Lake Jackson Mother Tackles Peeping Tom Suspect

LAKE JACKSON, TX — A mother in Lake Jackson might have a second career as a football linebacker after police dashcam footage captured her tackling a fleeing man last month who police said is suspected of being a peeping Tom.

Phyllis Pena said she was returning home on the morning of Jan. 31 when she noticed a man was in her yard and leering into the window of her 15-year-old daughter’s bedroom. Pena told KPRC-TV her daughter wasn’t in the room at the time.

The man fled from Pena’s home as she reported him to the Lake Jackson Police Department.

When authorities arrived, they found a man matching the voyeur’s description who tried to run away from officers by heading back toward Pena’s home, according to a department statement.

She told the network that’s when she sprang into action.

Pena was standing in the front yard with her daughter when she moved to block the man from fleeing and tackled him to the ground. Officers soon arrived and took him into custody.

He was identified as 19-year-old Zane Hawkins, police said, and he was booked on suspicion of evading and resisting arrest as well as possession of a controlled substance.

“The cop fist bumped me and he was like, ‘Hey, I heard the Texans are looking for a new linebacker,’” Pena told KPRC.

She later joked in a Facebook post that her “next step is to try out for the NFL.”