'Real-life heroes': WATCH NWA wrestlers Brian Idol and Natalia Markova tackle thief in Walmart
NWA wrestlers Bryan Idol and Natalia Markova tracked down a purse thief at a Walmart while flying back to Tampa from Nashville for a TV taping last month. The 33-year-old Markova couldn't find her purse when they landed at the airport. Airline inspectors looked at her seat at the back of the aircraft but her lost item was nowhere to be found.
Idol inquired if her AirPods were in her purse so that they could track them down using Apple's "Find My" app. They were not pinging right at that instant, but sometime in the following ten minutes, they pinged to a location half an hour away. Roughly 45 minutes from the airport, they located the burglar at a Walmart in Pinellas Park.
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Idol recalled that as they were walking into the store, Markova's phone pinged with an alert that someone was trying to buy a TV worth $700. Idol remembered the robber from when he had been seated in their row on the aircraft, so he sought to confront him.
Idol said, "He kind of put his hands on me and ran through me, coupled with the fact that he stole her stuff — at that point, common sense dictated that law enforcement would think it was okay (to go after him)." "My intent was not to kill the guy," he added.
"He tackled the guy, like a quarterback sack, and held him down," Markova said. She also clarified that Idol was not punching the thief and that he made sure to stop him in the "safest way possible."
Idol posted the CCTV footage on his Instagram account, captioning the video: "Here I am taking down a thief at WALMART! 💪💪😂#prowrestling #nwa #nwapowerrr #hero #superhero #modeling #walmart".
Fans called him a "real-life hero".
Idol remembered that there was a widespread consensus among bystanders in the store to let the man go. "That’s, like, insane," Idol said. "That’s bizarro world." Markova instructed the Walmart employees to contact the police while Idol dealt with the robber, and they did so approximately ten minutes later.
Kevin Koble, the suspect, was taken into custody. According to the police report, he acknowledged snatching the purse, which also included Markova's credit card and $600 in cash. He gave the money back and reported that American Airlines staff at the Tampa airport had received the purse. In the end, Idol and Markova decided not to file a complaint.
About the wrestlers
Originally from Moscow, Markova arrived in the US in 2017. After traveling the world for a few more years, she made Florida her permanent home in 2019. On July 24, Markova will fight in a women's competition for the AAA Lucha Libre organization in Monterrey, Mexico.
Idol, a former professional wrestler, will make an appearance in the forthcoming movie 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods'. He is also a singer and has been on the covers of the romance books 'Lincoln' and 'Blood from a Stone', which will be re-released in 2022.
Both wrestlers will compete at the National Wrestling Alliance 74 in St Louis on August 27-28. They expressed their admiration for Billy Corgan, the Smashing Pumpkins musician who owns the National Wrestling Alliance. "He’s the best," Idol said. "One thing I always want to say about him, besides being a legendary rock star, you might think that somebody in his position might be a bit of a mark, per se, and nothing could be further from the truth. He’s brilliant, and his vision of what the NWA is is very cool and original in the fact that he’s not trying to compete with everybody else. He’s trying to do his own thing."
Idol then brought up the vigilante incident in New York City, where bodega employee Jose Alba allegedly killed ex-con Austin Simon in self-defense. Despite that, Alba was still accused of murder.
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"The cool thing about where we live in Florida is the law kind of protects us in that regard because we caught someone in the act of a felony," Idol said. "Just nowadays, I feel like criminals have to feel like they can’t get away with everything."