Category: Feel Good Stories

From Redford Township, Michigan;

Police were called to the 11600 block of Kinlock just before 8 p.m. Thursday when a suspect entered the home occupied by a woman inside. The woman, who doesn’t live at the home, was inside with an infant when the suspect came in.

The suspect told the woman that he wanted property from the home.

During the encounter, the homeowner came home and got into a fight with the suspect who then ran from the scene. As the intruder ran, police said the homeowner shot a gun and hit the man in the hand.

The suspect was taken into custody and taken to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

Police say the homeowner and suspect didn’t know each other before the incident.

In St Petersburg, Florida;

In just over two months, [police] say [35-year-old Lupen Font has] broken into more than a dozen homes in St. Petersburg, Gulfport and Tampa.

But, his latest crime was almost his last. At a home on Riverside Drive North in St. Petersburg, an armed homeowner almost shot him as police say he tried to break in.

“He came, stole some items, and came back for more a few days later. This is very dangerous criminal,” said Sandra Bentil, spokesperson for the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Police say Font broke in Sunday, stole more than 20 guns and other items, then came back Wednesday.

But this time, the homeowner was waiting, confronted Font, and then fired at him as he sped off.

From Fort Worth, Texas;

Fort Worth police said three men broke into a pickup truck in a driveway in the 5300 block of Westhaven Drive at about 2:30 a.m.

The homeowner came outside and startled the men, who ran from the scene, according to police. One of the men was armed with a handgun that discharged a round into his thigh.

Police said they caught the three men shortly after. Officers applied a tourniquet to the wounded man, who was transported to a hospital in stable condition.

From Downey, Idaho;

Former Pocatello resident Joseph Lloyd, 34, was also fatally shot in September, when he allegedly tried to force his way through the door of a residence on Barnes Lane off Highway 40, west of the Downey city limits. Bannock County sheriff’s officials have said all indications are that the homeowner fired a gun in defense of himself and other family members who were at home at the time.

That incident is still under investigation, and authorities have not said if Lloyd was armed as well.

From Akron, Ohio;

A man accused of breaking in to an Akron home died after being stabbed by the homeowner.

According to Akron police reports, it happened at roughly 12:30 a.m. Thursday.

Officers were called to the home in the 600 block of Blanche Street to reports of a stabbing victim. The victim was found inside a 1998 Pontiac Grand Prix parked in the driveway. He was taken to the hospital where he later died.

While officers were at that location on Blanche Street, a resident in the 1300 block of Girard Street reported a burglary at his home. He said two men, armed with a handgun, got into the home by removing a window air conditioning unit.

The resident said he stabbed one of the suspects in the chest.

The suspects then fled the home and drove to Blanche Street, where they called for paramedics.

From Youngstown, Ohio;

The cab driver told police he was called to the Rockford Village public housing complex to take three men to an address on Rutledge Drive. When he arrived, one of them pulled a gun and demanded money.

The cab driver wrestled with the gun before it went off, wounding one of the robbers. They fled and the driver drove to Maranatha Lane, where he called 911.

A short while later, police answered a call for a man who claimed he was shot nearby and that led to them arresting all three people.

BNG sends a story from Orlando, Florida;

Police determined the suspect from the Messina house previously had broken a window and kicked in a door at the Marbello house. A resident there armed himself with a handgun and got into an altercation with the suspect. A female resident was struck unintentionally by a round during the fight, Draisin said.

The suspect fled the Marbello house and broke a window at the Messina house to enter. He was arrested at the Messina residence.

The woman is in stable condition.

The suspect, who was treated for lacerations caused by broken glass, will be charged with multiple felonies, [Lt. Jay] Draisin said.

From Carrollton, Texas;

Police said a 33-year-old man entered an apartment through an unlocked patio door. The apartment’s resident shot the man once in the chest.

The intruder, whose name was not released, was taken to Medical City Plano Hospital and is in critical condition.

Police said the man will face a criminal trespass of a habitation charge. He’s been accused of a similar crime before.

From York, Pennsylvania;

Police say the three forcibly entered an apartment, and one of the suspects assaulted a 22-year-old man. The suspect allegedly struck the man with the back of a semi-automatic style pistol.

A resident of the apartment stabbed one of the suspects with a knife while defending another resident from being assaulted, according to police. After the stabbing, the three suspects fled on foot, police said.

Neighbors chased the thieves and pointed them out to responding police officers.

From Rowan County, North Carolina;

Scott Moose, who lives on nearby Clearfield Drive, told deputies that he had a video of Lambert attempting to break into his car. The suspect fled on foot and was trying to leave the area in a car when Moose confronted him, officials said.

Moose told deputies he fired a shot during the exchange, striking Lambert in the head area.

Rowan County EMS took Lambert to North East Medical Center, where he remained for treatment Tuesday.

Deputies say they were dispatched to at least two other addresses in this immediate area for vehicle break-ins this morning.

From Athens, Georgia;

The homeowner entered the house with his pistol drawn because of a noise he heard while unlocking the front door, according to police.

Upon going inside the man found a burglar with his face concealed by a stocking crouched in a hallway. The homeowner chased the intruder out a back door and fired three shots as the burglar ran toward some woods, police said.

The burglar returned fire four or four times from the woods. The homeowner was not injured and police said there was no evidence that the suspect had been shot.

The victim told police an AR-15 rifle he had recently purchased was missing, as was a bag of coins containing about $200.

From Lorain, Ohio;

The 32-year-old resident tells police he heard the suspect trying to get into the house and fired his gun.

Lorain police say the 21-year-old male suspect was shot one time in the right thigh. When officers arrived at the scene, they provided first aid to the suspect who was bleeding heavily.

EMS took him to Mercy Hospital and he was then flown to MetroHealth Hospital.

No names are being released at this time and police say the incident remains under investigation.

The homeowner was not injured.

From Church Hill, Virginia;

Investigators said that Ward used a propane tank sitting on the homeowner’s porch to bust out a window and gain entry into the house located on River Road in Church Hill. A woman inside the house was awakened by the crash and had her husband check out the noise when he spotted Ward in the kitchen window.

The suspect reportedly kept yelling “don’t shoot” while the homeowner pointed his shotgun, according to the report.

[Brock Alan] Ward also told officers that he had used meth prior to breaking into the home

In Palm Beach County, Florida;

The body of a would-be robber, who was fatally shot during a botched home invasion in Hollywood, stayed in the back seat of a car for days until being discovered in northern Palm Beach County.

The person who found Gilbert Stokes inside the tan Chevrolet sedan on Australian Avenue in Lake Park on Feb. 24 thought he “was sleeping,” according to a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office arrest report.

In reality, Stokes, 40, of Belle Glade, had been shot and killed four days earlier when he and two other men tried to rob people living in a home on Madison Street in Hollywood and one of the occupants shot him in the back, the report said.

Now, the driver who sped away with Stokes bleeding out in the back seat is charged with second-degree murder and armed home invasion.

According to investigators, Douglas Mackey, 53, drove to his home in Loxahatchee where he and another man put Stokes inside the four-door Chevrolet where he stayed until they moved the car and the body to Lake Park three days later.

Not a traditional feel good story from Ashland, Oregon when murder suspect Neal Norman got out of his car on a busy interstate;

Later that morning, Norman got out of the vehicle and began shooting at vehicles on the highway, according to deputies.

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said the threat ended when a driver hit the suspect with their truck.

The driver was questioned and released by state police. Thomas Moxon’s truck was kept as evidence after it was riddled by bullets.

From Antelope, California, a 14-year-old defends his family during a home invasion;

It was one of the scariest days of her life.

“I was terrified the whole way home and driving—what am I going to come home to? How bad is it? I didn’t know,” she said.

[Cathy] Friedman later found out the crook was no match for her knife-wielding son.

“If they get away with monetary value, that’s fine, but you can’t just get a new sister,” he said.

The teen chased the burglar as far as he could, and a neighbor caught a photo of the alleged suspect on camera.

Police in Backus, Minnesota are still looking for the man who was shot at by a homeowner a week or so ago as he escaped after a home invasion. They posted an artist’s sketch based on a description from witnesses;

I think it’s Ralphie’s little brother in “A Christmas Story” – has anyone seen him lately?

A few weeks ago, we talked a bit about Connie Wells, an accountant in Knightdale, North Carolina was working late and alone in her office when 24-year old Deondre Branch, running from local police after he tried to shoplift some braziers, burst into the accountant’s office. When he approached her, she screamed for him to stop. She was armed and she had a CCW license which she used when he was about ten feet away. Connie fired once striking Deondre in the neck;

Branch, who has a criminal history, including an assault charge against a woman, was shot just above the neck, shattering his vertebrae, according to his family.

Branch’s stepfather, Willie Michener Jr., told ABC 11 that he doesn’t buy Wells’ claim that his stepson was dangerously close to her. He thinks she could’ve gotten away without firing her gun.

Branch is still in the hospital and paralyzed from his injuries.

From Chicago, Illinois;

When the driver, working for armored car service Garda, exited his vehicle, a man in a reflective vest attacked him with a sledgehammer in an attempt to rob him.

The driver then fired his service pistol at the man, wounding him. The suspect fled the scene, and he was taken into custody a short time later by Chicago police.

The driver was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening, but life-altering, wounds, according to the bureau. The suspect is currently in surgery at a local hospital.

From Hernando, Mississippi;

According to the Desoto County Sheriff’s Department, the woman was home when the man tried to make his way inside around 2:30 a.m.

She grabbed a gun and opened fire, shooting through the door and hitting the suspect.

The suspect was taken to Baptist Desoto but was eventually rushed to the Regional Medical Center.

He was listed as stable with a gunshot to the arm, authorities said. The homeowner was not injured.

From Houston, Texas;

Around 2:45 a.m., the robbers approached two people sitting inside of a car in front of one of their homes on Easton near Berkeley, said Robert Montalvo with the Houston Police Department’s major assaults unit.

The robbers – one of whom was armed – tried to nab the possessions of the car’s occupants. A struggle ensued between one of the robbers and one of the people who was in the car.

At some point during the tussle, the armed robber fired the pistol, Montalvo said. The bullet hit the other robber in the chest.

The injured robber was taken to an area hospital and underwent surgery early Friday.

From Horry, South Carolina;

The victim of the armed robbery, a 46-year-old Conway man, told police that he was conducting security at the church at about 11 p.m. when the suspect approached him and asked for change for $20. When the victim got the change, the suspect pointed a black handgun at the suspect’s stomach and told him to give him the money.

The victim handed over the money, and as the suspect began to walk away, the victim pulled out his weapon, the report states. That’s when the suspect shot at the victim, but the round hit victim’s driver’s side car door. The victim said he then returned fire, and as the suspect tried to shoot back, the suspect’s gun jammed. The victim told police he emptied his weapon as he shot at the suspect.

The suspect then ran to the nearby Tanger Outlets, told a bystander that he had been shot, and asked to take him to the hospital. The suspect then collapsed in the parking lot near Ruby Tuesday, where he was treated by EMS on scene and taken to a nearby hospital.