Don’t mess with Phyllis Pena’s little girl.
A Texas mom briefly moved like a linebacker for the Houston Texans last month, when she tackled a man suspected of creeping on her 15-year-old daughter in an incident caught on video.
Pena pulled off the all-star sack in full view of a police patrol car’s dash-mounted camera after officers responded to her call about a suspicious man peeking through a window in Lake Jackson, Texas, on Jan 31.
Pena told local station Click2Houston that she noticed the alleged voyeur outside her daughter’s window around 7 a.m., when she was coming home from the store. She called police and spoke to them outside the home, then noticed the suspect running.
“First instinct was just to make sure he didn’t go any farther,” she said.
Video released by police shows mom and daughter standing on their lawn while talking to police, then turning to face the masked subject as he tries to run past them. The suspect attempts to dodge around the group but Pena steps into the street, adjusts her footing to get in his path, throws her arms around his waist and hauls him down in front of the police car.
The daughter and two police officers immediately rush over to subdue the man, even as Pena rips off his mask to confront him.
Zane Hawkins, 19, was arrested on charges of possession of a controlled substance, evading arrest and resisting arrest, Lake Jackson police said in a statement.
Pena says the officers were impressed by her moves.
“The cop fist-bumped me and he was like, ‘Hey, so I heard the Texans are looking for a new linebacker,’” Pena said.
She later posted the video on her Facebook page.
“My next step is to try out for the NFL,” she wrote.