An American couple turned the tables on a burglar they caught ransacking their home by dispensing their own summary justice.

Without waiting for the law to arrive, the pair doled out their own punishment to the surprised criminal - they made him clean up the house at gunpoint!

The unlucky burglar was caught red-handed when Adrian and Tiffany McKinnon returned to their house near Montgomery, Alabama, after a week away.

To their dismay they discovered their home had been plundered.
"Tears just rolled down my face as I walked in and saw everything gone and piles of trash all over my home," Mrs. McKinnon told her local newspaper the Montgomery Advertiser.

When her husband walked into another room to check what was missing he came face to face with the burglar, who was wearing one of Mr. McKinnon's hats.

"My husband Adrian caught the thief red-handed in our home. And what is even crazier, the man even had my husband's hat sitting right on his head," Mrs. McKinnon said.

Mr. McKinnon held suspect Tajuan Bullock at gunpoint and made him sit down until he decided what to do.

"We made this man clean up all the mess he made, piles of stuff, he had thrown out of my drawers and cabinets onto the floor," Mrs. McKinnon said.

When the police arrived the work-shy burglar had the cheek to complain to them - about having to clean up his mess at gunpoint.

"This man had the nerve to raise sand about us making him clean up the mess he made in my house," said Mrs McKinnon.

But the police officer laughed at Bullock when he complained and told him that anybody else would have shot him dead.

Bullock was arrested on burglary and theft charges and was held in Montgomery County Detention Facility.

A police spokesman said the victims were lucky to be able to catch the suspect in the act and hold him until police arrived. It was an unusual case because usually burglars struck while the homeowner was away and were in and out fast so they could quickly sell the stolen items, the spokesman added.

- Oct , 2007