Some quick thinking on the water saved these women from getting their stuff stolen.
Two southern California friends decided it was perfect weather to go catch some waves on a nearby beach. They grabbed their surfboards, locked their items in their cars and headed out to the beach. Maliny Soukkhasem was hiding her car keys when she caught up with her best friend, Jolie Bernal. The two surfers were out in the water when Soukkhasem saw that a man was attempting to get inside her car. She quickly called out to her friend, saying “Jolie… my car!”
Bernal noticed the man and then caught the next wave and surfed into shore. She rushed to grab the man in the car with Maliny coming in behind her.“I pulled him by the collar and punched him and started yelling at him,” Bernal recalled to a local news crew. She doesn’t exactly remember what happened next but somehow, “him and I got out of the car and were in front of the car and like on the ground.”Bernal was able to keep the man down until authorities arrived. The thief turns out to be 59-year-old Gordon Gleason, who was arrested on suspicion of vehicle burglary. Ventura police said that Gleason was rummaging through the car when Bernal caught him.
This experience did not deter the two women at all. They said they will continue to surf at their favorite spot — but just in case, they are picking up a lock box to prevent future break-ins. These brave women were saved by the speed of their surfboards as they rode them in to shore to stop the thief in his tracks.