Two men have been charged with residential burglary and theft of property after being spotted by a homeowner who saw the men taking items from his house while he was flying as a first-time passenger in a 1957 Cessna 172. The flight was daytime VFR out and back from Arkansas to Memphis. On the return portion of the trip, passenger Steven Lynn asked his friend, pilot David Hudson, if they could fly over Lynn’s house so that he could see it from the airplane. They found the house and saw what appeared to be two men taking things from the home and loading them in a vehicle. Lynn took action.
Homeowner Steven Lynn, while still airborne, first called his uncle (presumably via cellphone) and told him to stop by the house and see what was going on. When the uncle arrived, the men took off. It appears Lynn then called 911 from the aircraft, reported the burglary, tracked the vehicle, and fed on-the-ground law enforcement with the turn-by-turn movements of the suspects. Soon thereafter, the two male suspects were stopped and apprehended by a state trooper. Lynn told local news station KAIT that “when we saw the cops pull up it was just pure excitement.” As for his first-time flight, Lynn said, “It was awesome … I was enjoying it until that happened.” As for next time, “I’ll be nervous until I see there’s nobody there.”
