HAYWARD, Calif. (KRON) – Would-be car thieves picked the wrong man to mess with in the East Bay. The man scared them off while they were trying to steal his pick-up truck, but not before one of those suspected thieves fired a gun.
Francis Jones says at 2:30 a.m. last week he was barely awake when his instincts kicked in.
“You can stand inside your house and be a victim and I wasn’t gonna let that happen,” he told KRON4.
Jones’ home security camera alerted him and his wife of the crime in progress. He says he caught one of the would-be thieves digging around after breaking into his Dodge pick-up.
“I reached around his neck right here and grabbed him, cinched him into a headlock and then yanked him out of the car,” he remembers.
In the video (above) the struggle can be heard as Jones yells out to call the police, then a gunshot is fired.
“When the guy shot at me I kinda got rewoken about what was really going on and I let the guy go and I jumped for cover after that,” he said.
The two burglars then took off in a white sedan. Jones says for more than 20 years his neighborhood along Carroll Avenue has been pretty quiet, and he hopes it can stay that way.
Police discourage people from confronting criminals because of safety, but Jones says he had enough.
“I didn’t get shot. I didn’t get hurt. They didn’t steal my truck so hopefully it sends a message to go to another street and not come around here again,” he said.
Hayward police say the getaway car was found abandoned and it was determined to be stolen. The investigation of this attempted auto theft is still ongoing.
