Armed 84-Year-Old Army Vet Fends Off Mugger [Video]

Doug Jandebeur, an 84-year old veteran, sent an alleged mugger “packing” when the elderly man pulled out a firearm for self protection.

The assailant grabbed Jandebeur from behind outside the U.S. Army vet’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, business, as he was getting into his truck. At first, when he heard the words “Don’t turn around,” Jandebeur thought it was one of his prankster friends. Things got ugly very fast, however, when the suspect punched Jandebeur and stole his wallet, and advanced toward his wife in the store. At this point, the vet quickly exercised some self-help, which caused the assailant to headed for the hills immediately.

Jandebeur succinctly explained what happened.

I pulled out my automatic and was getting ready to ventilate him. Once he saw my gun, he decided to leave.”

The alleged thief is still at large after fleeing the area, although the incident — including the suspect’s face — was captured on surveillance video set up by another merchant in the strip mall, which should enable cops to make an arrest soon.

“Video surveillance taken from a nearby business showed the entire scene unfold. Jandebeur’s attacker was seen milling around outside for hours before the attack. The footage also showed him approach Jandebeur, punch him in the face, and then pause as he appeared to look inside Jandebeur’s business where his wife was. But the video then shows the robber bolt from his position and sprint off camera,” the Daily Caller detailed. See embedded video below.

Apart from a bruise on his jaw, Jandebeur — reportedly a former rancher who has raced motorcycles and survived several plane crashes — was unharmed in the encounter in which he turned the tables on the thief.

Offering some nutshell advice, perhaps for law-abiding citizens who want to avoid becoming crime victims, the vet declared that “Anybody who doesn’t arm themselves is asking for trouble,” according to News On 6.

Reacting to the situation that Doug Jandebeur found himself in, the Bearing Arms website commented that “In most defensive gun uses, no one is harmed. No shots are fired, and that makes for a lousy news story. If the attack on Jandebeur hadn’t been dramatically caught on camera, we wouldn’t likely have heard about his defensive gun use, either. It would have gone on to be just one of many unpublicized defensive gun uses every day.”

Last month, in an incident in which guns were uninvolved, a 72-year-old Navy vet, who was an ex-boxer and Karate instructor, took down a much younger alleged shoplifter at the Washington Crown Center Mall in North Franklin Township, Pennsylvania.

Bottom line to would-be criminals: Don’t mess with vets.

[Image via YouTube]