A stolen truck was recovered by its vigilant owners after a fierce gun battle in the shopping mall parking lot. It’s not like we’ve returned to those thrilling days of yesteryear or anything but what happened in Texas seems like a rerun of Tombstone. The thief was left dead on the ground and his female friend was transported to the hospital for a “critical condition” case of lead poisoning. The male owner of the pickup got an ambulance ride to the ER as well, where he’s listed as stable.
Thieves target wrong truck
There must have been a tracker on the truck. The socialist couple in San Antonio, Texas, who tried to share the wealth of an unidentified but well armed capitalist, doing his part for the economy at the shopping mall, didn’t consider that.
Modern technology makes stealing cars a dangerous proposition lately. More and more owners aren’t bothering to trouble the police and simply take justice into their own hands. That’s what happens when there isn’t any official law and order around. Welcome back to the Wild West.
On Thursday afternoon, July 27, a gun battle broke out in the parking lot of the South Park Mall, “after a man tracked down his stolen vehicle.”
SOUTH-SIDE SHOOTING: The owner of a stolen car tracked it to a South Park Mall lot and shot the suspected thief dead while they were waiting for police, SAPD officials said.https://t.co/vIrJfS32Cg pic.twitter.com/92NO03bXyJ
— Fox3 Now (@fox3news) July 27, 2023
He tried to make a citizen’s arrest at gunpoint but the thief had a gun of his own, stashed in his waistband. He won’t be needing it now. The owner and his passenger came out of the mall and discovered their Ford truck missing.
When they pinged the locator, it was still in the vicinity at another part of the mall parking lot. After tracking it down they soon found “a male and female sitting in the truck.”
As noted by San Antonio Police Chief William McManus, “the owners of the stolen vehicle tracked the vehicle to the parking lot back here behind me. They showed up they find the vehicle, there were two individuals, a male and a female in the vehicle.”
Thief fired first
The unidentified owner “held the suspects at gunpoint and directed the driver to sit down by one of the tires while they waited for police.” The truck-jacker had another idea, which wasn’t as brilliant as he thought.
“The armed thief then pulled out a handgun and shot the vehicle’s original owner.” Never do that to anyone who owns a pickup truck in Texas, it only makes them more angry, like a bear. The wounded owner “returned fire and struck both suspects.”
When police arrived, they found the male suspect face down on the asphalt, dead. “The vehicle’s owner and woman were transported to a local hospital, where they were listed in stable and critical condition respectively.”
A shopper noticed his vehicle was missing early Thursday afternoon, so he tracked it to another side of South Park Mall in San Antonio. https://t.co/VIaIREfYn0
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) July 28, 2023
Police aren’t charging the vigilant truck owner with anything because it was a clear case of self-defense. This is Texas, Chief McManus pointed out. Not some namby-pamby liberal state like Illinois or Maryland.
“The owner of the stolen vehicle certainly has the right to track down his stolen vehicle. Now we would prefer that they call the police before taking that into your own hands, but he did what he felt he needed to do.”
The brother of the the dead truck thief can’t believe the way the incident chills their rights to take the Kia challenge. “The victim was my brother and there are two sides to every story,” Jose Garcia insists. “Whether my brother was wrong or right, he had a gun pointed at him. I guess he took it upon himself to defend himself.” Apparently, cooperating and facing consequences isn’t an option. “The guy who shot him is a vigilante, not a hero. A vehicle is not worth taking someone’s life, I don’t care what kind of car it is. You don’t take the law into your own hands,” Garcia added. Some do, conservatives reply, and it’s getting more frequent.
