Story Archive

If You Can’t Lick ’Em, Jail ’Em

Early Christmas eve, Jason Klein was awakened by a noise at his Newark, Ohio, home. “We have six children and two grandchildren, so lots of kids, lots of presents” under the Christmas tree, he says. He grabbed his pistol and confronted the would-be burglar. “When I first got his attention, he came at me, came at the door and said ‘you ain’t gonna shoot me’ and that’s when I said ‘I will shoot you’ and I put the sight right on his head.” That stopped the man cold, but Klein didn’t have to shoot. He called 911 and held the man at gunpoint until deputies arrived and took the man into custody. Only then did Klein think about getting dressed. “I was standing there wearing nothing but my .40 caliber,” he laughed. The unidentified man, who admitted to Klein, “I picked the wrong house to do this,” was booked into the Licking County Jail. (RC/WBNS Columbus) ...A .40 caliber? Almost certainly self-cocking.