Retired cop surprises teen burglar with choke hold

WAVELAND -- A retired police officer said he was drinking coffee on his porch when he heard his dogs making a noise and then he surprised a burglar.

"He picked the wrong place," Mike Hearty said. "I choked him out."

The alleged burglar is 17 years old.

Hearty said he wants him held accountable.

"I'm not going to let him get away with it," Hearty said. "I'm tired of how it's looking in our community, in Waveland, in the Bay and other areas. Police can't do it all by themselves."

Hearty lives on River Drive near Tombigbee Street in an elevated home with his wife and son. He has a "no trespassing" sign on a tree in his yard.

"Here I am just trying to live," he said. "I don't need this."

Hearty said he was on his porch, which also is elevated, when his dogs let him know something was wrong Monday morning.

"I turned the corner, where the porch is on the back, and saw a guy going in my front door," Hearty said. "He didn't even see me."

"I ran out behind him and I put him down."

Hearty said he used a type of choke hold and the teen "went to sleep."

"He woke up before cops got there, and I talked to him a couple of seconds." What he told the teen "was nothing really nice," he said.

Hearty said he called Waveland police and they showed up quickly.

Police Chief Dave Allen said he was considering whether to charge the teen as a juvenile or an adult.

Hearty said he's thankful it happened at his house. He said the teen could have picked a house with a resident who has a gun and isn't sure when or how to use it.

"Maybe it's God's will he picked my house," Hearty said. "I know if I need to take somebody out or not. If my family had been home, I could have taken it to the next level. But God knew I would know what to do."

"And who knows?" he said. "Maybe this will wake this kid up and cause him to change his life."

Hearty was a Waveland police officer from 1994 to 2000.

He said he became medically disabled after an incident involving two improvised explosive devices while he worked as a body guard in Afghanistan for a private company.

He does some work as an actor and has been in the background on scenes for the TV show "NCIS New Orleans."

Hearty said he was looking at a script a friend had asked him to read when Monday's incident occurred.

"I really just want to give thanks to the Waveland PD and also to God," Hearty said. "If my family would have been here, it could have been worse."

This story was originally published March 7, 2016 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Retired cop surprises teen burglar with choke hold ."