Something out of place.

Dale Rowin, a co-owner of Tom's Tree Place of Lubbock, Texas, first suspected no-good when he saw a length of hose over a fence at the company's maintenance garage. Upon doing some investigating, he noticed some suspicious tire tracks in the dirt. To test his hunch that the company was being visited by intruders, he smoothed the dirt so that he could watch for fresh tracks.

Fresh tracks did appear, and so he set up a surveillance system. Subsequently, he learned that thieves were prying open a lock to steal diesel fuel. To put an end to the thievery, Rowin and his son, Josh, decided to catch the criminals in the act, and they began to guard the site at night. On their third consecutive night of keeping watch, on August 21 at about 2:00 a.m., a truck pulled up with its lights off.

When the thief placed the nozzle of a siphoning hose in his fuel tank, the Rowins struck. They jumped out, pointing shotguns. Josh told KCBD News Channel 11, "We caught him by surprise and he jumped in his truck and started the ignition." Responding quickly, the elder Rowin shot out one of the rear tires and entered the truck from the passenger side while Josh got the key out of the truck. The two then called the police. In a final bid for freedom, the thief, Brandon Hogue, tried to run away, but Josh tackled him.

Bandit, the Rowins' watchdog, slept through all of the excitement.