When a burglar has to ask the police to help him you know something strange is going on. This was the case in the western city of Katowice, when a Polish burglar end up asking the police to save him after an axe-wielding night watchman attacked and chased him until he crashed his vehicle.

The watchman took the 25-year-old burglar by surprise after he had broken into a house. The watchman hit the burglar three times in the head with the blunt end of an axe, cracking his skull. “The dizzy burglar fled to his automobile and managed to lock the door and start the engine,” a police spokesman told PAP news agency.

The watchman chased the vehicle, shattered the driver-side window and yanked the steering wheel, sending the van the burglar was driving into a mound of dirt.

The burglar called the police when he was trapped in the car. The courts will now decide whether the watchman’s actions went beyond self-defense and constituted a crime.

The burglar’s head injuries were not life threatening. The burglar faces 10 years in jail for breaking and entering. His head injuries were not life threatening, however the watchman could face eight years in jail if charged with fighting with a deadly weapon.