Daytona Beach, Florida

From Orlando’s WFTV.com of January 5, 2007

Shotgun-Wielding Man Comes To Neighbor's Rescue

The tables were turned on two men, who broke into a Daytona Beach apartment, when a neighbor with a shotgun came to the rescue.

Two Daytona Beach burglars were surprised when residents of the apartment they were breaking into came home, and those residents weren't going to let the thieves get away.

"We're from Tennessee. When we see someone we don't know, we get the shotgun," said eyewitness Miles Dellavecchia.

Call it a little bit of southern justice. When Kyle Winkler came home to his Orange Avenue apartment, he said he saw two people, a man and a teenager, in his apartment. They didn't belong there, so he confronted them and things got ugly fast.

"Tried to shove me over the rail of the second floor. Fight all the way down the stairs," Winkler said.

Luckily, Winkler has a neighbor like Dellavecchia, who not only came running, but came armed.

"I heard my neighbor, Kyle, the big guy, hollering from upstairs, so I took off running up the stairs," Dellavecchia said.

The two suspects tried to run, but when Dellavecchia and his shotgun appeared, the jig was up.

"They didn't move when they saw that thing, that's for sure," Winker said.

The suspects were held until police got there. Winkler and Dellavecchia even zip-tied their wrists.

Winkler said he has had friends robbed in the area and he wasn't going to let the two get away.

"I didn't know what was going to happen, had a gun or a knife. I didn't want them to run off with anything I own," he said.