Fresno man fights off armed thieves stealing trailer

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- After an early morning wake-up call, a Fresno man confronted armed thieves stealing his trailer in front of his home.

Curtis Richardson actually regrets the actions he took Wednesday morning to avoid becoming a theft victim but at the time he just did not want to part with his property.

Shortly after 4 a.m. Krista Lopez and her family woke up to the sound of a loud boom.

"It was pretty scary," she said. "It kind of sounded like when someone hits a fire hydrant and water comes out because the oil was gushing out."

They saw a truck towing a small trailer smashed into their car out front. The trailer was taken from Richardson's home several blocks away. He heard noises outside and thought someone was going through a junk pile but then saw his trailer hitched to someone else's truck.

"I came outside," Richardson said. "I went around my truck and I had another gentleman come behind me and point a gun at my head and threaten me."

Richardson pushed away the gunman and then followed the two suspects in a truck from his home on San Pablo onto Sierra Streets.

"That's all I have," Richardson said. "I just have my truck and my trailer. It's how I make my living. I try to make an honest living. I'm not gonna let people just take it."

Curtis does landscape work and cleans up properties and his yellow Silverado was damaged during the chase which ended at Del Mar and Roberts Streets.

"The gentleman kept ramming my truck trying to get me to stop," he said.

"He hits the rear of the suspect truck," Lt. Joe Gomez of the Fresno Police Department said. "He knocks it into the crashed SUV there and both suspects take off running."

Gomez said one of the suspects has been identified but adds you shouldn't chase someone who has a gun.

"After it all ended I realized I should've probably let them take my trailer," Richardson said. "It wasn't worth my life. I started crying. I was in my boxers. That was it."

Richardson said he was running on adrenalin and it's not the first time that SUV has been damaged. Thieves have broken into it before.

"We actually just got that window fixed twice already," Lopez said. "This will be the third time."