Off-duty officer chases down Florida teens who allegedly tried to steal from his wife's car: 'This is the wrong neighborhood'

An off-duty officer says he was playing video games at about 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday when he was alerted to the presence of two teenagers allegedly trying to steal items from his wife's car in front of their Florida home.

Video footage from surveillance cameras at the officer's home was released by the Bunnell Police Department.

"I was playing video games, and I started getting alerts on my phone. And as I looked at the cameras, I see two males, one hiding behind the car, my wife's car, pulling the door handle, seeing if it was unlocked," said the officer, who didn't want to be identified for safety reasons.

The officer confronted the teens.

"I said, ‘Hey, this is the wrong neighborhood. Obviously, there's multiple patrol vehicles in here, and you picked the wrong one,'" he continued.

The incident unfolded at a housing development where many police officers lived.

The officer said the teenagers ran off on foot, and he hopped into his patrol vehicle to chase after them. He drove after them before jumping out of the car and chasing after them on foot.

Eventually, Flagler County sheriff's deputies helped him apprehend the two teens.

The suspects were aged 16 and 17 years old. They were charged with three counts of burglary of an unoccupied conveyance.

One of the underage suspects claimed that he was trying to obtain money to pay his phone bill, but the officer who helped capture them said that was no excuse.

"They can use any excuse they want to use, but you're taking away from people that earn hard for what they have," he said. "I know that they had no remorse trying to go into people's vehicles and trying to flee from the officers that were on scene."

The two teenagers were released to the custody of their parents after being processed.

"I literally told the officers that showed up, I was like, ‘I did not think this was going to happen on my only day off,’" the officer joked.

Here's a local news report about the incident:

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