NORMAN, Okla. (KFOR) – Two retired police officers, who now own a liquor store, stopped a break-in suspect in the act just a week after their own business was burglarized.
“It’s amazing that he would use that type of weapon to break a window out and that’s very scary,” Terry Sterling told News 4 earlier this week.
KFOR spoke with Sterling a few day after his Norman liquor store, Capt. Jack’s Wine Rum & Spirits, was ransacked by three, masked thieves.
They were caught on camera stealing almost $800 worth of liquor.
Fast forward to Wednesday night, there was a close call at a nearby business.
“That was, I’m sure, very frightening,” Teresa Sterling, Terry’s wife, told News 4.
Right before they closed their doors Wednesday night, Teresa said she heard the sound of glass shattering.
“We were locking up for the evening and luckily, I had to go to the back to get something because if I hadn’t, we’d have missed it,” she said.
After she heard that sound, Teresa ran outside to see what was going on.
“We looked to the north of us and saw a guy running out of the Secure Safe Storage unit and he was screaming. So I grabbed my handgun, because I’m a retired police officer, and we went down there and I told him to show me his hands. He didn’t want to show me his hands. I told him to put his hands up,” she said.
Teresa and Terry restrained the suspect until police arrived.
While they waited, they learned the suspect may have been after the employee inside the front office of the storage facility.
“He told us that he had seen a woman in the window which is why he was going in there, which concerned me because I thought, ‘is he a rapist?’” Teresa said.
Thankfully, the employee is okay.
KFOR left a message with Norman PD, asking for the name of the suspect and we have not heard back.
Teresa does not believe the suspect from this latest incident is connected to the burglary at the liquor store.
“They may have some suspects that they’re looking at, but not there has not been an arrest yet,” she said.
A crew was at the scene Wednesday morning repairing the shattered window.