Robbers target an IHOP, get a beatdown by a black-belt waiter instead

Three robbery suspects tried to get away with the cash in the register of an International House of Pancakes, but were thwarted by a waiter armed with only his skills as a third degree black belt.

Here's a local news story with surveillance video:

Elijah Arnold said he was opening the San Antonio restaurant Thursday morning when he heard the register going off near the entrance.

“I stepped out and looked and there he was pulling the register out and everything so I just took off, my instinct kicked in and I took off full speed at him," the 22-year-old said.

The video shows him taking down the would-be robber, who drags him across the floor in an attempt to get away.

Arnold says he took a blow from the man's crowbar to the nose as he tried to tackle him and hold him down.

“That was my money in the register,” Arnold said. “It was my manager's money in the register. And it was my IHOP’s money in the register. And I'm not going to let anybody take that.”

Although he had some sympathy for the man, having only recently become employed after a bout with drug addiction, Arnold also felt a sense of pride when his managers thanked him for his heroics.

“They just congratulated me and said thank you,” he added, “and that was the biggest thing that I could have was the thank you from my managers.”

The thief he tackled was taken into police custody, but law enforcement officials are looking for what they believe where two accomplices to the attempted burglary.