TROY, Mich. – A worker at a Troy auto shop armed himself with a pipe and came face-to-face with an “erratic” intruder wielding a pry bar, police said.
An employee of the shop, which is in the 1400 block of Axtell Drive, said he was working overnight when he hear someone banging on a door around 6 a.m. Sunday.
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When he tried to lock the doors, a 33-year-old man walked into the business, according to authorities.
The employee was afraid for his safety because the man was showing “erratic behavior,” police said. The employee armed himself with a pipe, officials said.
The intruder advanced on the employee, so the employee struck him in the head and knees with the pipe, authorities said. He told officers he was trying to get the intruder to back off.
Instead, the intruder grabbed a pry bar and struck the employee in the arm, according to police.
The employee said he ran out of the business, yelling for someone to call police. He was chased across a parking lot and onto Maple Road, officials said.
Witnesses called police. Officers found the employee still running from the intruder in a parking lot on the southeast corner of Coolidge Highway and East Maple Road.
Police commanded the intruder to drop the pry bar, and he eventually did so, authorities said.
Officers said the man made several unintelligible comments about people breaking into cars. They learned he had driven from his home in Clarkston and stopped at a gym at the corner of Coolidge Highway and East Maple Road. He told police he ended up at the body shop because he was following someone who was breaking into cars, officials said.
He was taken to Royal Oak Beaumont Hospital and was uncooperative with paramedics and hospital workers, police said.
The cause of his erratic behavior is currently unknown, officials said.
Police are still investigating the incident. Criminal charges are pending.