79-year-old former bull rider knocks out intruder (VIDEO)

GlobalPost

Don't mess with Texas.

A 79-year-old former bull rider knocked out a home intruder apparently high on bath salts with his bare hands, League City police Sgt. Tamara Spencer told ABC News.

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A member of the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, Ervin Brittnacher woke up early Monday to noises outside his home and found a man with a rifle standing in his front door, asking for his girlfriend.

“I figured there’s a whole lot of ways I can do this. And I don’t want to shoot him,” Brittnacher told KHOU of the night Brian Smith, 38, is accused of storming into his home.

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Rather than panic, Brittnacher throat punched Smith and gave him a karate chop to the side of the neck, knocking Smith out cold.

“He was so calm,” Spencer told the New York Daily News. “He said to me, ‘You know, I used to own a nightclub, and I know it’s not a good idea to talk to a man with a gun, so I just took it from him.”

Smith is charged with attempted burglary and remains in jail on a $40,000 bond, according to The Associated Press.

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