ALBANY, Ga. — A 71-year-old retired Albany man spotted a couple of thieves, grabbed his gun and got his man Friday afternoon.

Herbert Gladin said the backyard at 408 Florence Drive, one house over from his residence, had been robbed many times before and he wasn’t going to take it anymore.

“I heard my neighbor’s dog barking,” Gladin said. “I looked through their yard to my other house and saw two heads moving in the yard. I ran and got my gun and a man was coming out the gate pushing my lawnmower up Patricia Alley.”

Police arrived before 5 p.m. Friday to arrest a man held at gunpoint by Gladin, an Albany Police Department report stated. Two women were also arrested in connection with the crime.

Nicolas Wright, Raquell Richardson and Dominique Johnson, all 23, were charged with theft by taking. Richardson and Wright are also charged with criminal trespass, according police at the scene.
Talking at the crime scene, Gladin told how the afternoon unfolded.

He said Richardson and Johnson sat in a parked silver Ford on Patricia Alley.

Wright pushed the stolen lawnmower in front of the car, Gladin said.

When he saw Gladin with a .38-caliber Rossi pistol heading toward him, he jumped in the drivers seat and drove over the lawnmower, officers said.

The crash-grind sound of metal over metal caught Donnie Rogers’ attention as he grilled burgers in his backyard on Patricia Alley. He grabbed his nunchuck and headed toward the sound.

When the Ford mashed the lawnmower, the three suspects threw open the car doors and ran in different directions.

As Wright circled back, possibly to get his car, Gladin got the drop on him.

“I’m glad that boy showed up with his nunchucks,” Gladin said of Rogers. “I think he (Wright) was getting ready to run again.”
Somehow during the confusion, Gladin found time to call 911, he said. Police corralled all three suspects quickly, he said.

Gladin said, “I am very proud of the Albany Police and how they handled this situation.”

Meantime, a suspect who may be linked to a string of burglaries in the north-central area of the city, was arrested early Friday, stated an Albany Police Department report.

Jeffrey Porter, 35, was arrested on burglary charges at about 2:40 a.m. after he tried to run away from 1216 N. McKinley St., a police report stated.

“After the suspect was captured, he showed the officers where he got the stolen property,” said Phyllis Banks, police spokeswoman. “The property was turned back over to the owner.”

The property returned was a push mower and a riding lawnmower, Banks said. Porter could be connected to other property thefts in the area around First and Fourth avenues and Rawson Circle, she added.