A thief in Half-Way-Tree last Monday received the shock of his life and a bloody nose when he tried to snatch a woman's cell phone through her car window and got beaten up by her 11 year-old son.

Steven Edwards, who holds a black belt and 11 first-place trophies in local Tae Kwon Do tournaments and three second-place victories in Zendo competitions. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Young Steven Edwards, who holds a black belt in karate, 11 first-place trophies in local Tae Kwon Do tournaments and three second-place victories in Zendo competitions, said it was just a year ago that a knife-wielding thief stole his mother's cell phone and necklace and he could not let it happen a second time.

"I was angry," Steven told the Observer last Friday. "That's why I jumped up. I reacted because I didn't want him to take away the phone."

His mother, Marion Edwards, a 33-year-old administrative assistant, who said she had no objection to publicising the story as well as her son's picture, told the Observer that she was driving Steven home after karate training at about 8:00 pm, when the thief approached her car window after she pulled up at a traffic light in Half-Way-Tree.

"My window was down," she said. "I was on the phone. I just saw this guy walk up to me, I don't know where he come from, and said, 'Whaapen Mummy. Weh yu say, Mummy? Everything all right? Give me the phone!' and he grabbed on to the phone, but because it is the flip phone, I held the bottom and he held the top. He started to pull it and I started to scream."

Steven, who was in the passenger seat, jumped into action. Assuring his mom everything would be all right, he grabbed the man by the throat with one hand and used the other to pound him with sharp, quick and direct blows to his temple, eyes and nose.

His mother was petrified. "I was so panicky. I can't tell you what happened. I only know the guy started bleeding from the nose and Steven said, 'Is alright, is alright Mummy'."
The stunned thief let go of the phone and Steven urged his mother to drive.

"Even when Steven said 'drive', the way how me nervous, me can't find the gas pedal, my foot just slipped. I finally was able to drive," Edwards said.

She said that after the incident, she notified the Half-Way-Tree police, but did not bother to make an official report, because last year when she reported her stolen phone nothing came of it.

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