An Army veteran in Ocala, Florida, managed to stop some trouble brewing at a local Starbucks ― by grabbing a man who was allegedly trying to carjack a woman’s vehicle.
Shane Spicer was waiting for his coffee at the same time police were chasing after a man who allegedly broke into a home and stole a car.
“Just getting started with the day, had maybe been awake 20 to 25 minutes,” Spicer told Orlando Fox affiliate WOFL TV. “I live about a mile from that Starbucks.”
The suspect, later identified as Michael Prouty, crashed the car in a busy intersection and took off running towards the Starbucks where Spicer was getting his java fix.
According to CBS Orlando affiliate WKMG TV, dash cam video shows Prouty getting out of the crashed vehicle and then running toward another vehicle in the Starbucks drive-thru.
Spicer watched the whole thing.
“Sprinting up to Starbucks, and he didn’t look like a Starbucks coffee drinker,” Spicer told WOFL. “Then he yanked the girl out of the car. And just kind of an instinctive, kind of reactionary thing.”
Spicer ran after Prouty and managed to hold him until police arrived to take the suspect into custody.
Prouty, who Fox News said has had 13 felony convictions since 2000, was taken into custody. He now faces multiple charges in different jurisdictions.
Ocala police charged Prouty with fleeing and eluding, attempted carjacking, crash involving Injuries, and resisting arrest. Sumter County authorities have charged him with home invasion, battery on a person over 65, and grand theft of a vehicle.
Although several people were hurt in the intersection crash, Spicer was only a little out of breath after his encounter, which was witnessed by his girlfriend and young daughter.
“I feel like if you’ve got the ability to watch out for someone, that you should,” Spicer told WOFL. “I would just hope that someone would do the same for my family.”