Crooks allegedly looking to steal cars speed toward armed homeowner, neighbor. The good guys with guns come out on top.

A trio of males from the Dallas area headed toward east Texas over the weekend intending to steal cars, KETK-TV reported, citing the Smith County Sheriff's Office.

But according to Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith, the group looking to "prey on honest, hardworking individuals" instead "got a good east Texas, northeast Texas welcome," the station said.

Image source: KETK-TV video screenshot

What happened?

Kevon McMiller, 17, along with two unidentified men pulled up to a Flint home midnight Saturday when the homeowner noticed the headlights, KETK said.

The homeowner saw the group scoping out his car and scared them off by firing three warning shots into the air, the station reported.

The group fled — but returned after noticing the street's dead end, KETK said.

Double trouble

“By this time another neighbor had accompanied the neighbor that fired the shots, and he was armed with a shotgun," Smith told the station. “And about that time, the vehicle without its lights on started speeding toward them ... from the dead-end road, and both of them fired."

Bullets from both guns hit McMiller who was driving the vehicle — which also happened to be stolen, KETK said.

The 17-year-old was nabbed, the station said, but the other two males fled and haven't been found. McMiller was taken to jail on a charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and likely faces more charges, KETK said. The sheriff's office on Tuesday declined to tell TheBlaze where McMiller was shot and what his condition was following the incident.

A lawyer lays out the state's 'Stand Your Ground' law

"If someone's driving a car toward you, you don't have to figure out whether or not they're trying to kill you," Randy Roberts of Roberts & Roberts Law Firm in Tyler told the station. "If you have a reasonable belief that they're trying to do serious, bodily harm to you, you have a right to stand your ground and to shoot them."

Texas' "Stand Your Ground Law" allows individuals to protect themselves with deadly force as long as they're somewhere they're supposed to be — such as their homes, cars, places of employment — and believe their lives are being threatened, KETK said.