Cristina Basualdo does not usually accompany her son to work. That Saturday, she did.
There was a power and water outage in Ayacucho, Argentina, and the family-run convenience store opened later than usual. When she arrived, she saw the shutter down and thought someone had left a window improperly closed. Then her son saw something worse: a man with half his body outside the window, trying to escape. He managed to grab the man by the feet, but the thief managed to break free.
Cristina, a 48-year-old nurse and karate-do instructor, ran after him. She caught up with him, threw him to the ground, and put him in a hold. A neighbor recorded it all.
From the ground, the man yelled at her: “Let me go or I’ll shoot you!”. Then, with no more threats: “Let me go, Cristina!”. She had known him since he was a child. “He had a difficult life and grew up in group homes, but that doesn’t mean you can go around stealing”, she said. She was sure he wasn’t armed and didn’t let him go until the police arrived.
She herself downplays the feat: “It was a poorly executed hold that wasn’t locked in, but the idea was to restrain him”. The incident took place in November 2023, and the video is still circulating.