ACAILANDIA, Brazil, Sept. 4 (UPI) — A phone thief in Brazil ended up crying for his “mom” and “daddy” when his victim, a female MMA fighter, put him into a choke hold.
A bystander filmed Monique Bastos, 23, a professional MMA fighter with a blue belt in jiujitsu, holding a crying Wesley Sousa de Araujo in a triangle choke hold with her legs after he and another man allegedly approached her and a second woman on an Acailandia street and demanded they hand over their cellphones.
Bastos said one of the men got away with her phone, but she was able to get Araujo into a “rear-naked choke” before locking him into a “triangle choke” for the 20 minutes that it took for police to arrive.
“One of the guys grabbed the mobile phone I was carrying. I could see that they were not armed so I knocked their motorbike down,” Bastos told Brazilian news website iG. “I wasn’t afraid. I knew I could immobilize them.”
“One of them managed to run away, so I got the motorbike driver with a ‘lion killer’ and held him in my legs for 20 minutes,” Bastos said.
Araujo can be heard crying for his parents in the video from just after the alleged robbery attempt.
“Daddy, daddy, call the police, daddy. Help Jesus. I swear, it was the first time I’ve ever done this. Help, Lord, somebody help me. Where’s my mom?” Araujo says.
Police said Araujo denied the robbery during questioning at the local police station.
