Photo: @PWInsider

Some quick thinking by a couple pro wrestlers resulted in one of them getting her purse back and the thief arrested. But that’s just part of the story. What happened throughout is a tale.

According to PWInsider, after landing in Tampa from a run of NWA TV tapings, pro wrestler Natalia Markova discovered that her purse was missing. After not being able to find her purse and it was confirmed by flight staff that she didn’t leave it on the plane, figured someone stole her purse.

Fellow wrestler Bryan “Mercurio” Idol had the idea to ask if Markova had something in her purse that would allow it to be tracked. Markova’s Apple AirPods were in the purse so she used the Find My app on her iPhone and found that the person in possession of the AirPods was heading to a Walmart in Pinellas Park, Florida, an approximate 40 minute drive from where they were.

As they got to Walmart, Markova received a fraud alert that somebody was trying to buy a $700 TV using her credit card inside that same Walmart, so they were hot on the trail. They went to the registers and recognized a male who was on their flight that had a big screen TV in his cart. The two confronted the man, who ran off and left Markova’s credit card at the register. Idol chased the thief down and tackled him.

 

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Local police got calls about a fight at Walmart but when they got there, quickly figured out that the two wrestlers were stopping a thief and he was under arrest. The man admitted that he returned the purse to the American Airlines information desk but took $600, credit cards, and the AirPods from the purse before acting like a good samaritan. Markova promised she wouldn’t press charges if she got everything back which she did.

According to the police report, the man “apologized for stealing the money and the cards and knew it was wrong.” He was released from custody due to Markova declining to press charges and he had no active warrants.

As a thank you, Markova set up a GoFundMe to raise money for Idol for his birthday and to fix up an old van he has. And to alleviate any fears that this could potentially be a scam by someone posing as Markova, Markova posted about the GoFundMe on her Twitter account while the campaign was shared by the official NWA Twitter account.

[PWInsider/Photo: @PWInsider on Instagram]

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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