In the time it takes most restaurants to deliver an entree, one Chicago restaurateur delivered a cold, hard smackdown to a man he says stole a customer’s iPhone.
Juno co-owner Jason Chan told the Sun-Times he thought a man in a distinctive Freddie Krueger-style sweater looked suspicious when he walked into the tony Lincoln Park restaurant last Thursday.
The man reportedly put his coat down at the bar, asked for a pen and paper and then dashed out seconds later. Chan asked Gary Wolske, a regular at the sushi bar, if he still had his phone. When Wolske noticed the phone was gone from the bar, Chan took off.
“I have a protective nature, I guess,” Chan told the paper.
Chan reportedly hopped into his car and spotted the man in the distinctive sweater walking into a nearby pizzeria about to pull the same scam.
After confronting the alleged thief, Chan told United Press International, “We engaged with each other, and he tried to push me out of the way and run out.” After that, Chan said, “I grabbed him and threw him into the door.”
According to CBS Chicago, the men broke the door of the restaurant during the struggle. The man later identified as Justin Ballog, 37, proved to be no match for Chan, an ex-bouncer and martial arts master who teaches Shidokan and has practiced the fighting style for 19 years.
Once collared, Chan threw the man into the door, executed an “armbar” maneuver and kicked Bollog in the face to knock him out until police arrived on the scene.
Ballog was later charged with misdemeanor theft and ordered held on $10,000 bond, CBS reports.
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Justin Ballog was charged with misdemeanor theft.
Wolke, who was eventually reunited with his phone, sent a bottle of 12-year-old Glenlivet to the single-malt scotch aficionado as a thank you gift, according to UPI.
“It does send a message: This tough guy, Jason, and his neighbors are not going to allow this,” Wolske said. “He’s like the modern-day John Wayne, or Bruce Lee…He takes it to heart: What’s right is right.”
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