Tuesday morning feel good stories.
From ENCINITAS, CA
A North County drifter was behind bars Monday for allegedly attacking a homeowner during a predawn weekend robbery in a neighborhood near Batiquitos Lagoon.
The events that led to the violent encounter began at about 5 a.m. Saturday, when the victim, 62-year-old Fred Weston, was awakened by a security system on his property in the 500 block of La Costa Avenue in Encinitas, according to officials with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.
“Weston’s one-acre property had been targeted several times in the past by people stealing copper cable, leading him to set up the system,” Sgt. Joe Tomaiko said.
After arming himself with a shotgun, Weston went into his yard, where he allegedly found 43-year-old Chuck Edward Neil, a drifter from Escondido, trying to hide in the darkness. Weston ordered the intruder to stand up and get off the property.
Neil initially complied, but as the two men were walking toward a front gate, the transient grabbed the barrel of the gun and began trying to wrest it away, Tomaiko said.
Following a struggle during which the homeowner fired a shot into the air in an attempt to scare off the attacker, Neil was able to pull the weapon away and allegedly punched the victim in the face repeatedly, knocking him to the ground, after which he got on top of him and began choking him with the barrel of the shotgun, authorities said.
Alerted to the altercation by surveillance cameras, Weston’s 58-year- old wife and 19-year-old son hurried outside and drove down their long driveway to intervene in the fight. Neil allegedly refused their demands to release Weston, at which point the teenager shocked the homeless man with an electric stun gun, incapacitating him. The family used a belt to bind Neil, then made a 911 call, the sergeant said.
Deputies arrested the suspect and determined that copper cable “had been cut and was being collected nearby on the property,” Tomaiko said.
Weston was treated at a hospital for a broken nose, scrapes and bruises.
After being treated for minor injuries, Neil was booked into county jail in Vista on suspicion of robbery and grand theft, with the latter charge stemming from a previous alleged incident at the same home. He was being held on $120,000 bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
Category: Feel Good Stories
Too bad this wasn’t a DOT or DRT feel good.
A shot in the air didn’t help one bit did it? one center mass WOULD HAVE! imho
I got some nice #4 copper for him hooked up to a very sturdy chair!
#4 copper buckshot would be effective as well!
Too bad the victims were in CA. If the victim fired the man up the second he found him that eould have been a clean shoot here in Tx. Joe Horn.
Joe was a very good friend of mine, that small shooting almost ruined his life! Bloodsucking lawyers!
Yes sir. Je paid a dear price. His sacrifice left the rest of us with an example and a legal backing that we can still defend ourselves with deadly force. I dont know him but I sure wish him well.
If I saw some asshole choking my dad – they would need a body bag and shop vac. But that’s me.
“drove down their long driveway to intervene in the fight”
“Weston’s one-acre property had been targeted several times”
One of the funniest things I noticed about working in CA was that a 1/4 acre property with a fence is called a ranch. How long a driveway can you fit on one freakin acre?
You had to drive?
Maybe it is hilly or mountainous thereby increasing the surface area? If the acre was a square, the diagonal would be about 294 feet. Hell, that’s almost as long a football field.
whut…
Just thinking about how far the longest distance on a flat parcel that one square acre could be. In a not square acre, the maximum distance could be longer. Some of the FA or torpedo types could come up with different numbers.
43,560 square feet to the acre. So a reasonable narrow lot might be 200 feet wide and would be 217.8 feet long—which might be too close to square to be called narrow. A 100 foot width would give you a depth of 435.6 feet or 145 yards. How much is backyard? Beats me. I’m leaning toward shared driveway.
I used to live off La Costa Ave, just a couple blocks from here. This area is full of Greenhouses (flowers) on long drives shared by multiple homes.
yeh LOL
To paraphrase Alice Cooper, “Dead robbers, can’t take copper from my yard.” Not gonna fight you, warn you, run from you, or call the popo on you. I’m going to shoot you, probably multiple times. It’s gonna hurt until you die.
We’ve got more losers in San Diego North County that are slowly being arrested. I hope they love being in Vista jail..
I used to live off La Costa Ave, just a couple blocks from here. This area is full of Greenhouses (flowers) on long drives shared by multiple homes.
Wait, I thought that bail was a tool of the rich, used to oppress the poor and POCs, and Commiefornia was doing away with that system?
California is just an asylum now.
No, a point of embarkation for illegal aliens! 😉