ST. LOUIS – Imagine being inside your home when a thief breaks in.
That's what happened to a man in a south city neighborhood earlier this week, only instead of hiding, he charged after the crook with a baseball bat.
Adam Smith said he was out in his yard most of Tuesday morning, and went back inside without locking the door.
When he stepped back outside on his balcony, he noticed something strange down below.
"I was looking at it and thinking, that’s weird and then I was like, wait a minute," said Smith.
It was a robber who had snuck inside and nabbed his 55-inch TV.
"Leaned over the rail and told him he picked the wrong house and if I caught him I was going to make small change out of him," he said.
Just like that, the robber tried to make a “play for the plate” scurrying through the side gangway with the TV in tow.
"I was surprised he was able to make it down the gangway, it’s not very wide," said Smith.
At the same time, Smith was darting downstairs towards the front door, grabbed his handy baseball bat and chased the thief across the road.
"I got within about five steps from him when he dropped the television. We were definitely getting close to striking distance," he said.
No one was hurt, but the prized big screen TV was shattered when the burglar dropped it.
"Still out a TV yea but I’d rather be out a broken TV than a stolen TV," said Smith.
Smith called the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and filled out a report. He suspects the man must live nearby.
"If you don’t have a vehicle to take your stolen items then you have to live pretty close," he said.
In the meantime, he's using an old TV in his living room and hoping word spreads that if you mess with him, he's not afraid to swing for the fences.
"Don’t let me catch you," said Smith.
The Smith family has surveillance cameras, but they weren't operational at the time of the burglary.
SLMPD said the investigation is ongoing.
