Holly MatkinNew Orleans, LA – A Louisiana man who became fed-up with criminals busting into his truck said he rigged his pickup with a flashbang in an effort to protect his property (video below).
Security footage captured the moment when a masked would-be thief jumped out of a car and skipped over to the driver’s side of a parked pickup truck on April 1, WVUE reported.
He promptly busted out the driver’s side window and proceeded to climb through the shattered glass, the video showed.
But as he got his upper body up into the cab of the raised truck, a flash suddenly went off.
The suspect immediately sprang backwards onto the street and scrambled away from the truck before jumping back into the getaway car and fleeing the scene, the video showed.
The owner of the truck said he had set up a loud, non-lethal deterrent in the center console of his vehicle after his truck was broken into six times in just two months, WVUE reported.
“I don’t want this guy to die for what he did, but I don’t want him to just be able to smash and grab and run away,” the anonymous owner told WVUE. “To see him like, gleefully walk up and just smash my eighth window in the past couple months and jump in and then, you know, to see the detonation go off and his reaction…”
The vehicle owner said that the would-be thief likely wasn’t injured and noted that the device successfully thwarted the criminal’s plan.
“He probably didn’t get hurt that bad, but it wasn’t pleasant and it might deter him and his friends and tell other people not to do this too because, without something like this, there is no consequence because they’re not going to get arrested,” he told WVUE.
“Whoever did this definitely had a bad night. He might never do it again because every time he goes in there, this could happen to him,” he added.
“It’s a small battle in the war, I guess, that no one else is fighting,” he told WVUE.
The owner of the truck said those who live and work in the area are frustrated with the city’s soft-on-crime policies.
“Leadership has failed and more ways than one when it comes to this situation,” he told WVUE. “I reported to the police almost every time and I don’t blame the police for this. They’re understaffed and like there’s too much crime.”
“I really blame the fact that…these people get caught, and then they basically get bailed out,” he added.
The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) released a statement asking people not to take matters into their own hands when dealing with criminals.
“While we understand the frustrations our citizens have with crime, rigging an explosive device to detonate inside a vehicle is illegal and a bad idea,” the NOPD said in a statement to WDSU. “Not only is there a risk of injury to yourself and others, there could be serious legal ramifications for everyone involved.”
“Please call your District station or Crimestoppers to report illegal activity,” the NOPD said.
Watch the incident unfold in the video below:
BOOBY TRAP
Guy gets tired of thieves breaking into his truck so he rigs a flashbang to go off 😂 pic.twitter.com/Y7zzpfLYqX— The Donut News Network 🍩 (@DonutNewsNetwrk) April 6, 2022
