Friday morning stupid: Burglar hides in ex-police chief's yard

So Houstonist doesn't know much about committing a crime, but we do know this: If you're running from the police, you don't want to end up in an ex-police chief's back yard. That's just what happened to a burglary suspect in southwest Houston this afternoon — and yeah, we bet he feels like an idiot.

Police say the guy broke into a house at Spellman and Plainfield, but his burglary was interrupted when the homeowners arrived. So the suspect ran into a nearby back yard that just happened to belong to Johnny Baldwin, a former police chief in Kendleton. Baldwin was armed, and when the suspect made a move for his pocket, Baldwin shot him in the leg.

"I shot him in the leg and when he fell, he turned over. He pulled it out," said Baldwin. "I still have the gun on me. I was scared because I didn't know what he was coming out of his pocket with. It was a cell phone."

Maybe he was going to call the police. A resident of the neighborhood where this all went down told the Chronicle that the area is usually quiet, so yetserday's chase, which involved about a dozen police officers and a police dog, was especially surprising. Police said they'll refer the case to a grand jury.