MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A man trying to steal a car in Parkway Village doesn’t get far after the owner caught him in the middle of hotwiring the car.

Saturday night, the Dogwood Trace Apartments were filled with police after a man caught two people trying to steal his gray Dodge Ram pickup truck.

Memphis Police said the victim’s truck was broken into Friday night and that time he caught it on camera. The next day, he caught 21-year-old Lacarlos Effinger in the driver seat hotwiring the car.

The victim said Effinger and another person pointed a gun at him and said something he couldn’t understand due to a language barrier. But Memphis Police heard Effinger loud and clear when he was arrested, telling police “This my truck.”

Effinger was arrested Saturday and released the next day. For some, that points to a bigger problem.

“They need to have stricter rules about when you do a crime like that, especially stealing someone’s property. It’s dangerous out here,” said Joshua Carmichael, who lives in Parkway Village with his son.

Carmichael said criminals are no longer afraid of being caught.

“They don’t care,” he said. “I was just down the street and somebody bust somebody window out in the daytime while I was riding by.”

Just months ago, WREG reported that a car was stolen from the Dogwood Trace Apartments and used in two armed robberies. It’s a pattern Carmichael said he is hoping to keep is son far away from.

“I’m trying to raise my son so he can be respectful, be good to people and just live a good life,” he said.