Two hostages are safe Monday after three men held them captive in their Alamo home.
Alamo Police received a call between 4:30 and 5:00 Monday morning from a man claiming he escaped a hostage situation in an Alamo home on the 400 block of Oakwood Drive and that the three men inside had another man held captive.
Alamo Police were soon able to rescue the second hostage through a window.
"We found one of them with masking tape,” Alamo Police Chief Arturo Espinosa said.
But police were more patient trying to get their captors to surrender.
"We have to plan for the entry and that takes time,” Espinosa said.
With the help of the regional swat team out of San Juan, the three men inside were taken into police custody.
"One of them came out, one of them stayed inside, and one of them jumped out through the back and was caught,” San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez said.
Neighbor Wilbur Guthrie saw it all happen through his window across the street.
"The police were all over there. Some had guns,” Guthrie said. “I heard a guy on a bullhorn that said ‘come out with your hands up,’ so they must have been ready to come out because I saw one guy come out and go over the fence. He jumped over but he jumped right into the hands of the police."
Guthrie didn't know his neighbors, but said they moved in about six months ago and fixed up the place.
"There were people working on that house and people working on that fence. I thought 'boy what are they building such a fence like that for? They must no want anyone to see in,'" Guthrie said.
Guthrie says in the 30 years he has lived on Oakwood Drive it's not the first time the police have made a visit, but he says he's prepared for anything.
"By my bed is a 12 gauge pop shot gun and in the closet is a rifle that shoots until it runs out of bullets. So I’m not nervous or worried about them coming in the house,” Guthrie said. "Anytime the police come on the street and haul a crook away I’m happy.”
"They're criminals and we go out there and they are going to be treated as criminals,” Gonzalez said.
The men will be arraigned in court and formally charged Tuesday.
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