The three thugs that rued trying to rob Karate Grandpa!

New York, November 13 : A 57-year-old Bronx man, who learnt karate as a teen, actually used his fight skills to defend himself when three persons tried to rob him.

Diogenes Angeles really turned the tables on the three robbers, said police.

The incident occurred when Angeles was walking to a pharmacy near his home in Morrisania about noon.

The grandfather of six said that Eugene Sanchez, 19, Rakeem Johnson, 23, and Jason Lopez, 25, might have thought him to be an easy target.

"They see that I am kind of old and figured they can just come and rob me," the New York Daily News quoted the grandfather of six as saying.

The three thieves first taunted, and then tried to attack the old man.

Angeles, who studied karate at the age of 14, punched one of them, scaring the hell out of his partners.

"Once they saw I could defend myself, they ran away. I hope they learn from this and don't attack other people," Angeles, a retired sign painter, said in Spanish.

The cowardly robbers were later arrested, who were all Bronx residents.

The three men have been charged with robbery, criminal possession of stolen property, and resisting arrest.

One of them has also been charged with assaulting a police officer, as he bit a cop on the hand.

Angeles revealed that he practised karate every day because he knew they would someday come in handy.

"We live in a city where you leave your house and you don't know what's going to happen. You need to be able to defend yourself," he said.

ANI