Tampa

WATCH: Armed Maintenance Worker Thwarts Burglar at Tampa Church

A maintenance worker turned into a crime fighter when he encountered a church burglar in Tampa in an incident caught on camera by a news crew.

The maintenance worker for First Baptist Church, Ed Clayton, was fixing a glass door when he came across the suspect outside the Culbreath Chapel.

Clayton, who has a concealed weapons permit, held the suspect at gunpoint until police arrived.

A crew from WFLA were driving to another story when they saw Clayton holding his gun on the suspect and began filming.

"If you drop them I'm going to drop you," Clayton is heard telling the suspect.

Officers arrived and took the suspect into custody. He's facing a charge of criminal mischief.

Clayton told WFLA he had brought his weapon because the doors to the church had been breached by a burglar earlier in the evening.

As he was boarding the doors up, the suspect came back.

"I saw the guy walk up the sidewalk and he saw me and took off running. So I ran down the sidewalk and when I got to the end of the sidewalk I didn’t see anyone," Clayton said. "I  look over in the bushes and he’s hiding."

The damages to the doors was estimated at $4,000.

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