Ohio teens allegedly caught burglarizing home by pipe-wielding neighbor

DELEON SPRINGS, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Archie Rainey says he was sitting on the back porch at his home on Lake Winona Road in Deleon Springs around 10 a.m. Thursday morning when he saw something was wrong: people were inside his neighbor's home when he knew they shouldn't be.

After driving over to the home, which is separated from his by a cow pasture, the neighbor fetched a 5-foot metal tamping pole from inside his truck and confronted two teenaged burglars who were in the midst of stealing more than $5,000 worth of his neighbor's belongings.

So, he says he confronted them with the pipe, and called 911.

"911, where is your emergency?" said the operator.

"We got an intruder that just broke in the house," responded Rainey.

And that was it. He held the burglars at bay with the threat of using the metal pipe until Volusia County deputies could arrive to arrest them.

According to the Volusia County Sheriff's office, 18-year-olds Lexus Mayle and Amy Kleinhenz, of Ohio, both entered the home on Lake Winona Road on Thursday through a window they smashed out. The teens allegedly stole about $2,000 worth of jewelry, more than $3,000 cash, and medical supplies. Also found in their possession, say deputies: a loaded Smith and Wesson revolver.

A judge found probable cause for burglary, and grand theft, among other charges, and held them on more than $15,000 bond each during a hearing on Friday. The watchful neighbor did not want to talk on camera, but said the pipe he used to hold the teens at bay was the only thing he could use as a weapon at the time. And that he feels grateful the alleged stolen gun, wasn't used.