MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – A would-be robber was chased out of a home in Carolina Forest Tuesday night after the homeowner grabbed the suspect’s gun and fought back.
An incident report from Horry County police says a family living on Barn Owl Court in The Farm at Carolina Forest was in the kitchen around 10:30 p.m. when a gunman entered the home with a double barrel shotgun. Three victims in the kitchen told officers they thought a joke was being played on them until the suspect began pointing the shotgun at them and demanded their cell phones.
The homeowner, identified as a 74-year-old man, gave the armed man his cell phone and yelled to a family member who was on the second floor of the home to “come downstairs with a gun [because] they were being robbed.” The suspect told the three victims to give him all their money, and when the homeowner noticed the gunman was distracted, he grabbed the barrel of the robber’s gun and tried to fight it away from him.
During the fight, the second victim, identified as a 17-year-old male, ran to a bedroom and grabbed a metal rod. The suspect wrestled the gun away from the homeowner and attempted to run out of the home, at which point the teen hit the suspect across the back with the metal rod, but the gunman didn’t stop. The suspect ran into the backyard and then across the neighbor’s lawn.
The homeowner drove through the neighborhood looking for the suspect, but never found him. Horry County police are asking any homeowners who live in The Farm and have a home surveillance system to please contact the police department at 843-915-8477.
