From West Central Tribune

Kenneth Englund, 74, was armed with a shotgun on Oct. 15 when he confronted Christian Harris Smith and a woman at a vacant farm near Englund's home as Smith was taking gasoline from a vehicle.

Englund chased down the thieves and called the police. Smith was captured and admitted to guilt in court. Sounds like a pretty cut and dried case, right? Think again. From the first paragraph:

A retired farmer who was charged with felony assault for wielding a shotgun near a gasoline thief got support from the thief as he pleaded guilty to stealing gas and a car radiator.

You read that right. For protecting property, the man was charged with felony assault! Now, the charges have been reduced, but that fact that Englund is  or has been charged at all is a crime in and of itself. Englund's community has been very supportive of him, but the most surprising support comes from the thief himself!

Smith, 28, was sentenced to 90 days in jail last week by Isanti County District Judge James Dehn. As Smith entered his guilty plea, he spoke out in support of Englund.

"I don't think he should be held responsible for, you know, anything involving any of these issues," Smith said. "I committed a crime and, you know, he did what he probably thought was right to ... resolve the situation."

I agree with JR over at A Keyboard and a .45 (who gets the hat tip by the way) when he states that Smith has more integrity than CNN who leads the story with this BS headline.

Gas thief defends shotgun-toting vigilante

No, there's no bias there. I'm surprised the headline didn't read Innocent fuel deprived victim threatened by crazed cowboy nut with assault weapon.