An alleged restaurant holdup man found tougher customers than he'd bargained for, according to police in Vancouver, Wash.
Russell R. Rogers, 64, walked into Elmer's Restaurant (search) in the Portland, Ore., suburb at about 2 p.m. Oct. 24, brandishing a gun and demanding money, customers and staffers told the Longview, Wash., Daily News.
Enjoying a late Sunday brunch at the restaurant were "extreme fighting" pro Benji Radach (search), 25, and his sparring partners, Dennis Hallman, 28, along with two women.
As other customers ducked under tables or ran out the doors, and the cashier started to hand over money, Radach and Hallman snuck up behind Rogers.
"I kind of went over it in my mind, and walked over there," Radach told the newspaper.
Rogers looked to his left and shouted out that he had a gun. Radach came up behind on the right, grabbed Rogers with a wrist lock and got the pistol out of the gunman's hand.
Radach then forced Rogers' hands back behind him and pushed him face-first to the ground as Hallman frisked him for more weapons. Radach then knocked Rogers out with a blow to the head.
Police booked Rogers for first-degree robbery.
"You see it in movies and you go over it in your mind," Radach later said, "but you never deal with it in real life."
Radach is an expert in Pankration (search), an ancient Greek combination of boxing, kickboxing and wrestling. Also known as "The Razor," he has a 23-3 record in freestyle wrestling and Ultimate Fighting.
"I just know that I've been training for a long time and more than most people," said the 6-foot, 185-pound Radach. "Especially more than someone who's a crook and probably doesn't train."
He later admitted that his decision to take on an armed man was kind of "stupid."
"All he had to do was to turn to his right and he could have shot me," Radach told the Daily News. "But for some reason I felt I could do it. I saw the way [he was looking] and I felt that if I could just get his gun, I could get him to the ground."
His father agreed.
"I should be proud, but the things that goes through a parent's mind," said Kim Radach. "That guy could have turned around and [Benji] could have been bleeding or dead on the ground."
Lorrie Whitlow, the restaurant manager, said the heroes' brunch was on the house, but also had her doubts about future customer heroics.
"I wouldn't recommend that anyone do that," Whitlow said. "But this time, it was a positive result."
Might as Well Relax On the Job
GLEN RIDGE, N.J. (AP) — A man who broke into a woman's house helped himself to some food and wine, then settled in for a nap — until police arrested him.
The woman called police shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday to report something odd at her home.
The first officers to arrive saw an open kitchen window, with the curtain on the grass outside. They also found a black leather jacket, a plaid flannel shirt, a red baseball cap, and three unopened bottles of wine.
The officers searched the house, finally finding the man asleep on the basement floor holding a bowl of food the woman said was from her refrigerator, police Chief John Magnier said.
The suspect was handcuffed and arrested.
"I guess he got a little too comfortable," Magnier said Wednesday. The suspect was charged with burglary and held on $1,000 bail.
"He's still getting a good meal," Magnier said. "It's not in a bowl, though."
Police Prank Ends Up Tear-Gassing Neighborhood
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Tallahassee police officer has been suspended after playing a practical joke on another officer.
Officer David McCranie was suspended without pay for three weeks for accidentally tear-gassing a neighborhood.
McCranie violated departmental policy when he set off the gas canister on another officer during a training in September. The tear gas wafted to a row of homes where children and others were playing outside.
Eleven people were treated at the scene for tear gas inhalation. None had to be taken to the hospital.
McCranie was also thrown off the department's TAC team, similar to a SWAT team, used in high-risk arrests, hostage situations and with barricaded suspects. Tear gas is one of many tools they use.
Teacher Booked for Guns, Stolen Arm
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) — A former Hampshire Regional High School (search) substitute teacher sentenced to 2 years in state prison on weapons charges also faces a charge in connection with the theft of a student's prosthetic arm.
Bryan Bridges, 52, of Southampton, had pleaded earlier last month to more than 30 weapons charges in connection with the discovery in January of guns in his car and his home.
He also was given two years of probation on Oct. 28 by Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis.
Velis said he did not understand why Bridges never obtained a license to carry the weapons, some of which he claimed to have had for as many as 30 years.
"What plagues me the most is there were so many guns in so many different places, some of them loaded," the judge said. "It implies recklessness. He could be a danger."
Velis said Bridges, however, had no record and there was nothing to show that he is a violent person.
In addition, during a search of Bridges' home, police found the prosthetic arm which since has been identified by a 15-year-old girl who attends Hampshire Regional High School.
She had brought it to school to show other students, and it was stolen when she left it behind, according to Assistant District Attorney Michael Cahillane.
Bridges has not yet been arraigned on a charge of receiving stolen property in connection with the stolen arm.
No Naming Your Chihuahua 'Paris'
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — A Brazilian legislator wants to make it illegal to give pets names that are common among people.
Federal congressman Reinaldo Santos e Silva (search) proposed the law after psychologists suggested that some children may get depressed when they learn they share their first name with someone's pet, said Damarias Alves, a spokeswoman for Silva.
"Names have importance," said Alves. The congressman "wants to challenge people's assumptions that it's acceptable to give animals human names," she said.
If the law is passed, pet stores and veterinary clinics would be required to display a sign noting the prohibition of human first names for pets.
Brazilians who break the law would be subject to fines or community service.
Alves admitted the law's chances of passage were slim but said Silva hoped the bill would call attention to his other efforts to protect animals.
"He's proposed many laws to protect wildlife in Brazil, but this is the only one that has ever gotten any attention," Alves said.
Compiled by FOXNews.com's Paul Wagenseil.
Got a good "Out There" story in your hometown? We'd like to know about it. Send an e-mail, with a Web link (we need to authenticate these things), to outthere@foxnews.com.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox