POST FALLS - By day, Richard Houser works as a public servant in the Kootenai County Assessor's Office.

But on the night of Oct. 25 he served the public in a completely different way after he and his wife, Pam, heard noises coming from outside their bedroom window.

"I looked down and saw three kids breaking into the utility box of my neighbor's rig," Houser said.

Once he determined the noise was not the sound of his neighbor working on the truck, but the sound of foul play, Houser sprang to action while his wife called 911.

Houser approached the truck and immediately the three teenagers took off, one on a bicycle. At first he hesitated because "you just never know" who the suspects are.

"But part of me said, 'Yes,'" Houser said, and that prompted him to pursue the three teenagers on foot.

In the ensuing chase Houser was able to grab one of the youths by the hood of his sweatshirt. When the Post Falls Police Department responded shortly after, they took the teenager Houser had apprehended into custody and began a search for the other two suspects.

Houser told The Press Friday that he too had been the victim of a car robbery, and when he saw the youths attempting to break into the utility box he had to act.

"I just said 'No way, this is not right,'" Houser said. "That's how he makes his living and it's not right."

The neighbor uses the truck in a sprinkler business.

Pam, who works for the Post Falls Chamber of Commerce, preferred to let her husband tell the story of the night's events. But on a status posted on her Facebook page, she recalled the event and added: "Richard Houser can now add crime fighting to his resume."