Alabama Couple Catches Burglar, Make Him Clean Up at Gunpoin

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Alabama Couple Catches Burglar, Make Him Clean Up at Gunpoint

Thursday , October 18, 2007

AP
MONTGOMERY, Ala. —
A burglar in Montgomery chose the wrong family to mess with, literally.

Adrian and Tiffany McKinnon returned to their Centennial Hill home Tuesday after a week away to find that thieves had emptied almost everything the family of five owned, Tiffany McKinnon said through tears.

"Tears just rolled down my face as I walked in and saw everything gone and piles of trash all over my home," she said.

Adrian McKinnon sent his wife to see her sister while he inspected the piles left behind. As he walked back into the sunroom, a man walked through the back door straight into him, Tiffany McKinnon told the Montgomery Advertiser in a story Thursday.

"My husband Adrian caught the thief red-handed in our home," she said. "And what is even crazier, the man even had my husband's hat sitting right on his head."

Adrian McKinnon held the suspect, 33-year-old Tajuan Bullock, at gunpoint and told him to sit on the floor until he decided what to do.

"We made this man clean up all the mess he made, piles of stuff, he had thrown out of my drawers and cabi-nets onto the floor," Tiffany McKinnon said.

When police arrived, Bullock complained about being forced to clean the home at gunpoint.

"This man had the nerve to raise sand about us making him clean up the mess he made in my house," she said. "The police officer laughed at him when he complained and said anybody else would have shot him dead."

Capt. Huey Thornton, a police spokesman, said police arrested Bullock at 2 p.m. Tuesday on burglary and theft charges. He was being held in the Montgomery County Detention Facility on a $30,000 bond.

"The victims were lucky in this case to be able to catch the suspect in the act and hold him until police arrived," Thornton said.

He said the case was unusual because generally burglars act while the homeowner is away and are in and out fast so they can quickly sell the stolen items.

The couple said they chose to rent the Ross Street home because it was a quiet place for their three young children to play outside. Turns out it was a bit too quiet — most of the homes near theirs are vacant.

"We don't have any neighbors to help watch our house because it's like a ghost town here except when the church is meeting across the street," Tiffany McKinnon told the Advertiser Wednesday.