An Argentine steelworker and his wife were awoken early Friday morning by a gang of armed burglars looting their house. Two of the three men had guns, but they didn't get a chance to use them before the sleepy homeowner took a samurai sword off the wall and savagely "smote them in the arms" with it.

The wounded thieves managed to flee in a car after taking around $400 in cash, but lost a fair amount of blood in the process.

Córdoba police found the getaway car had hit a tree in a nearby neighborhood, and tracked a trail of blood to the family home of one of the suspects. Two of the bleeding burglars were arrested, along with another man and a woman. One had lost part of an ear and had deep wounds on his face, while the other had cuts on his arms, according to La Voz.

The third robber, who also suffered deep cuts to his arms, was picked up while trying to get treatment in a clinic a nearby town. None of the injuries in the case are life-threatening.

Police have ordered a psychiatric evaluation for the katana-wielding maniac, who the Daily Mail names as Dias Costa, 49. His relatives told La Voz he's no martial artist, and the two swords he owns were purely for decoration until the Friday incident.

The three burglars are "in the hospital emergency room," Diario24 reports. The fourth man, possibly the getaway driver, is in jail on grand theft charges; and the woman is being detained as an accessory.

[Photo: La Voz del Interior]