Man Stops Burglary at Neighbor's Home

Thursday, March 23, 2006

February 8, 2006 -- An alert neighbor helped stop a burglary at a Northwest Fresno home on Wednesday.

The man grabbed his shotgun and confronted four thieves who were stealing from his neighbor's home on Flint Way, near State Avenue.

Charlie Martinez says he just did what any good neighbor should and stepped up when he thought someone was in danger.

He says he saw a suspicious car backing into his neighbors driveway Wednesday morning, "I was concerned about my neighbor. She's alone there and there's four Hispanic guys and I just thought maybe they might try to rape her as well as burglarize the home."

He made his next move quickly, "I ran into my bedroom. I got my shotgun and I loaded it."

That's when he went over to the home and confronted the thieves, "I ran out to the front and I told them to get down several times, yelled at them."

He said what happened next, "The driver pulled out and almost hit me and I backed up and fired a shot at him and as he went away, I fired another shot at him and I think I hit his tail light."

Fresno police say Martinez hit the car at least once.

The homeowners weren't there at the time, but they saw the car earlier in the morning and asked their neighbor to keep an eye out.

"This could have been a worse situation. Charlie was there to protect my wife. She just left the house, four guys came in, they tried to take what they could and they couldn't because of Charlie," said homeowner Bryan Ortiz.

Police are looking for a 1995 to 2000 four-door black Honda Civic with damage to the front right door and possibly the rear end.

They say the car was also lowered and had a loud muffler.

Police ask that if you see something suspicious, you call 911 rather than taking matters into your own hands.

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