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Apartment-dweller deals pair losing hand

It wasn't his poker pals knocking. So he made the would-be robbers throw in their cards.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published November 16, 2006

TAMPA - Nick Nobles and Liza Brown were watching Nip/Tuck and eating steak when the knock came at their apartment door after midnight Wednesday.

The University of South Florida students had been expecting friends for a game of poker, so Nobles thought nothing of it when he opened the door.

Instead, two men with bandannas around their faces barged in, demanding jewelry and money.

From there, Nobles said, "It was sheer adrenaline."

Nobles fought with the men at the door, then ran to the back bedroom in an attempt to reach for his hunting rifle. The intruders followed him, he said, and they struggled more until Nobles broke free and grabbed a dining room chair.

He struck one robber with the chair and the intruder ran from the apartment, carrying a small jewelry box filled with inexpensive costume jewelry. Then, Nobles turned back to the bedroom where, deputies say, Christopher Paris, 23, was rooting through a larger jewelry box.

Nobles said he tackled Paris using an old wrestling move his friends from River Ridge High School taught him.

As he held Paris in a choke hold, the intruder reached for a glass and pounded it on Nobles' head, causing a gash that later required staples, Nobles said.

Meanwhile, Brown, a pre-med senior with a 3.8 GPA, dialed 911. Within six minutes and 17 seconds, according to her cell phone, armed deputies were at her door.

When the deputies entered the bedroom, Nobles was still holding Paris down. A head-butt to Paris' face left the intruder with a swollen right eye, Nobles said.

Paris, of 15096 SW 22nd St. in Miramar, was being held at Orient Road Jail in lieu of $23,000 bail, charged with robbery home invasion, aggravated battery with a blunt object and battery.

Nobles said he's glad nothing more serious happened. But the experience definitely was a reminder that danger can strike without warning: "Everyone should be on their toes," he said.

Anyone with information on the second intruder is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at (813) 247-8200 or CrimeStoppers toll-free at 1-800-873-8477.

[Last modified November 16, 2006, 05:42:29]