A husband and wife fought off two men who had machetes and were wearing clown masks when they tried to rob them in their driveway early Friday morning.
Jose Lugo, 35, and Luis Jiminez, 32, pulled up alongside Joseph Nelson and Aretha Cardinal around 2:30 a.m. while they were sitting in their truck in the driveway of their home, KTRK reported.
One of the men got out of the vehicle, stuck the machete through the driver's side window and told Nelson, "You gonna give it up, or I'm gonna cut you," KPRC reported.
Nelson sprang into action, punching the man and taking his machete, KRIV reported.
"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 told KTRK. "He reached his hand through the window, put it on my throat like this and I'm like 'Dude, you serious, you trying to rob me with a machete?'"
The other man had walked over to the passenger side, where Cardinal was seated.
Cardinal was able to escape and got her granddaughter's scooter, which she used to hit Lugo and Jiminez, KPRC reported. She also hit their car with it, breaking out the back window.
"It was really scary, but it was like, it was either us or them, you know, and not us," Cardinal told KRIV. "You not gonna steal no money. We ain't got no money."
After Nelson was able to get the machete from the man, he chased him, KTRK reported.
The couple’s adult daughter called police, who responded as the scene unfolded.
Lugo and Jiminez were arrested and charged with aggravated robbery, according to Galveston County Jail records.
"I'm safe now knowing that they can't try to hurt nobody else, you know," Cardinal told KRIV. "They might go to somebody else that don't react like us."
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