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An American tourist from Louisiana helped stop a thief armed with hammers who unsuccessfully attempted to steal the Magna Carta in Salisbury Cathedral, working with a church employee to prevent the man from s & # 39; escape.
Matthew Delcambre, of Little Iberia, Louisiana, told The Associated Press that he and his wife Alexis were touring the southwestern town of England when man tried 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 expert pursued his lawsuit in an outdoor courtyard. He grabbed the man's arm near the courtyard door and knocked the hammer down. A church employee attacked and maintained him.
"It's not me alone," he says. "It was a group effort."
The Magna Carta, which was protected by two layers of thick glass, was not damaged.
Wiltshire police announced Saturday that a 45-year-old man had been released on bail until November 20 while police officers were continuing their investigation.
The Magna Carta of Salisbury Cathedral is one of four extant specimens of the 1215 charter that established 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.
Nevertheless, its importance can not be underestimated because it has 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 he was a little taken aback by the attention paid to his efforts, but told his story so that his efforts are not exaggerated. the expense of others.
Among all those who played a role in the fight against the thief, he attributes first and foremost his wife Alexis, because it is she who noticed that the thief came out of the bathroom for disabled, 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 keep him until the police arrived on the spot," he said. "I was strictly an assistant."
