A suspected burglar was left black and blue after unwittingly entering the family home of an aspiring MMA fighter.
Austin Caresani, 31, was severely beaten by Henny Rojas, who said he relied only on “God and my hands,” to subdue the intruder.
The incident occurred on Saturday September 27 in Wilton Manors, just north of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Rojas was staying at his sister’s home while she and her partner were out of town.
Rojas said he was woken up by his frantic nephew, who told him that a stranger was downstairs in the living room.
Though he had not had an official MMA fight, Rojas used techniques used in his training to get the better of Caresani.
“I’m prepared. It’s not my first time, I don’t feel pain,” Rojas told CBS Miami. “I don’t have guns; I wasn’t looking for a knife – just God and my hands, that’s it.”
He told the outlet he had no regrets about how he had handled the situation.
“Protect your family,” Rojas said. “There are a lot of crazy people [who] don’t believe in God, who [are] only looking for damage.”
Caresani appeared in court Monday and was visibly bruised and bloodied. A police mugshot from the Broward County Sheriff also showed him with cuts around his eye and forehead.
According to a police report, he told officers that he had been drinking at a nearby club and had been trying to reach a friend’s house when he had entered the Rojas home by mistake.
Caresani was being held in Broward jail on a $20,000 bond.
