Tucson, Arizona

From Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star of December 7, 2005

Theft victim takes wild ride; man held

A gun shop owner trying to defend his property went for a wild ride after a thief got away with a shotgun — with the owner on the hood of his getaway car, police said.

James Albert Lange, 55, went to the Frontier Gun Shop, 3156 E. Grant Road, on Tuesday morning and asked to look at a shotgun. But he stole the gun and fled in a car, said Sgt. Mark Robinson, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.

The armed owner of the gun shop chased after him, but Lange tried to run down the store owner with his car, he said. The store owner got on the hood, holding on with one hand and pointing a gun through the windshield with the other, witnesses told police.

Lange swerved onto East Grant Road, dropping the owner into the street and pulling out in front of traffic, witnesses told police. The owner, face bloodied, walked back to his shop as Lange sped off.

Police said one of the witnesses followed Lange.

Officers caught up with Lange at his home a few blocks away at the Seneca Village Apartments, 3201 E. Seneca St., and arrested him as he came out of an apartment, Robinson said.

They found the shotgun still in his car.

Lange was charged with aggravated assault and felony shoplifting and booked into the Pima County jail.