A New Mexico man was arrested earlier this week for attacking his girlfriend with a chain saw. The saw ran out of gas before the woman was hurt.

Arthur Chavez, 25, of Moriarty was charged with aggravated assault on a household member, false imprisonment, intimidation of a witness, and possession of methamphetamines. At presstime, he was being held in lieu of a $100,000 bond.

"This woman is extremely lucky that this didn't end in a tragedy and there was this malfunction that stood between her and her assailant," Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh told the Albuquerque Journal. "It seems it was by the hand of God that the chain didn't work."

Police reports say that the woman called them from a hotel where she was staying. She told them that she and her boyfriend had argued over money that she had given him to buy a pickup truck.

She told police that he struck her several times and threatened to kill her if she called the police. He reportedly then picked up the chain saw and tried to start it, saying that he was going to "chop her up into a million pieces." The chain saw stalled every time he attempted to start it, police say.