When a car thief attempted to steal a pickup truck, one 9-year-old boy took matters into his own hands. The truck belonged to the boy’s father, and he wasn’t going to let it go without a fight. He was in the truck at the time, and armed with a pellet gun which he pointed at the would-be thief’s head. It did the trick. The thief left the truck, but that’s just the start of the story.

The incident took place at the One Stop Express in Kokomo, Indiana.

“Kevin Cooksey and Kyle Sparling stopped by the One Stop as strangers for different reason[s],” the local NBC affiliate reports. “Cooksey needed ibuprofen for his wife and Sparling wanted Doritos. They didn’t know they’d end up leaving together and chasing after someone they say tried to steal both their cars.”

“When I saw my truck door open, I was like, ‘oh my God, what am I going to tell my wife?’” said Cooksey.

Cooksey’s 9-year-old son, Larry Larimore, was the boy in the truck with the pellet gun.

“I was thinking, I hope my son knew what to do in that situation,” said Cooksey.

“As soon as he opened the door, I got scared,” said the young Larimore. “So I pulled out the pellet gun and pointed it to his head.”

The thief was scared, and ran to Sparling’s black Trail Blazer. It was parked in the next spot and also had its engine running (which isn’t atypical in Indiana in winter).

“I didn’t know what to think, I just kind of ran outside and watched him,” said Sparling.

“I wanted to go catch the guy,” said Cooksey. “It’s just one of those instincts to help out somebody else.”

Cooksey told Sparling to hop in, and the pair followed the thief.

“Right up here by this church, he got up on the sidewalk over here and got back on the road,” said Cooksey. “At this point, we were doing about 70 miles per hour.”

“It was doing donuts, zig zags, almost flipped,” said Larimore.

“I was just glad he didn’t wreck into anybody,” said Sparling. “That was my biggest fear, I think.”

“I thought he was going to come back at me,” said Cooksey. “I thought I was going to have to dodge a moving car with my 9 year old son in the truck.”

The story has a happy ending. The police caught up with the chase and the thief wrecked without injuring any bystanders. The Trail Blazer, though…. Not such a happy ending.