EUGENE, OR — A pair of young adults were held at gunpoint when they were found in the garage of a family they did not know, KEZI reports.
They turned out to be actually, seriously stuck in the wrong house, not trying to steal a thing — a rarity when finding folks in your garage!
According to KEZI:
The residence was home to 44-year-old Ammond Lutz, and his three teenage children. Lutz said his children woke him up early Saturday morning saying someone was in the garage. He said he quickly got dressed, grabbed his handgun, and went to check it out.
Lutz said he saw 22-year-old Ryan Best and 21-year-old Arcelia Vasquez-Smith upon opening the door. He said he pointed his gun at them and told them to get on the ground. He told his kids to call the police and said he held the trespassers there for 10 minutes while he waited for police to arrive…
“I’ve never pointed a gun at a human being before, and that’s a big decision, and you need to take it very seriously,” Lutz said.
Lutz said it was clear that Best and Vasquez-Smith weren’t attempting to steal anything, and that they simply ended up in the wrong residence. He said they did tell him that, but he felt he couldn’t risk his family’s safety by letting his guard down.
He said neither of them ever attempted to get up and get physical with him, but Best did continue to yell and get upset while he was on the ground. Even though Lutz said he does understand that it was somewhat of a misunderstanding, he hopes the two trespassers understand how many lives they negatively affected that night. Officers said the two were arrested on criminal trespassing charges.
It’s unfortunate for the young folks that they ended up in the wrong place — but they could have gotten it much worse.
The homeowner had no reason to believe that they were innocent, if a little dumb at the moment. Major props are in order to the man who was able to resolve this scenario without shots being fired.
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