"If he had come a couple of days earlier, he would have been blessed and get some food and be cared for," the pastor said.

Pastor Nick Neves responded to an alarm that had gone off at First Family Church in Antioch, California, in the early hours of Thanksgiving morning, the Antioch Police Department said in a Facebook post. When the 46-year-old pastor arrived, he discovered the burglar and ordered him to stop.

It’s just ironic. If he had come a couple of days earlier, he would have been blessed and get some food and be cared for," Pastor Nick Neves said of the thief

Police say a man used an axe to break into a church in Antioch, California, but he was caught when the pastor used his martial arts skills to detain him.

When a would-be burglar broke in to a California church on Thanksgiving day, he encountered an unexpected obstacle: A pastor, trained in martial arts and determined to defend his house of worship.

A California pastor trained in martial arts fought off a burglar who broke into his church on Thanksgiving day.