AKRON, Ohio (WOIO) – An Akron auto wrecking shop took matters into their own hands when they found a criminal inside one of their cars.

When employees at Arlington Auto Wrecking realized a man had broken into one of their vehicles and was still inside, they lifted the car up with their forklift and left him hanging in the air until police arrived. Their antics even had the 911 operating cracking up.

“So, he’s still in the car about 20 feet in the air in the loader,” the employee told 911.

“Wonderful, that is the greatest thing I’ve ever heard,” the 911 operator said with a laugh. “We, we will get somebody out to you.”

Employees at Arlington Auto Wrecking on North Arlington Street in Akron told police they found the man on Tuesday afternoon and decided there was no way they were letting him escape.

“We’re having a lot of trouble here with people stealing stuff and everything and we got a guy that’s passed out or crashed in one of our vehicles in our yard and I got the vehicle picked up with the loader and he’s probably 20 feet in the air now and I refuse to drop this thing to let him out and run,” the employee said. “I mean we’ve just had so much problems here with theft and catalytic converters and just fires and everything.”

Police reports show at least two other incidents this year of people breaking into the business trying to steal catalytic converters and breaking windows out of their vehicles.

“Do you know what he looked like before you raised him up higher?” the 911 operator asked.

“No,” the caller replied. “We opened the door, and he had a mask over his face, and we just raised him back up with the loader.”

When the police arrived, they finally lowered the suspect. Police arrested 26-year-old Alexander Funk for criminal trespassing and possessing criminal tools.

Police said Funk was wearing a backpack that had a sawzall cutting tool, sawzall blades and several other hand tools.

19 News reached out to the company, but we have not heard back yet.

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