UPDATED: 2019/02/05

A North Carolina man stopped three teenage burglary suspects in their tracks by holding them at gunpoint outside of his parents’ home. After a neighbor called him to report that there were strangers on the property, Stephen Routh immediately went to his parents’ home on Sunday, February 3rd.

Routh arrived as the suspects who were 14, 15, and 17, were leaving from the back door. He held them at gunpoint, ordering them to get on the ground and phoning the police. While the suspects didn’t take anything from the home, there was allegedly plenty of damage done.

Routh is quoted as saying, “They’re lucky I didn’t shoot them, cause I had every right to put a bullet in somebody. There have been too many instances lately of home invasions like this where they get caught. And some people have been shot and killed.”

Authorities took the 17-year-old into custody and called the parents of the 14 and 15-year-old.