Braving blows from a crowbar, a 72-year-old man helped apprehend a leek thief over the weekend, Saitama police said Monday.

Teiji Kanbayashi happened to see a man stealing leeks from a field at around 8 p.m. Sunday night, according to police. When Kanbayashi called out, asking what he was doing, the man hit him on the head with a crowbar he was carrying and fled.

Kanbayashi chased the man for about 100 meters and overtook him. He then called police from a gas station.

The man was later identified as Akio Chiba, an executive at a transport firm. Police said Chiba, 69, was arrested for theft and inflicting injury, adding he was drunk at the time of his arrest. He was holding more than 10 leeks when he was spotted by Kanbayashi, police said.

Kanbayashi, who sustained minor injuries, was quoted as telling police that the owner of the field had always been good to him, so he could not stand by and do nothing when he saw the thief.