Would-be robber becomes a big punching dummy
Darren Bernhardt
The StarPhoenix
November 04, 2006
Dave Lochert usually does his fighting in the ring, but on Friday morning it started in a beauty salon. A would-be robber wielding a hammer broke into the salon on Second Avenue by smashing out the front window. Unfortunately for the thief, the salon shares the same building as Champion Fight Club.
The club is owned by Lochert, who is trained in seven types of selfdefence – judo, ninjutsu, tae kwon do, white crane kung fu, muay thai, boxing and kickboxing. He has been ranked in Canada’s top 10 for kickboxing and third in the World Kickboxing League. His advice to crooks: “Check out the signs of businesses next door before you break in.” It’s advice Lochert has given before, when his club was targeted in February 2003. The club was in a different location and a group of people tried ripping off the cash box. It ended with a gift-wrapped package to the police of the beaten-down bandits.
Friday’s events began around 3 a.m., while Lochert was in his downstairs facility planning for a weekend bout. Hearing the shattering glass, he ran upstairs and out the back, thinking someone couldn’t be brazen enough to go through the huge storefront window. “I saw this guy at the service door for the salon, like he was making sure it was clear to take stuff out,” said Lochert, who called up to the guy, “Hey buddy, what’s going on?” The man ran back into the store after spotting Lochert, who gave chase after pausing to make sure there weren’t more crooks. The man dashed through the gap in the fractured front window and down the street, through a parking lot and alley, and then onto Third Avenue, near City Hall.
As the man climbed a raised concrete platform, he turned to face Lochert, who was barreling toward him. Lochert saw the hammer gripped in the man’s hand and considered stopping, but decided to let inertia decide the outcome. Their bodies collided and Lochert uncorked a punch to the man’s gut, sending him over the edge of the platform and onto his back. The man tried to scramble away, but Lochert popped him again, took away the hammer and grabbed the man by the neck of his coat. Lochert started walking the man back to the fi ght club when the man began to wiggle free. “I put him in a hold, swept his feet out from underneath him and dropped him to the ground,” said Lochert.
Just then, two police cruisers pulled up, tipped off to the fracas by residents in the suites above the fi ght club and salon and passersby on the street. “I called to them and told them I had the guy who broke into the business. Then I handed them the hammer,” Lochert said. The suspect arrested is a 40-year-old man with “a signifi cant history with the police” and who was out of jail on conditions set by the court, said Insp. Al Stickney of the Saskatoon Police Service. Joking that his record is now 2-0 when it comes to foiling criminals, Lochert is still stumped as to why he has encountered these situations. He has no issues, however, about helping others and sports a Chinese tattoo symbolizing the “strength to guard and protect.” “It’s the motto I live by,” he said.
The owner of the salon, who didn’t want herself or her business to be named, is thankful. “We’re lucky he was there for us,” she said. “I still have to give him a big thank you.” As in the fi rst citizen’s arrest by Lochert, no charges are expected as a result of the beating he provided. “The Criminal Code says a person can use as much force as necessary to protect their self and property,” said Stickney. “Anyone can arrest anyone they see committing an indictable offence. But once you start using the force, you’re responsible if anything happens to the person.” While the police appreciate Lochert’s help, and any public assistance in stopping crime, they discourage engaging the suspect in any way.