A California man armed with nothing but a walking cane drove off a gang of intruders who broke into his family home Sunday.
A group of four or five masked men forced their way into Stanley Trammell’s home in Redlands, California, just after 1:00 a.m. on Sunday May 12, according to a report by ABC7. After being confronted by the homeowner, who waved his cane at one of the intruders, the group fled without taking any valuables. Trammell’s wife suffered an apparently non-serious cut to the head during the incident, the outlet noted.
The home invaders forced their way into the house by kicking through French doors at the back of the family’s home where Trammell’s wife was watching TV. One of the home invaders went to the bedroom of Trammell’s 21-year-old and forced him downstairs, before confronting Trammell himself with a firearm. “The guy was coming upstairs with the gun pointed at me and I decided it made sense to wave my cane at him and keep coming down the stairs,” he told NBCLA in an interview. (RELATED: Video Shows Home Invaders Tie Up And Assault Family As Child Watches)
The whole ordeal lasted around five minutes, and the men had already departed by the time police arrived, according to the outlet. “The wife was actually downstairs watching television and heard the noises when the four or five masked men broke into the house… they were there for just a few minutes and then they left without taking anything,” Redlands Police spokesman Carl Baker said, NBCLA reported.
The break-in was just the latest in a string of robberies in the area in recent months, and local police issued a warning about organized “crime tourists” in February, according to ABC7. Trammell’s neighbor, Balgit Toor, said she was confident in her own home security, but that James and Agnes Novo, a couple who live on the same street, had “been broken into several times,” the outlet reported.
No arrests have been made so far, and police are examining surveillance footage from the area, according to NBCLA.