An assistant reduces a man who destroyed his pharmacy in Malaga with the mataleón technique
His WhatsApp profile reads “I am worse than the FBI.” And he doesn’t exaggerate. Carmen Sánchez, a 23-year-old girl from Malaga, has been practicing kick boxing and self-defense for a long time. She is a pharmacy technician in a pharmacy in the Térmica area, in Málaga, a job that she combines with being a security employee at a nightclub on the weekends.
At night, she is used to – and trained – to react to any unforeseen event. What she did not imagine is that she was going to have to put into practice the ‘mataleón’ technique dressed in the white pharmacy coat. A few days ago, Carmen confronted, before the astonished gaze of her partner, a man who was destroying the establishment.
It would be half past five in the afternoon. Carmen was in the pharmacy with the other assistant preparing some posters for a pharmacy promotion. «We saw a man enter shouting. My partner told him to take his things and leave. But he wouldn’t leave and made to go inside the counter,” says the young woman.
Carmen left the store and told him several times to take what he had come for and leave, “but he started throwing the items on the counter on the floor,” the technician continues. “I said, ‘Please go. If you don’t leave I’m going to throw you out by force.’ I warned him that I was going to call the police, but he didn’t listen. I got really nervous”.
The man, who was shirtless and barefoot, went to a shelf next to the counter to throw it away: “I approached him and slapped him to take it off.” [la estantería] of the hand. “He responded with a push, turned around and walked towards the counter.”
Carmen knew it was the right time to act. She is trained for it. «I have been doing kick boxing for two years and training self-defense for four. “I started practicing because I have always liked contact sports, but then, seeing how life turned out, I decided to continue for my own safety.”
He threw him to the ground and reduced him
Seeing that the man’s back was turned, he pounced on him, knocked him to the ground and subdued him. «The maneuver is called ‘mataleón’. I didn’t do it right because I didn’t make him unconscious. All I wanted was to immobilize him. And the guy started shouting: ‘Police, police!’ Carmen assures that no one helped her: “People passed by and came in to buy as if nothing had happened. There were even those who asked me to release him.
It took – he remembers – about 10 minutes until the police arrived. Carmen does not know the man’s motivation or whether he was armed. «He was carrying an object that looked like a small knife, although I didn’t see it well. At no time did he attack or steal anything, he just broke things. I thought he was on drugs, but the police confirmed that he was not. The man, of Bulgarian origin, was arrested for threats and public disorder. Apparently, he is homeless.
Carmen felt down after the event. «In the moment I am able to react, but then I break down. “I was shaking all day.” When her boss saw the security camera video, she was amazed by her performance. «She told me that the important thing was that we were well and she thanked me for defending her pharmacy like this. That’s how she came out to me. I’m like this”. Worse than the FBI.
