In a not so funny version of the Three Stooges, three would-be thieves were sent running from the scene of their poorly planned heist by a homeowner who was locked and loaded.
The incident happened just after 4 a.m. on July 12, when the three suspects, dressed in unofficial FBI garb, pulled up to a Cooper City home in the 5000 block of SW 104 Avenue.
While FBI lettered T-shirts, baseball caps, fake badges and dark fabric masks may have seemed fool-proof, the home owner, Malcolm Jose Pena, 35, was unconvinced.
Surveillance cameras captured the scene as the three bandits pulled up in a silver Mercedes Benz SUV, two men approached the home and one stayed back on lookout.
"All I remember was at the time, my husband yelled out for me and I'm still half-asleep and he tells me to call the cops," said a female resident in the home, who didn't want to be identified. "He asked who it was and they said 'FBI, open up.'"
The masked FBI impostors began prying the front door open with a crowbar until Pena interrupted with a bullet from his .40 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol.
"I'm watching everything from my room taking place in front of my house," said the woman. "I was really violated, and I'm really terrified for all the families. It truly can happen to anybody."
After Pena’s bullet broke through the front window, the flustered impostors fled to their SUV and high tailed it away from the scene empty-handed.
Their mad dash to flee the scene -- reminiscent of Moe, Larry and Curly -- led the BSO to dub them the "Three Stooges."
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But in an odd twist, Pena was arrested the same day of the attempted break-in for possession of Ecstasy. Authorities are investigating whether there is a connection.
The Broward Sheriff’s office is trying to identify the three men, who are still at-large. Anyone with info is asked to call Broward CrimeStoppers at 954-493-TIPS.
