Sunday 09-04-11

Woman gets her gun, holds prowler for cops

ALBANY, GA - An Albany woman held a man at gunpoint until Police arrived after catching him looking in her neighbor's window.

Lynn Dembowski says she keeps her eyes peeled for criminals, and when she spotted a man creeping in her neighbor's yard, she surprised him with a gun.

She likes to look out for her neighbors, and today she not only looked out for them, she swung into action, standing up to a man she says was up to no good.

Dembowski was walking her dog in the alley behind the 900 block of Sixth Avenue, when spotted the man looking in Cathy Vaught's back window.

Dembowski said, "I said you need to get away from that window. I'm calling police. He said 'go ahead.'"

Dembowski did call police, but she didn't stop there. "So I went on in the house, put my dog up and grabbed my gun. And I came out and held the gun on him, so he wouldn't leave. And I said 'you stand right there, the police is on it's way.'"

Cathy Vaught said she was stunned when Lynn called her too, and she saw her neighbor holding the man at gunpoint. "I didn't even realize anything was going on. The dog had started barking. I had been in the shower, and then I saw Lynn out there."

As he sits in the back of a police cruiser, Johnny Calhoun insists he was just looking for work. Dembowski said there is no doubt in her mind he was up to no good.

When she pulled the gun out, Dembowski said, "It didn't phase him. No. He just looked at me and said 'y'all are evil.' And he kept reciting scripture and stuff."
Dembowski said she has been keeping an eye out in her neighborhood because of past gang activity, and will continue to.

Would Albany be a better place if everybody did this? Dembowski said, "Oh yeah, most definitely. Everybody would feel safer."

Vaught said she is glad to have Lynn for a neighbor. "They are wonderful, and they would just do anything for us. It's great."

And Lynn Dembowski proved she will take a stand against crime in her neighborhood. She says she knew Calhoun was up to no good, when he said he was looking for work. She told him if he was, he should have gone to the front door and knocked.

Johnny Calhoun says he's homeless. He's charged with peeping tom, loitering, and prowling.

http://www.walb.com/story/15371571/woman-gets-her-gun-holds-prowler-for-cops