Melvin Manhoef Could Face Criminal Charges After Beating Down Burglars For Casing His Home

Melvin Manhoef is a former It’s Showtime Middleweight Champion in kickboxing and the Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Champion in MMA. He is currently competing in the Bellator Light Heavyweight division. He recently demonstrated that he is nothing short of a beast by chasing down three burglars in order to protect his family.

Melvin Manhoef, a Bellator veteran, said he could face criminal charges after apprehending a trio of alleged burglars at his home on Monday. He made no apologies for what he claimed was a reaction to a threat to his family. “I [told police] if it happened again, I’m going to do it again, because it’s my family,” he told MMA Fighting. Manhoef had just given a statement to police near Amsterdam.

He claimed to still have glass in his hand from punching through the window of the alleged burglars’ car after driving it off the road. When police arrived at the scene, Manhoef said he and his neighbourhood residents had already detained the men, who were later taken to the station. The fighter believes he prevented a crime by interfering and then taking action. “I [made] the right call, and they got the wrong one,” he said. In the aftermath of the incident, a photo of two of the men and Manhoef circulated on social media.

Manhoef stated that he had already reported the alleged burglars to the police. He claimed the men had cased his house on several occasions, including this past Saturday, when he travelled to Paris to promote his retirement fight, a light heavyweight meeting with Yoel Romero at Bellator 280, and had asked friends and family to keep an eye on the neighbourhood.

The men began by placing papers in his door to see if anyone in the house removed them, according to Manhoef. He claimed that his wife asked a neighbour with a security camera to look into what happened, and the footage showed a man looking inside their home. The man later returned with a car and left when a light in the house turned on, he said. The make and licence plate of the car were noted by the neighbours.

On Monday, he stated that he and his wife were out of the house when his neighbours called to inform him that the men had returned. He rushed back and found nothing, so he decided to wait for the car. He was about to leave after 30 minutes when the car reappeared.

“I pulled my car in front of them, and I was watching them. They saw me, and they were looking at me, and they took a slight turn and went away. After that, I was chasing them.”

“I chased them, and then I crashed into them on the back side, and I couldn’t stop them because they were still going fast. And then I go to the side, and I hit them from the side. So they go into the, how do you call it, the side of the road, and the car was, like, turning and slipping. And we crashed.”

“So I crashed, I crashed the whole car, and then the car stopped in the middle of the road, like horizontal, in the middle of the road. And I jumped out of the car and I said, ‘Come over here,’ because they had their burglar stuff to go in the house. I said, ‘Open the window,’ and I smashed the window in, and I pulled the guy out, opened the door, and put the guy on the ground. I was yelling, I was going like crazy. Everybody put their hands and knees on the ground. Some people were helping, they came out of their houses, and they called 911. In a few minutes, they were there.”

The fighter described it as a “shame” that he had to escalate the situation by taking the law into his own hands. Normally, he said, his neighbourhood is quiet, and he avoids confrontation. When his family was threatened, he felt compelled to act.

“Because if they’re going to burgle in and my wife is there, they tie my wife or my kid up, I couldn’t forgive myself. My instinct was, you cannot come around my family. This is like, rule No. 1. Don’t touch my family. If you do that, yeah, you’re going to pay for it.”

“If I have to face charges, it is what it is. I did something wrong because I hit the car, but I hit it with a purpose, because I know they were in my house.”

“I’m 45, and the young guys, they want the throne, so sometimes you have to step away and do something else.”

The legal ramifications of Manhoef’s actions are unknown at this time, but he claims his hand injury will keep him out of the gym for no more than two weeks. He’s looking forward to retirement. To get the latest updates, keep an eye on Thirsty.

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