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Fort Smith Couple Wrangles Suspect Who Broke Into Their Home

FORT SMITH, Ark. (KFSM) — A wife and husband caught a man who broke into their home in Fort Smith. The moment the husband tackled the suspect and waited for pol...

FORT SMITH, Ark. (KFSM) — A wife and husband caught a man who broke into their home in Fort Smith. The moment the husband tackled the suspect and waited for police to arrive was caught on camera.

A man walked through Kevin and Elizabeth King's back gate Monday (Sept. 9) afternoon and made his way through their backyard to a door. Elizabeth says she was upstairs, and when she walked back down, a man was standing in her kitchen.

"The only thing that I knew to do was to say 'get out of my house, get out of my house, get out of my house,' and I said that over and over and over to him. And so he finally backed up and went out the back door and just took off back around the way we believe he came in," Elizabeth said.

Elizabeth immediately called Kevin, who was a block away at their office down the street. In the meantime, Elizabeth kept a close eye on the suspect.

"I jumped in the car and threw it in reverse. Squealed down the street and as I turned the corner onto Wicklow, I see this guy coming up the street, and I see Elizabeth shortly there behind pointing saying 'this is the guy,'" Kevin said.

Kevin approached the suspect yelling at him to get on the ground, but when that didn't work...he tackled the young man.

"I was able to hold him until, and luckily, a family friend of ours, Craig Smith, came and helped hold him down until the police were able to get there," Kevin told 5NEWS.

Although this outcome was much better than what it could have been, the couple wants to remind all families to practice useful safety tips within your household.

"Do everything you can to protect your home and family, and it's usually just a few disciplines practiced every day to maintain that. So, that's just the message we would like to get across," Kevin said.

The couple says the mother of the suspect reached out to them on Facebook apologizing for her son's behavior saying she's had a difficult time with him. Now they all plan to meet and do anything they can to help with the young man's situation.

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