Larry and Ahli Smith say their trip to a La Marque Walmart on Saturday afternoon took a detour when a shoplifter knock an older man to the ground, trying to steal his merchandise.
"He came all the way across like he was picking that guy up. It's like he got cocky, he thought he could just get one extra thing," Ahli Smith said.
"Little skinny guy knocked the older gentlemen down, knocked him down to the ground and I said OK that's enough of this," Larry Smith said.
Police say when the Smiths, who are Marines, chased the suspect out of the Walmart, he tried to turn his stolen fishing pole into a weapon.
"He still had one of the poles in his hand. He turned around and tried swiping me with it. I knocked it out of his hand, kind of laughed and kept chasing him," Larry Smith said.
They chased the suspect to the his awaiting getaway vehicle, an older white van with the license plate BH6-8744. That's when Larry's Marine training kicked in.
"I started a little choke hold on him," he said.
Ahli was annoyed her husband put herself in harm's way, but understands.
"We are what we are because we want to help people. We want to be there for situations like that because that man couldn't have protected himself, and things could have happened a lot worse than they did," she said.
While the suspect managed to get away, the Smiths did stop him from taking any merchandise.
Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to contact the La Marque Police Department.
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