By Andria Simmons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A pair of would-be burglars picked the wrong victim to target this week and found themselves in the cross hairs.
Steve Gimbert, a former Woodstock police officer-turned-computer technician, was working from home Tuesday morning when he heard a banging sound coming from his basement. The unexplained noises came a few minutes after someone rang the doorbell at his home on Ardmore Lane in Hoschton and knocked repeatedly.
Gimbert’s suspicion grew when he looked out the window and saw a black Toyota car backed into his driveway with the trunk open. He grabbed a handgun from a safe and high-tailed it outside in time to see a pair of young thieves bolting for their car.
“So I just in a cop fashion ran over, addressed them, ordered them out of the car onto the ground and called the cops,” Gimbert said.
Even though the teenagers were in the car with the engine revving, they shut it off and exited on command.
The 39-year-old held the two suspects at gunpoint facedown on the driveway until police could arrive to arrest them.
They were later identified as 17-year-old Leo Yang, a Mill Creek High School student from Hoschton, and a 16-year-old juvenile from Braselton whose name was withheld because of his age.
Both are charged with burglary. Officers took them to police headquarters for further questioning, according to the police report.
Gimbert said an investigator told him that they got consent to search the suspects’ homes and car, and they found evidence implicating the pair in three or four other burglaries in the area.
Gwinnett County Police spokesman Cpl. Brian Kelly said Thursday he could not confirm the suspects were linked to other burglaries because the investigation is ongoing.
“Typically, the assumption when they make a burglary arrest is that the perpetrators may have committed more,” Kelly said.
Gimbert said he feels fortunate that his wife and two children, who are home schooled, were away at a dental appointment Tuesday morning.
He learned later that the pair had a .38-caliber handgun inside the car, but it was unloaded.
“They did seem really shocked when I came out there,” Gimbert chuckled. “He looked at me like ‘Dude, just let us go.’ And I’m thinking, ‘No, I’m not going to let you go.’ ”
Copyright 2010 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution