On Thursday, law enforcement in Kanawha County, West Virginia, reported a most unusual occurrence. Sheriff’s deputies were called out to a property in a rural area outside of Charleston, and what they found was startling.
Four individuals, the suspected burglars, were still on the scene. In fact, they were all bound with their hands tied behind their backs — gift wrapped for the responding deputies.
Elizabeth Littlejohn, 36, of Malden, James McDaniel Jr., 50, of Charleston, Timothy Justice, 56, of Milton, and Jason Becher, 38, of Charleston, were taken into custody and face charges of breaking and entering. Bond was set at $5,000 for each.
Deputies found property from the cabin in the suspects’ getaway vehicle. That truck and an ATV the suspects apparently intended to flee the scene with were rendered useless because the tires were shot flat.
And then it got really interesting.
Littlejohn, McDaniel, Justice, and Becher told of encountering a masked man as they were leaving with their loot. The armed crusader approached them and forced them to submit to having their hands tied behind their backs before shooting out the tires on their getaway vehicles.
The owner of the cabin was on the scene and spoke with deputies. He said he does not use the structure full time and that it suffered burglaries several times in the previous six weeks.
The deputies said their investigation showed that the cabin’s owner was not the masked stranger who apprehended the alleged criminals and tied them for law enforcement.
In fact, the identity of the masked man is unknown.
One neighbor praised the actions of the masked hero. Diana Brown called it “amazing to catch someone in the act of breaking in, and it’s very heartwarming to know someone did step in and do something.”
The questions raised by this mysterious incident are compelling. If it was not the owner of the cabin, who exactly was this masked vigilante who apprehended not one, but four burglars caught in the act? As superheroes go, it is rare that the fictional types carry firearms — certainly Batman and Spiderman rarely if ever did.
Batman is known for having high-tech gadgets, but a good old-fashioned revolver is generally not one of them.
Of course, it could have been simply a neighbor who saw suspicious activity and did not want to draw attention to themselves. That would make it a perfectly explainable though novel intervention. But seriously, how many people are ready to don a mask and spring into action when they see a crime take place?
And doesn’t that make them a superhero in their own right?
Is it possible that the masked stranger could face charges? Doubtful, since West Virginia common law allows for a citizen to make an arrest if someone commits a misdemeanor in their presence that disturbs the peace.
There was destruction of property in the shooting out of tires on the truck and ATV, but it is unlikely that law enforcement or prosecutors are going to nitpick that much.
That leaves the most interesting question. Who exactly is the person who armed themselves with a gun and something to tie up the suspects with, put a mask on, and stepped in to thwart a burglary at a remote cabin? Did they simply appear out of the woods? That would raise a whole different set of questions.
Doubtless there will be plenty to talk about and speculate on at the local barber shop for some time. An armed and masked stranger saves the day, now that’s a Second Amendment story that doesn’t come along all too often.
