Concealed Carry Holder Delivers Line of the Week to Would-Be Crook: You're Either 'Leaving in a Squad Car or in a Box

A Fort Myers, Florida, homeowner and CCW permit holder is getting thanked by police and his neighbors after stopping a one-man crime spree that was taking place early morning last Sunday.

Adam Canales held burglar at gunpoint until police arrived

Adam Canales told TheBlaze that he was awakened by his daughter at 5am on Sunday. The 25-year-old girl was visiting her dad when she was roused from her sleep by a masked man jiggling the sliding glass door that opened into her bedroom.  The locked door prevented the would-be crook from breaking into the house, and he moved on -- to the house next door.

The young lady continued to watch the burglar from inside the house as he broke into a car on the driveway next door. She woke up her father and explained what she had seen as she dialed 911 to report the crime in progress to the police. Adam grabbed his licensed .45 handgun and went outside in hopes of stopping the crime in progress and detain the man until police could arrive.

The criminal, 18-year-old Randall Hicks, was finishing up cleaning out the car next door when he came face to face with Mr. Canales and his firearm. Realizing that he was caught red-handed, Hicks tried to convince Canales to let him go. Adam told TheBlaze that Hicks offered him money or a share of what he had taken from the car on his neighbor's driveway and from others he had broken into that night.

That's when Adam Canales delivered the line of the week, telling the cornered crook: You're either "leaving in a squad car or in a box."

When TheBlaze asked Canales about the line, he chuckled and said, "People like options, so I gave him his options."

At that point, Mr. Hicks realized he was in no position to negotiate and gave up, lying down on the driveway until police arrived. Canales shared with us that the young burglar was well known to the local authorities. He reportedly had many similar run-ins with the law before last Sunday. However, this was Randall Hicks' first arrest as an adult.

Police searched Hicks and discovered a variety of items (digital cameras, knives, phone chargers, etc.) that he had allegedly taken from cars up and down the street. At dawn, the police knocked on doors and started connecting homeowners with the items that had been taken from their cars as they slept. At the end of the day, the young man had been charged with 11 different crimes, 8 felonies and 3 misdemeanors. And, because he was wearing a mask, the burglary and attempted burglary charges are upgraded to a more serious level.

There was another shocking twist to this story. The local television station, NBC2 reported that Randall Hicks lived in the neighborhood and probably knew most of the people he was robbing.

NBC2 reported on the story on Monday.

(H/T: Mike Broomhead of KFYI)