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Grandpa ends police standoff by throwing suspect off the roof

LA PUENTE, Calif (KXAN) – A burglary suspect kept police at bay on the roof of a southern California home for nearly five hours before an 83-year-old man climbed up and pushed the suspect off.

Willard Burgess was at home when the ordeal began. And after a while, he was able to do what deputies and a crisis negotiator weren’t: get the suspect off the roof.

“I’d made up my mind. I said, ‘He’s on my roof? Whatever it takes, he’s coming off,’ ” Wilford Burgess told KABC-TV after the incident.

Burgess grabbed a neighbor’s ladder and climbed to the top of his single story home. He lectured the suspect before grabbing him. The two tussled for a bit before Burgess pushed the burglary suspect off the roof.

The suspect was taken to the hospital.