A video shows three men allegedly attempting to rob a Texas air conditioner repairman at gunpoint while he was working on the roof of a gas station.
Donald Burns told KTRK he was on the roof of a gas station at the 500 block of Berry Road in Houston, Texas, attempting to repair a cooler at around 2:00 a.m. on February 7 when three men on the ground came up to the store and demanded the keys to his truck.
Burns said he had already been the victim of one robbery a year and a half earlier, per KTRK, so he was unwilling to allow the men to take his truck:
“I heard them holler, ‘Throw down the keys. Throw down the keys,’” Burns recalled. “Before I knew it, one was already on the back of the truck. Got two steps up the ladder and I grabbed my tool bag, and I said, ‘I’m going to smash your brains out and I’m going to cut you up with this knife. You better go.’”
The video appears to show the men leaving, but they later returned, per KTRK. However, by then, Burns had contacted law enforcement.
He told the outlet he taunted the men, telling them that he was now able to give the police dispatcher better descriptions of them.
“I said, ‘oh yeah, I’m glad you came back. I couldn’t remember what you were wearing. [The 911 operator] wants to know.’ One’s got tennis shoes on. One’s got flip flops, blue jeans and khakis,” he said, per WTRK.
Burns said he felt compelled to resist the robbery.
“I didn’t have a choice. They brought it to me and I had to do what I had to do. I could have gotten shot. I’m no hero or anything, but I wasn’t just walking home,” he said.
KOCO reported that Houston Police are still seeking the suspects.
