Thieves who broke into a southeast Houston, Texas sports bar early Saturday morning were scared off by an employee with a shotgun. Bar manager Chris Franklin heard the four men when they broke into TK Sports Bar. Franklin said he wanted to teach them a lesson.
Surveillance video shows the crooks grabbing televisions, bottles of liquor and trying to pry open the register with a pair of scissors.Their caper came quickly to an end when Franklin stepped out and fired a shotgun blast into the ceiling. “I gave them a warning shot,” Franklin said. “They left the van, the keys in the van, the van running with all the merchandise in the van.”
Franklin said he had a clear shot at the burglars, but held back because he was not sure how many there were. Then, he said, he took a closer look and saw that they were young men, with one of them as young as 17 years old. “There’s no sense in me taking a life over petty theft. Just give them a warning shot to seize the moment so this will be a learning opportunity,” Franklin said.
Franklin said it was the second time the bar has been broken into this year. “It might have been the same people, I don’t know,” he said. The bar’s owner has posted that surveillance video on his Facebook page in hopes of getting a few leads.
“If anybody knows those guys or whatever, bring them forward so we can handle the situation,” Franklin said. The bar owner said one of his customers recognized one of the people on the surveillance video and that information was turned over to police. No arrests have yet been made.