When an intruder tried to break into a home in the Memphis neighborhood of Nutbush, he came face to face with the 70-year-old homeowner, who wasted no time sending him a lead-powered message that he won’t soon forget.
Seventy-year-old Steve Huntley was fast asleep in his Nutbush home in Memphis, Tennessee, when an unexpected noise awakened him. It was early on a Thursday morning, and Huntley’s dogs had begun to make a ruckus after something sparked their interest just outside the house. “Bump, bump, bump,” Huntly told WREG, recalling the sound that caused chaos amongst his dogs, whose barking roused him from his silent slumber. “That’s what got my dogs stirred up.”
Hearing the commotion and unsure what it could be, Huntley went to investigate, and that’s when he found himself face-to-face with an intruder who was trying to enter his home through the backdoor after clearly disregarding the “No Trespassing” sign on the elderly man’s gate. Unwilling to become a victim of a home invasion or burglary, Huntley immediately began fighting back. “I shoved him,” the grandfather recalled. “He hit the ground down there,” he added, pointing to the yard just outside the backdoor of his home.
With the intruder at a temporary disadvantage, Huntley quickly made sure to get the upper hand. “I slammed the door and went in to get my pistol,” he recalled. Huntley said he then returned, determined to send the intruder a lead-powered message that he wouldn’t soon forget. Armed with his pistol and willing to protect his property as well as his wife and dogs at all costs, Huntley fired a single warning shot that sent the burglar running away.
Police officers eventually found the suspect a few blocks away from the home, but at the time of initial reports, charges were still pending for the alleged attempted burglary. However, it was noted that such incidents had become a huge problem for the Memphis area. In fact, when WREG dug through the city’s data hub numbers, the outlet discovered that police had been called 170 times regarding breaking and entering, property crimes, and thefts within a year.
Making matters worse, all of the 170 calls were made within a half-mile radius of Steve Huntley’s home. “That’s the reason a lot of people are moving out of this neighborhood because of what’s going on,” Huntley said, speaking of the rise in lawlessness facing the Memphis area. Sadly, Mr. Huntley is no stranger to violent crime. Instead, he has every reason to be on guard since, in 2016, his son was shot and killed.
Now, Steve Huntley wants to ensure neither he nor another one of his loved ones is ever harmed again, and he’ll fight to the death if that’s what it takes. Not only is he prepared to take extreme measures to keep himself and those he loves safe, but he’s also adopted a bold motto that he lives by.
Sending a message to the home intruder who dared to cross his path and anyone who might contemplate attempting to make him a victim or threaten the safety of his loved ones, Huntley didn’t mince words. “He picked the wrong place to try and break into,” he said. “Because my motto is, ‘If you come in here, you are going to meet your maker.'”
Home intruders be warned: not every elderly American is a sitting duck, helplessly unable to fight back. Many have the same tenacity they had in their youth, and while their bodies might fail them in a physical fight, a firearm is called the great equalizer for a reason. Those who prey on the vulnerable should be prepared to meet their maker because their potential victim might just have the same motto as Steve Huntley, and who would blame them?
