting her groceries into her car, Moody said, she was approached from behind by a man with a knife who called her a nasty name and demanded her purse.

“I kept thinking ‘This can't be happening,'” Moody said, recalling the event from three weeks ago. “I looked back and saw the knife and had a panic attack.”

Moody said she told the robber that her purse was on the back seat of her car and that she would get it for him. “He kept calling me the ‘b' word and telling me to hurry up.”

Instead of getting her purse as the robber had demanded, Moody, a professional belly dancer whose specialty is dancing with swords, grabbed her 25-inch Turkish scimitar sword. She held it up to his stomach and asked, “You still want my purse?”

“I usually don't keep it there. It is usually in my trunk,” Moody said. “The only reason it was there was because I hadn't put it away yet.”

Moody said she and the robber stood facing each for a few moments, blades in hand, before she asked him a second time if he still wanted her purse.

“This time I poked him in the belly with the tip of the sword. I didn't blink. I kept eye contact with him the entire time.”

Realizing he wasn't going to get Moody's purse, he left the parking lot on a bicycle. Moody immediately called 911 on her cell phone to report the incident.

“I was unbelievably scared and shaking the entire time. I guess he wasn't expecting someone to challenge him like that.”

When police arrived, they asked Moody to explain what had happened.

“I could tell they were both amused but were trying to keep straight faces. They said ‘You are one brave and dangerous woman and I guess you had the bigger knife!'”

Moody said she still has the police report of the incident and is considering framing it as a keepsake.

Zarmineh Moody is my hero for today.

[TaichiMantis]

just....wow

[GeneChing]

Japanese railway staff trained in martial arts after spike in attacks
Railway companies across Japan are training their staff in martial arts and equipping them with pepper spray due to a sudden increase in the number of attacks on employees.
By Julian Ryall in Tokyo
Published: 6:42AM BST 09 Jul 2010

Figures released this week by 25 railway firms show that there were 869 attacks on station staff or train crew in the fiscal year that ended in March, up 117 incidents from the previous year.

That figure was a new record for the third consecutive year, the operators said.

"We recorded 344 attacks on our staff last year, the vast majority in the evenings or on weekends," Koji Takano, a spokesman for East Japan Railways, told The Daily Telegraph.

"Mostly these incidents people who have been drinking and get into arguments with other passengers or our staff and then they become violent," he said.

JR East has apparently borne the brunt of the upswing in violence as it provides services in Tokyo and surrounding areas, where companies have been feeling the economic pinch. Train companies have responded by providing martial arts training for staff, as well as teaching them how to use restraining equipment, such as long poles with U-shaped attachments designed to pin down suspects. Women staff are also being equipped with pepper spray to ward off assailants, while more security cameras are also being installed in stations.

I would like to see one of these U-shaped restraining poles.

[Jimbo]

I also guess its general shape would be similar to one of the ends of a 'monk's spade', the end with the half-moon-shaped blade, except of course it wouldn't be a blade.

It sounds like a good idea for a controlling device, though maybe there should be a small barb in the middle of the U to give a bit of persuasion to violent people.

[GeneChing]

I'm just glad that a kick in the crotch is classified as kung fu.

Home alone Kung Fu
Last Update: 8/04 8:22 pm

A 12-year-old British girl sent a burglar packing by kicking him right between the legs.

Georgia Bulis-Gray heard a door slam in her parents' kitchen and found herself confronting a hooded intruder.

Bulis-Gray said she didn’t want the smirking man to think she was helpless, so she kicked him hard, forcing him to flee in agony.

Georgia then called the police and even made a sketch of the man she had just seen.

Police are still searching for the suspect.

[GeneChing]

Cane Kung Fu: Man, 64, wards off drugstore bandit with his cane
By Barbara Hijek August 12, 2010 10:50 AM

Cliff Bisek, a regular customer at this Tampa Walgreens, had come in to buy a newspaper and was talking to the clerk for 15 minutes when a man approached the clerk and said, "'Give me your money,'" Bisek said, reports The Tampa Tribune,

When the man demanded money the second time, 64-year-old Bisek, a Vietnam veteran, had had enough.

So Bisek decided to raise a little cane.

He swung his cane at the would-be robber, missing him by inches, and the man ran off, reports The Tampa Tribune.

Tampa police are still searching for the culprit. He was last seen wearing a baby blue, sleeveless hoodie with "971" embroidered on the back, and a white T-shirt underneath.

If only it was a Cane Masters cane. If only...

[SnowDog]

Click on the linked video in the story to watch the gamers in action........

http://www.khon2.com/news/local/stor...72O3OfJTg.cspx

Two masked robbers that targeted an internet gaming center in Kaneohe Wednesday night never expected their victims to fight back. But they did and it was all caught on video.

This isn't something police encourage but the gamers say they were protecting their home.

It is just before midnight on Wednesday. Devin Wolery is sitting at the counter at PC Gamerz in Kaneohe watching over his nine customers when two masked men walk in.

"They came in and they started yelling at me like they had a problem with me," said Wolery.

Video surveillance shows him reaching to push a panic button to alert police when things escalate.

"Boom right there, jumps and punches me in the face -- knocks my glasses off."

Customers are unaware what's happening when he's struck again and that gets their attention.

"They start yelling at the customers, tell them to give them their money," said Wolery. "They were also making movements like they had a gun or some other kind of weapon."

Customers hand over whatever change they have while a suspect punches video monitors at the counter but the cameras are still rolling. That's when the suspect in black approaches Dylan Hays.

"They tried to take his DS, his Nintendo DS and he wasn't having that -- so he came back swinging," said Wolery.

"Then he hit me and I kind of just got angry and I bull-rushed him out there door," said Hays.

"I pulled him down the ground over here, the table got moved and I had him down on the ground he was still hitting me," said Wolery. "Dylan pulls off the guys mask -- he runs out the door -- his friends are outside waiting. Let's get out of here, let's get out of here and we were holding one guy in and still fighting him and the other guys come into the store --pull him out and take off."

Police are on the scene in minutes. Three teenagers are caught and arrested a block away, two 17-year-old boys and 18-year-old Brycen Iona. All three are familiar to the gamers.


"They were customers of us they gave us their information their personal information," said Wolery.

"I wish I was there," said Jim Wolery who is grateful his son's customers were there for him.

"I mean we're gamers, we've been immersed in that culture where like we all want to Superman, you know we're missing something partial in our brain that says yeah this might be dangerous," said Hays.

"We want to have people think of this as their home that they can come play games, find new friends talk to people," said Wolery.

"I mean its Devin's place but it's also ours, like this is where we come to hang out," said Hays.

All three suspects were released pending further investigation.



------ I don't know how successful their street aplications were, but they got them out of the store. I'm thinking they might want to try a different tactic than get punched in the face while you push burgler out the door style next time.

[GeneChing]

Roommates use mixed-martial arts moves to subdue burglar
By Andy Paras aparas@postandcourier.com
Originally published 11:26 a.m., October 11, 2010
Updated 03:32 p.m., October 11, 2010

Charleston police charged Kenneth Jackson, 50, of Charleston with first-degree burglary after they say he broke into the home at the corner of Woolfe and Nassau streets about 4:20 a.m. Saturday.

Kilian Hammerbeck was asleep in his downstairs bedroom when he heard someone unplugging his iPhone from the wall. Hammerbeck quickly realized the man standing less than a foot from his bed wasn’t one of his roommates when the phone’s light lit up the suspect’s face.

The 35-year-old was still lying down when he grabbed the suspect’s wrist and arm and forced the man to the ground while using his legs to scissor the suspect’s torso. He held the man in an arm-bar for about a minute while waiting for his roommates’ help.

“He’s screaming and yelling and I’m calling out for my roommates,” Hammerbeck said. “It sounded as if he had friends outside the door. I was worried two or three more guys would rush in to help their friend.”

Travis Ross woke from a deep sleep and found his roommate wrestling with the unknown man. Like a wrestler tagging out, Hammerbeck turned the suspect over to Ross so he could check for accomplices. The 29-year-old Ross said he shoved the suspect into the kitchen and held the guy in a sleeper hold.

Ian Martens, the third roommate, said he slept through the first two minutes of the ordeal before he heard his roommates yelling. He knew something was wrong when he heard a third, unknown voice.

Martens, Hammerbeck and Ross said the suspect first tried to fight his way out, then feigned a heart attack and finally begged for the roommates to let him go.

“He was screaming at the top of his lungs and begging us not to call the cops,” Martens said. “In retrospect it was quite comical.”

Good ol' leg scissors. Locks 'em up every time.

[Faruq]

Good ol' leg scissors. Locks 'em up every time.

So I guess this means these guys were accomplished MMA practitioners, or blue belts in BJJ. It doesn't really say anywhere in the article....

[GeneChing]

Follow the link and watch the vid.

Motorcyclist survives head-on collision, pure luck or martial arts skills?
Oct. 22, 2010 (2:15 pm) By: Matthew Humphries

If a motorcyclist is involved in a head-on collision with a larger vehicle at speed the chances of him not getting injured seriously are pretty slim. If you remove the helmet and padded biker gear then the probability of serious injury or even death occurring goes up substantially.

This Chinese motorcyclist beats the odds, though and is either incredibly lucky or a master of martial arts. In the video above you see him hit the side of a mini-van at high speed being flung over the handle bars. His bike is destroyed but it looks as though some natural talent takes over and you see him control his flip and land on his feet. A few seconds later he reappears on camera looking at the crumpled mess that is his bike apparently unharmed.

He could just be lucky, but I’m going with martial arts expert at the top of his game.