In my book, this guy is one HELL of an upstanding citizen.

A regular guy sees some creep following three teenage girls walking along the street. The creep is driving his car, pulling up close to them - driving on the wrong side of the road even.

A concerned stranger stops him and confronts him until police pick him up. Was there a cause for concern? Well, here’s what they found in the bastard’s car:

Police said they found three knives, a hammer and an unusual homemade weapon in Dann’s car.

“It was a head of a hammer with no handle and a wire wrapped around it,” Lt. David Terlemezian said. “No one I spoke with can come up with a legitimate use for something like that.”

Hell yeah. So here we go with the usual “We’re The Police” bit:

Officials said they’re still investigating what Dann was doing, and they don’t encourage people to get involved as directly as Smith was.

“The message is, be an observer, not a participant, to the extent you can,” Terlemezian said.

I know a few Officers. They’re all good people. While there’s a reason for that message, I think it’s misguided. A community that has people like Troy Smith (the guy who stopped said creep) is a community that can trust their neighbors and take care of themselves. If I lived there I’d have that man and his family over for a feast regardless of whether it was my kids he was protecting. Too many times people sit back and watch when they should act. This could’ve been a story about an abduction or a rape. Six months from now we could hear about them dredging up the bottom of some backwoods lake looking for some 16 year-old girls remains. We don’t know what happened because someone had awareness and a set of balls.

Here ya go:

But Smith said he believes he did the right thing.

“If it was my children — I have a son and two daughters — I would want them to do the same thing,” he said.

The three girls were unharmed. They were interviewed by police and released to their parents.

There’s a stand-up guy right there. Always good to hear a great story like this.