FITZGERALD, GA (WALB) -
By Stephanie Springer - bio | email
FITZGERALD, GA (WALB) – A Ben Hill County family fed up with crime took matters into their own hands. They tracked down two suspected burglars and handcuffed one of them to a fence, and the other to a truck until law officers arrived.
The family tells us their hog hunting skills helped them nab the crooks.
Officers first got a call about a suspicious person trying to steal an ATV from a home on Old Union Cemetery Road. But by the time officers got to the location, the homeowners had already handcuffed the suspect. They used dogs and their hunting skills to round them up.
Normally this area of Ben Hill County is quiet and remote, but early Monday morning it was anything but. "We chased him and trailed this whole block and checked for footprints and chased him through pastures and through the woods until 9:30 or 10:00AM," said Adam Young.
An entire community of family members and friends even dogs helped track down and capture these two men as they were stealing from houses in the neighborhood. "With one of the suspects stealing a gun we didn't have time to wait they messed with our grandmother so we were gonna find them whether they did or not,"said Adam Young.
Several family members live in the area including Adam Young. He says his brother in law called early Sunday morning and had just caught a man trying to steal four wheelers out of his shed. "He proceeded to call the family and wake everyone up," said Young.
They called the police but instead of waiting this group of family members and friends took it into their own hands to make sure the suspect didn't get away.
By the time the deputies actually got out here the homeowner had captured one of the two suspects and had the suspect handcuffed to a fence.
Deputies took the first suspect back the Sheriff's office for questioning but the family continued looking for the other suspect and this one took a little more work. "He probably run two-and-a-half miles through the woods through the swamp and we finally caught up with him on Old Coffee Road," said Young.
Six hours later, they were able to track down the second suspect.
"The second one we handcuffed him in Coffee County and leashed him to the back of the truck and got him to come back to Ben Hill cCunty where we picked him up," said Young.
Which they also handed off to deputies to take into custody.
Officers are anticipating several charges, including entering autos, burglary, and criminal trespassing. Adam Young says they recovered all of the items the men tried to steal, except for one check, which they already canceled.
The men say the handcuffs they used were from hog hunting.
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