Retired police officer Charles Hayes was walking through his unlit home-office towards the garage door Tuesday afternoon when he saw a figure at his desk.
“There was this guy sitting on my chair, with camouflage clothing on and hat pulled down to his eyes,” Hayes recalled of the burglary. “I yelled, ‘Who are you and what the hell are you doing here?’”
After realizing the intruder had a gun in one hand, Hayes ran to his bedroom to retrieve his shotgun. Meanwhile, the intruder ran outside to the driveway, where Hayes stopped him. Hayes says he called 911 while pointing his gun at the intruder, who still had a gun in his left hand.
“He had a great big knife too,” Hayes said. “All that training I had years ago kicked in.”
After a few verbal instructions, the man dropped the gun and Hayes held him at gunpoint until troopers arrived.
Troopers arrested the suspect and identified him as 26-year-old Devin Rudolph. He was taken to the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility and held on $20,000 cash-only bail for one count of first-degree robbery, two counts of first-degree burglary, one count of third-degree assault and two counts of second-degree theft.
Hayes says he doesn’t think Rudolph knew anyone was at home. He says he later found a bucket full of tools that the suspected burglar had gathered, leading him to believe Rudolph had been in the house 20 to 30 minutes before being discovered.
Troopers stated in an online dispatch that several items had been stolen, including the firearm used to threaten Hayes. The gun is usually kept in his truck, he says. Hayes says his external hard drive was also missing. Troopers later recovered it in the back of the vehicle that had taken the suspect away.