A holiday purse snatcher got slammed to the ground and pinned in an arm bar after running into an Army Drill Sergeant while trying to flee.

Rhonda Healey was doing some last minute Christmas shopping on in a Manchester, New Hampshire area Wal Mart the week before Christmas in 2015 when a homeless man grabbed her purse from her cart and ran off.

He didn’t make it too far before being tackled by U.S. Army Drill Sergeant Rick White, who was also doing some Christmas shopping.

White took the suspect down and pinned him in an arm bar while calmly waiting for police to arrive. According to local media reports:

 

Sergeant White, who recently returned home after a 9-month-tour with the Army in Afghanistan, grabbed Alan White’s arm, pinned him to the ground and held him until police arrived. A shopper inside the store captured the moment on camera.

“I grabbed him and tossed him to the ground,” said Rick White. “He tried to hit and grab me. I sat on him until the police came.”

“With all the opportunity for help, there is no need to steal,” said White. “To me it wasn’t a big thing. I am just glad I could help out.

And according to a second interview White did with another media outlet:

“I heard her yelling, ‘Stop him, he took my wallet.’ That’s when I saw him running, and then I went after him,” fellow shopper Richard White said.

“I grabbed his wrist, put him in a wrist lock, put him in arm bar, rolled him over on his stomach, put both hands behind his back and sat on him until police came,” he explained.

Richard White said he wasn’t the only one to help.

“There were a lot of people standing around,” he said. “I don’t think he was going anywhere, but I took the initiative and took him down.”

The suspect was arrested without incident and charged with theft.