KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A burglar who walked into a Kansas City home and pointed a gun at the people who live there got the surprise of his life from the father who was inside.
“I hopped up and grabbed it and just threw it like that at him and chased him out,” said John Sullivan, as he re-enacted what happened when he hurled his 30-pound, 50-inch flat screen TV across his living room.
“I didn`t even feel the weight,” he said. “It was like a piece of paper. It just flew across the room at the guy.”
That “guy” was a burglar who walked right through Sullivan’s unlocked front door and pointed a gun at him.
“I just jumped up,” Sullivan said. “I wasn't thinking, just threw the TV at him, and charged right at him, screaming as loud as I can. So it was all instinct.”
It was the instinct to protect his family as his wife sat just feet away from him in the living room, and his four little boys, ages 3 to 10, were tucked into their beds upstairs.
“They mean the world to me,” he said, “and all I could think about was protecting them the whole time and to just get that guy out of the house.”
Thankfully, Sullivan’s defense tactics worked. He scared off the burglar and his lookout and both ran down the driveway to their getaway car.
“Just the invasion of property, you know?” Sullivan said of the most upsetting part. “They walked up, and threatened my family with a gun in my own living room. It`s troubling.”
It was a scary scenario Sullivan knows could've ended badly, but actions he wouldn't change – saying he would've taken a bullet if it meant keeping safe what means the most.
“Everything was on the line,” Sullivan said. “My whole family. So I had to do what I had to do to protect them.”
Sullivan said those same burglars targeted another house in his neighborhood and possibly a house in Raytown, Mo., that same night. But police have yet to make an arrest.
Sullivan said the burglars were black men in their 20s. The one toting the gun was heavier-set, wearing a navy blue jacket, and a red and black Chiefs hat.
He said the lookout was a taller man, wearing a navy shirt and blue jeans. While the getaway car was a black older model 4-door Sedan.
If you know anything, call Crime Stoppers at (816) 474-TIPS.
