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California mother chases, wrestles with suspected burglar

Posted at 1:23 PM, Apr 15, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-15 13:23:22-04

GRANITE BAY, Calif. – A Granite Bay mother returned to her home last week to find it had been ransacked – and the suspected thief was still on the property.

“The house is ransacked and there’s clothes everywhere and papers everywhere,” Julie Rux said.

Rux said she saw her suitcases on the corner, filled, when she turned onto her street.

Then she saw her garbage can.

“It was on the edge of the driveway with some of my husband’s rifles, hunting rifles, sticking out and I went, ‘OK, that’s really not right,’” she told FOX40 over the phone.

Rux said as she drove up to her house, the suspected thief, who deputies identified as Richard Holesapple, was coming out of her home.

She didn’t think twice about chasing him. Her daughter Maddie joined the fight as she turned onto the street and saw the struggle.

“My daughter jumped out of her truck and we both tackled him and rolled him,” Rux said.

Holesapple managed to escape the women.

Neighbor Paul Moresi said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“There was probably eight or 10 cops in the street,” Moresi said. “Dogs, shotguns.”

Seven hours into the chase around the neighborhood Rux’s son Jared said he spotted Holesapple on the run at 4 a.m., just before he was caught in a neighbor’s field.

Moresi was still watching, too.

“I don’t know why he didn’t leave the area. He had plenty of opportunity to leave. It doesn’t make sense that he didn’t leave because he was here for hours after the initial contact,” Moresi said.

Once he was in custody, Rux said she realized that when she fought with Holesapple, he had her .38 from her bedroom on him. It was found in the field he was caught in.

“It was probably not the smartest thing to do,” she said.

But as a horse trainer, she said it wasn’t very scary.

“When you take on large animals every day, a little guy is not as large as what you deal with on a daily basis,” she said.