‘Karate Kid’ sees off attacker

Cape Town - A would-be thief picked the wrong girl to mess with when he targeted 20-year-old Chelsea Dean – coming up against 17 years of martial arts training as she fought to retrieve her handbag.

Wearing just a sundress and flip-flops, the petite UCT student was having none of it when he attempted to steal her belongings.

“I think he was terrified,” she said of the thief on Friday, the day after the incident on the doorstep of the Rondebosch house where she works as an au pair to Adam Pitt, 9.

Dean recalled that she was unpacking her car in front of the house when she noticed a suspicious green car speeding through the usually quiet cul-de-sac.

She grew more wary when the car, with three men inside, turned around at the end of the road and sped past her and Adam again.

She was opening the door to the house when one of the men approached her and asked for water, claiming the car had broken down further down the road.

When Dean said no, he grabbed her handbag and started running up the street.

She gave chase, punching him a few times. He returned the blows, hitting her in face, arm and side. She lost her grip on the thief’s shirt and he ran to his car, which was parked at the end of the road.

Dean again confronted the man, demanding her handbag back, at which point the other two men in the car denied knowing the third man.

“I was making a scene and shouting for help,” she said.

A bystander jotted down the car’s registration number, but no one else intervened.

But Dean had done enough, and the thief finally jumped out of the car, threw her bag at her, then fled on foot. The two men in the car sped off.

Dean’s decision to fight back, she says, was partly because she was tired of being victimised. Just that morning someone tried to break into her home, and she scared them off by yelling.

“I just thought, ‘This isn’t going to happen today. I’ve had enough’,” she said.

She was also mugged when she was in high school, but didn’t retaliate because the man had a knife.

“I didn’t do anything about it and I knew that was the right thing to do, but it still bothered me,” she said.

Dean, who is a 2nd Dan black belt, credits her Kimura Shukokai Karate training for helping her hone her instincts in potentially dangerous situations.

“More than anything my training made me aware of my surroundings,” said Dean. “So I knew something was wrong right away.”

She was on guard from the moment she saw the car, and was aware of techniques that muggers often use, like asking a question or a favour to distract a potential victim. She also knew to hang back when she approached the car, and to make noise to attract attention because she did not know whether the men were armed.

Besides a small bruise and some soreness, Dean came out of the fight uninjured.

“I’m used to getting punched,” she said. “I’ve taken worse in training.”

Pitt remained on the porch during the incident and was disappointed he didn’t have access to his BB guns to help his much-loved au pair. He said he was a little scared and had trouble sleeping that night, but is fine now and feels proud to have an au pair that can fight off the bad guys.

“I was quite worried about Adam, but he did the right thing,” said Dean.

She recovered all her belongings, although her phone was smashed when the thief dropped it. She went to the police station after the incident, but did not have enough information to lay charges. She hopes the man who jotted down the car’s registration number will contact her so she can file a report with the police.

Dean trains at the Samurai Dojo in Claremont and has been with her current instructor since 2000. She starting practising karate in pre-school, where it was offered as an extracurricular activity.

“We are very close at my karate school,” she said. “They are like my second family.”

Weekend Argus