Last week, a homeowner from Ventura County, California returned home when he noticed a car parked out front with a suspicious man inside.
He then entered his home and encountered a burglar, later identified as Alexis Provoste Aranguiz.
That homeowner, Sal Mercado, tells ABC7 in L.A.:
"He starts to go through the side of me to get out of the house, but I went BAM with the right cross, and he went down onto the grass of the front yard, picked himself up and ran to the car," recalled Mercado…
"He came at me ... I didn't know if he had weapons before anything could happen," said the homeowner. "I just went BAM with the right, BAM with the left ... I went Mike Tyson on him. He stumbled then he fell on the grass coming out of the house."
Mercado said he was in flight-or-fight mode as he tackled Aranguiz, preventing him from reaching the getaway car. He said as the driver of the getaway car sped off with the first suspect who entered his home in the passenger seat, Mercado screamed for neighbors to call 911.
Suddenly, he said Aranguiz managed to get up, so he went after him again.
"I tackled him and shoved him into the bushes on the side of my house again," said Mercado. "The way I tackled him ... grabbing his arms pulling them back, pin them on the back, and then put my full weight on his head, but he was all bloody and my whole arms were bloody."
The vehicle with the driver and other burglar remains outstanding."
Investigators believe Aranguiz is apart of a South American crime ring which they describe as “crime tourism”.
Po-po say groups of thieves from South America travel to the US for the sole purpose of burglarizing homes.
Aranguiz is now facing felony charges of first-degree residential burglary and conspiracy.