A tomahawk-throwing champion who chased a burglar from her Hemet home said it took her everything she had not to throw the weapon at the man.

Robin Irvine awoke Sunday morning to find a man trying to steal a watch from her wrist while she slept, she said. She let out a scream -- and a string of profanity -- which startled the man, who took off.

“That’s what gave me time to grab ahold of it,” she told NBC, Channel 4 of the ax she keeps by her bedside table. “He ran down the hall and I was right behind him.”

She chased the man wearing only her underwear and a T-shirt, she said, adding that it took all she had not to throw the weapon, paralyzing him.


“I would’ve gotten him right in the spine or the back of his head,” she said. “I hit what I aim for.”

Officers from the Hemet Police Department, who received the call about the incident around 8:20 a.m., responded to the home in the 2200 block of West Acacia Avenue and searched the area.

Officer Dave Purcell saw a bicycle tire protruding from a bush about 50 yards from the residence, the department said. He discovered Nicholas Ulloa, 22, hiding behind it with several bags of property containing items with the caller’s name on them.

The tomahawk-throwing champion identified the property, and Ulloa was booked on suspicion of first-degree burglary. He was later taken to Riverside County Jail.


Irvine said she started throwing axes in the 1970s when her parents retired to Big Bear, and has kept up with it over the years.

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Twitter: @Sam_Schaefer

Samantha.Schaefer@latimes.com