Cheerleading may have been declared as not a sport, but maybe now, thanks to Kealey Oliver, cheerleaders could be labeled as crime stoppers.
On Sunday night, Kealey Oliver, a 16-year-old cheerleader, was shopping in Penn Square Mall. While she was talking to her mother on her cell phone, she noticed a man running towards her. Olive realized the man was a fleeing thief, and she was not about to let him get away. In an interview, she said, “I was like, um, ‘Hang on Mom,’ and I put the phone down, and when he got close to me, I just got in his way, and just grabbed him, and like he kept trying to run, so I just slammed him on the ground.”
Her tackle that she completed while wearing a strapless dress allowed mall security to catch up to the robber. Oliver said, “At first, I thought I was going to stop him, but he just kept running, so I was like ‘Okay, I guess you’re going to the ground.’ I like grabbed him, and put him on his stomach, and I was still holding on to him.” Her fast reflexes and tackle stopped the robber and he was later arrested by Oklahoma City police.
Afterwards Olive admitted, “If I would have thought about it, I probably wouldn’t have done it.” The cheerleader walked away with a bruised knee and a small scratch on her arm. Fans have started a Facebook page to honor Oliver and her apprehending a thief.
Sources:
http://www.tonic.com/article/high-school-cheerleader-tackles-robber-on-the-run/
