Posted on 01/26/2010 8:13:24 PM PST by BnBlFlag
Young Marine foils purse snatching By Robbie Magness Correspondent Published January 26, 2010
A would-be thief ran into a problem — quite literally — after snatching a purse from an elderly woman Friday at the San Jacinto Mall.
The thief’s getaway path ran him directly into Baytown’s newest U.S. Marine, Private First Class John Timothy Magness, who tackled the assailant and was able to return the purse and all its contents to the shocked but grateful owner.
Magness, 19, a 2009 Ross S. Sterling High School graduate, completed Marine Corps boot camp in October and Marine Combat Training in December, both in San Diego. He has been stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., since New Year’s Day, but his Military Occupational Specialty school does not begin until early February. So, he was sent home for three weeks, assigned to assist local Marine recruiters during his stay.
His chosen specialty in the Marine Corps, ironically, is that of military policeman, but he never thought his crime fighting would begin so soon.
The incident happened around 3 p.m. as he was leaving through the mall entrance.
“I saw an elderly woman walking toward the mall,” said Magness. “We’ve talked in training about looking out for people who might need a hand, so I headed in her direction.”
As he got closer to the woman, Magness saw a man jump out from between two cars, grab her purse and take off running – right at him.
After a moment of disbelief, Magness said he charged into the white male, tackling him. As both men jumped back to their feet, the thief charged again.
“In hindsight, I think he may have been trying to run past me,” Magness said. “But in that moment, when he extended his arm toward me, I thought he was attacking me, so I knocked him down again,” this time with a punch to the jaw.
Magness trained in mixed martial arts for a couple of years before joining the Marines. He has continued his training with the Marine Corps martial arts program. That and his work in the gym served him well, he said.
“All the time I spent sparring with Jorge (Rey) and others definitely made a difference,” he said. “When he (the assailant) reached toward me, it was just instinctive to duck a little to the left and throw the right-hand punch. To tell the truth, as soon as it happened, I was a little surprised at how hard I hit him.
“When he got up that time, he ran off in a different direction.”
Magness said he thought about pursuing the man, but decided against it.
“I didn’t know if he was carrying a weapon or not,” he said, “and I didn’t want to have to deal with that. Plus, he had already dropped the purse, which was lying right there, and that was the objective anyway.”
After scooping some stray items back into the purse, Magness returned it to its owner. It all happened so quickly, he said, that he did not even think to ask her name.
“She thanked me several times and tried to offer me money,” he said, “but I told her, ‘No, that’s OK. I just wanted to help out.’”
“That’s all Marines are good for,” he said he added with a grin.
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© 2010 The Baytown Sun. All rights reserved.
Good job, Jarhead!
Great story!
Love this story..
Good Job, Marine. Dollars spent on your training were well spent.
love this story!!!
it would have been fine if the thief had ended up with some serious fractures and a concussion, although that might have gotten some liberal panties bunched up.......
USMC Ping!
Semper Fi!
I’m actually shocked this was a white male doing this.
I love a feel-good story.
Wow!
This happened in TX. I think everyones’ panties would have been fine even if he’d cracked the guy’s skull!
OOO-RAH MARINE CORPS!
I’m sorry to be skeptical here...I so wanna believe this...but we don’t have the woman’s name??? What did she do just go on into the mall and commence shopping?? She wasn’t at all freaked out? The guy the marine knocked to the ground immediately got up and ran off.... I know lots of marines and there isn’t one that if they punched you, you would get right back up...too little information here to be believable...are there any other sources available?? Did anyone witness this?
God bless our military and keep them...I just like a story to flow better than this...
A better ending to the story would be Marine was assaulted and his response, criminal is beat within an inch of his life. Also, said Marine should be encouraged to carry his Colt and the courts should protect him if he does. But if he did the ACLU would be marching hand in hand with the Southern Poverty Law Center till our defender was court-martialed. Beat down from a Marine, HELL Yeah!
Ooo-rah. Outstanding Marine.
A Harley rider is passing the zoo, when he sees a little girl, leaning into the lion’s cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents. The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the cage, and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.
A New York Times reporter has watched the whole event. The reporter says, “Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I’ve ever seen a man do in my whole life.”
The biker replies, “Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right.”
The reporter says, “Well, I’m a journalist from the New York Times, and tomorrow’s paper will have this story on the front page... So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?”
The biker replies, “I’m a U.S. Marine and a Republican.”
The following morning the biker buys The New York Times to see if it indeed brings news of his actions and reads, on the front page:
“U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH”
” I know lots of marines and there isn’t one that if they punched you, you would get right back up...too little information here to be believable...are there any other sources available?? Did anyone witness this?”
I’m a former Marine myself and I can tell you that the vast majority of Marines are in excellent physical condition but they are not “supermen”. I just turned 65 and I still do 1,500 - 2,000 crunches 5 days a week along with 50 push ups and pump iron 3 days a week and walk at least 3 miles 4-5 days a week. I don’t jog because I’m worried about screwing up my knees. I could always handle myself well in a fight but I never bought into the myth that Marines were always better than anyone else in a fight.
And just because someone is knocked down does not mean that the fight is knocked out of ‘em. There’s a lot of tough, mean SOB’s out there and if you’re not careful they can and will get up off the deck and give you a good ol’ country ass whuppin’.
So, I think the young 19yo did just fine.
And since this is our local paper, their credibility is good.
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