Masked clowns arrested in Texas machete attack

Thursday, February 7, 2019
Two men arrested in Texas City, accused of robbing couple with machete.
Two men arrested in Texas City, accused of robbing couple with machete.

TEXAS CITY, Texas -- A husband and wife teamed up to fend off two men wearing clown masks who tried to rob them with a machete, according to police.

The bizarre scene unfolded in the early morning hours of February 1 in Texas City, Texas.

Police say the two suspects, Jose Lugo and Luis Jimenez, approached the husband and wife in their driveway as they were sitting in their truck.

Lugo and Jiminez had on clown masks and one of them was armed with a machete, according to police.

The couple, Aretha Cardinal and her husband Joseph Nelson, say the weekend ordeal is still hard to believe.

"I'm sitting here talking to my wife and the next thing I know, when I look up, I see somebody running towards me with this white clown mask on and a machete," Nelson said.

He said he couldn't believe what was happening.

"He reached his hand through the window, put it on my throat," he said. "I'm like 'Dude, you serious, you trying to rob me with a machete?'"

Nelson said he chased down one of these suspects with the very machete with which he was threatened, while his wife used their granddaughter's scooter to help defend them.

"Any weapon is good for me," she said. "If I can get you off me and my husband, that's what I'm going to do. I used the scooter, broke it in half."

The couple's adult daughter called the police, who arrived during the crime and took the suspects into custody.

Lugo and Jimenez are in custody in the Galveston County Jail.

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