A witness took a foot-chase into his own hands when he tackled a robber. He had just been released from jail himself.

It happened around 6:30pm Thursday at 16th and Vinton when armed robbers stormed a South Omaha grocery store and restaurant, La Mexicana.

We're all wired a little differently when it comes to stressful events like an armed robbery. Many of us would respond like Jennifer Roberts who was across the street when it happened. "You could hear screaming and see the gunmen inside with people pinned down on the ground so I turned around and ran into the store because I was scared."

But as she ran to safety Travis Hodge ran towards the danger. "I didn't think about a gun." He chased one of the robbers and caught him. "I just acted like an officer, I said, 'Freeze. Stop. Don't move.' He fell, I fell. He got back up and I tackled him."

During the interview, the guy he held down until a nearby officer could cuff him was seated in the backseat of an Omaha Police cruiser.

"I had him around the neck. I don't think he could breathe all that well," says Hodge. "He wasn't expecting a civilian to run up on him."

He probably wasn't expecting this either. "I just got out of jail today," says Hodge. "And I just feel they're really stupid for being there. I wanted to get out so bad and I couldn't. It's a good deed for me and karma. I just did a good deed for the day."

Officers tracked down another masked man with a gun behind the grocery store. While investigators often ask the public to let them do their job because of the unknown dangers, this one seemed to be the exception.

"We do tell people not to do that but he happened to be near a police officer and he got a hold of the guy a little quicker than we were," says Omaha Police Lt George Merithew.

Travis Hodge, who just spent 23-days in jail for felony burglary, never thought he'd be on the right side of the law so quickly.

Lt. Merithew says, "We owe him a bit of thanks."

Police arrested 20-year-old Christopher Fernandez of Omaha. He is charged with three counts of robbery, three counts of using a gun in commission of a felony and one count of obstructing a police officer. He is is the Douglas County Corrections Center.

A 17-year-old male was also arrested and faces the same charges. He was taken to the Douglas County Youth Center.

Omaha police believe there's a third robber, so far, unaccounted for. There were no major injuries inside the store. A pregnant woman was taken to the hospital for observation.