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LONDON – A tourist from New Iberia helped stop a man brandishing a hammer who was attempting to steal the Magna Carta from Salisbury Cathedral, working in concert with a church employee to prevent the thief in question from s & # 39; 39; escape. Matthew Delcambre told The Associated Press that he and his wife, Alexis, were visiting the southwestern city of England, when a man attempted to break the glass covering the precious manuscript located in the chapter house of the church.
After Alexis tried to ring the alarm, Delcambre and other passersby banded together to try to restrain the thief behind the doors of the chapter room. When the thief passed near them, the 56-year-old computer technician chased an outside court, grabbed the man's arm near the courtyard door and knocked the hammer down. A church employee attacked and maintained him.
"It was not me alone," Delcambre said. "It was completely a group effort."
The Magna Carta, protected by two layers of thick glass, was not damaged. Wiltshire police announced Saturday (Oct. 27) that a 45-year-old man had been released on bail until Nov. 20 while police were continuing their investigation.
The Magna Carta of Salisbury Cathedral is one of four extant specimens of the 1215 charter establishing the principle that the king is subject to the law. Considered the founding document of English law and civil liberties, it influenced the creation of the American Constitution.
The document, in Latin for "Great Charter", was short-lived. The despotic King John, who met disgruntled barons and accepted a list of fundamental rights, almost immediately went back on his word and asked the pope to cancel it, plunging England into a civil war. It was reissued after the death of the king.
Even in this case, its importance can not be underestimated. This inspired everyone from Mahatma Gandhi to Nelson Mandela.
Matthew Delcambre, director of the Center for Business & Information Technologies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, said that he had been a little surprised by the attention paid to his efforts. He said that he told his story so that his efforts would not be exaggerated at the expense of others.
Among all those who played a role in the fight against the thief, he gives priority to his wife, because it is she who noticed that the thief came out of a rest room brandishing the hammer and tried to get help. He downplayed the previous reports describing him as the hero, and said the people who should get this credit are the cathedral workers and the volunteers who tried to protect the Magna Carta.
"The heroes are the employees of the cathedral who protected the document, helped to catch the guy and helped him hold him back until the police arrived," he said. "I was strictly an assistant."
