Florida husband, wife fight man accused of trying to steal from their vehicle, police say
TITUSVILLE, Fla. - A Central Florida man was arrested for allegedly trying to steal from a vehicle Sunday night, but not before getting into a fight with a local couple, police said.
According to an arrest report, a police officer responded to the area of Oriole Court and Barna Avenue in Titusville shortly after 11 p.m. for a vehicle burglary and found a man pinning the suspect, identified as 20-year-old Nicholas Debets, to the ground with a woman standing nearby. All three of them were "bloody and appeared to be out of breath," the report stated.
The Titusville police officer spoke with the married couple involved who owned the vehicle. According to the report, the wife, Faith Pumroy was looking out of the window when she noticed the dome light in her vehicle was on. She saw Debets inside it looking around trying to steal from her, so she tried to trap him in the vehicle, police said.
"He hit me, so we ended up fighting, and his head ends up here because he tried to get away, and it was like (honk). It just kept beeping a lot," said Pumroy. "I looked and I seen the truck was rocking, and the horn was honking, she was pushing his head into the horn, actually."
Debets reportedly told police the woman allegedly attacked him while inside the vehicle, and he defended himself.
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The woman was able to honk the horn and scream for help, alerting her husband to come outside, the report stated. Police said the husband saw Debets attacking his wife, so he stepped in to protect her. The husband was reportedly chasing Debets from the driveway when Debets turned around and attempted to fight the man, according to police.
"I tackled him in the street right here. That’s when he got the big thing on his head hit the street. We started fighting,"said Steve Pumroy.
"He got up like a little squirrel started fighting my husband again, and so I had give him a couple of body shots. So I just grabbed his feet from up under him and the cops drove from around the corner," said Faith Pumroy.
The two went to the ground where the husband pinned Debets until police arrived.
All three of them had visible injuries from the incident. Police said the wife had a possible broken nose, the husband had several scrapes and bruises from the fight and Debets had a large lump on his forehead approximately the diameter of a tennis ball.
Authorities said Debets confessed to looking for something to steal while on his way home and had no ideal item in mind. He allegedly told police that he approached their home and pulled on the vehicle's door handle which happened to be unlocked.
Following a visit to the hospital for his injuries, Debets was booked into the Brevard County Jail on several charges including burglary of a vehicle and aggravated battery.
Law enforcement officers advise people not to resort to violence, when dealing with a dangerous person, because they could have a weapon. But Steve says, "We don’t want to be victims over here. I refuse to let them get away with it."