Armed Citizen® Today
A shotgun-wielding homeowner chased off a suspect accused of attempting to enter his apartment in Jensen Beach, Fla., late on the night of Tuesday, April 1. Police later apprehended the suspect attempting to enter other homes in the area.
The apartment residents, a man and his wife, were sleeping when a noise woke the wife, who got up to check its source. She saw what she described as a "scary devil" looking into their home's window and screamed, alerting her husband. Both the shotgun-armed husband and wife ran to the door and screamed at the suspect, asking him who he was and what he was doing. The suspect fled from the property, apparently leaving his boots behind in the process.
Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said the spree didn't stop there. "“He was confronted by a man with a shotgun in one of the apartments, and instead of running away like you would expect most criminals to do and leaving the area, he simply transitioned and went to another location within the same community and continued to try to do burglaries,” Budensiek told reporters. After attempting to enter at least four other properties within the same community, the 46-year-old suspect was surrounded by law enforcement and taken into custody.
Police say the suspect was from a neighboring state and did not have any permanent address. He is also a felon with a lengthy arrest record, as well as a registered sex offender in the state of Alabama. The woman's "scary devil" remark can be attributed to the fact that the man had two devil horns tattooed on either side of his head.
“He's a bad guy, he's a bad dude, and I'm glad we were able to take him into custody. He's lucky he was taken to custody. He almost got shot by a homeowner, who had he shot him, we would be standing here, and I'd be telling you he did a good job and did what a homeowner should do,” Budensiek said. (WPBF News; Jensen Beach, Fla.; 4/2/25)
From the Armed Citizen® Archives – May 1970
When a holdup man wearing a ski mask and brandishing a pistol entered Lester B. Johantgen's jewelry store in Minneapolis, Minn., Johantgen, who said he was "sick and tired of being held up," grabbed a shotgun and pointed it at the man.
As the surprised gunman fled, Johantgen's son knocked him down, disarmed him and held him for police. (Minneapolis, Minn., Star)
