MMA Fighter Stops Crime, Captures Vodka Thief

A professional MMA fighter found himself in a grocery store in Crestwood, Missouri just at the right time to put a halt to a robbery.

The Sunset Hills and Crestwood Patch gives details on the brave gesture of now local hero Jesse Finney. He stopped a man trying to rob a few bottles of vodka.

As Finney entered the Schnucks store at 7 p.m. on Dec. 21, he noticed a female member of the staff chasing the villain.

“I didn’t know if he had robbed the place, or if he’d assaulted somebody, I just saw her. He was pushing her off,” the fighter says.

He immediately jumped into action, subduing the robber just before police officers arrived at the scene. Nobody was hurt in the process, although a bottle of vodka did break as the thief was lying on it.

A professional kickboxer and mixed martial arts expert, Finney is thankful he didn't hurt the man.

“In the martial arts, it teaches you discipline and respect. If I wasn’t disciplined, I probably would have hurt the guy. [...] Instead, I took him down and a bottle broke in his jacket. That’s what we really try to focus on at the gym here in Crestwood,” he explains.

He describes he wasn't scared for one bit, instead just let his trained instincts lead the way.
“My wife was like, ‘What if he had had a gun?’ but at the end of the day, I just acted on instinct.
I’m not going to let a man push a woman. It was pretty amazing, I was able to stop him, and nobody got hurt,” he adds.

The shoplifter was taken into police custody, even as Schnucks reps stress that usually clients are advised against stepping in as robberies occur.

“We do not encourage this type of intervention from our customers. [...] Customer safety and teammate safety is our top priority,” loss prevention specialist Lori Willis notes.