CYPRESS, Texas – Authorities are searching for two men who they said fired shots at a Cypress man Friday when he caught them stealing wheels from his neighbor’s property.
The incident was reported about 5:30 a.m. at a home on Cobblestone Drive in the Cypress Mill neighborhood.
“I am feeling shook I think that’s the best word I can come up with,” Michelle Phillips said.
Michelle Phillips is still trying to process what happened early this morning.
“I wasn’t really sleeping and so I heard like a buzzing sound,” she said.
Moments later, Michelle heard gunfire.
“They were just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang and so at that time becoming concerned of my 14-year-old who’s in the house I got up and was like what’s going on,” she said.
Michelle went outside and her neighbor showed her what happened. Her neighbor’s ring camera captured what happens next.
According to the Harris County Precinct 4 Constable’s Office, the man was investigating a motion alert from his security system when he encountered two people stealing his neighbor’s wheels.
In a video released by investigators, the homeowner can be heard asking someone off-camera what they are doing. Someone responds that they are leaving.
“You’re getting in your car right now?” asked the homeowner, who appears to be armed himself. “I suggest you do that.”
After a few seconds, shots are fired at the homeowner, who falls to the ground to escape the bullets. He runs inside and tells someone to “call the cops.”
The thieves took all of the lug nuts off the truck. They stole a tire and the axels on bricks. They almost got away with another wheel.
“They came prepared this wasn’t like a health hazard oh spontaneous they came prepared,” Phillips said.
Michelle says if it wasn’t for her neighbor things could have been a lot worse.
“I can’t thank him enough. I thanked him so many times last night,” she said.
Shortly after that, a white SUV can be seen speeding away from the scene.
Investigators described that vehicle as a late-model Chevrolet Equinox.
The pair involved in the shooting was last seen wearing black short-sleeve shirts and black pants.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Precinct 4 Constable’s Office at 281-376-3472.