Florida Shop Owner Allegedly Tortures Would-Be Burglars While Holding Them At Gunpoint

Authors Current Events Defensive Use of Firearms S.H. Blannelberry This Week
(Photo:

(Photo: WFTV)

Two would-be burglars are accusing a bicycle shop owner and two others of torturing the suspects after their heist was foiled by the armed store owner, reports WFTV.

Jose Gonzalez, 27, and Michael Eller, 28, told Orange County deputies that after they broke into a bike shop early Sunday morning they were confronted by Robert Antley, the owner of the store.

Antley held the men at gunpoint.  Apparently, he was anticipating a possible break-in as he had slept at the shop that night.  His store had been burglarized several times in the past.  However, this time he wasn’t going to let the crooks get away scot-free.

Instead of calling 911 to report the break-in, Antley allegedly made the two men strip down to their underwear and face a wall. He reportedly jabbed the gun into the suspects’ sides and threatened to kill them. Then, he beat the men for over an hour, according to the police report.

After an hour, Antley’s brother Joshua showed up along with his girlfriend Kathryn Pellicio.

Instead of calling the police, the group led Eller and Gonzalez into a bathroom in the back of the store where the two burglars were tortured, once again, for an hour.

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(Photo: WFTV)

Antley told deputies that he would have called the police sooner but his cellphone died and the burglars had cut the wires for the phone at the shop.

Antley also said that he called 911 when his brother arrived, but police said they were not able to verify his version of the events.

WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer addressed the situation, noting that Antley had a right to defend his property but indicated that torturing goes beyond what one would consider reasonable use of force.

“You are allowed to engage in conduct that is reasonable, necessary and lawful to protect yourself or your property, but one may argue that these efforts were neither reasonable nor lawful,” Sheaffer said.

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  • Tollroad August 9, 2019, 11:40 pm

    If th lefts get to adopt their new “Era of Irresponsibility”…. th US will sink into th putrid regression (literally) of th coastal cities that are now serious health risk areas… we may very well be headed to a civil war to return to some semblance of sanity….

  • Jonny5 December 3, 2018, 6:29 pm

    His big mistake? Letting them live. No-one knew they were there. Suffocate them and then dump the bodies. Torch generously with gasoline to destroy DNA. Job done.

  • Robert Dowell November 8, 2018, 8:48 am

    A girl I dated until recently is related to one of the thugs. She had ABSOLUTELY nothing good to say about him. Too bad it’s an old story I’d love to hear the outcome. And……it’s too bad when you catch someone you CANNOT make them resolve to NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.

  • William Zipkin November 7, 2018, 1:09 pm

    Tortured for only an hour ??? That’s not Justice!

  • Brigit November 7, 2018, 10:55 am

    No blowtorch or pliers
    No bamboo splinters or whips

    Don’t sound like torture to me.

  • AJ November 6, 2018, 11:02 am

    Why does the fucked up shit seem to happen in FL?

    This is honestly hilarious though.

    • William Zipkin November 7, 2018, 1:06 pm

      Here in the sunshine state call it FLORI-DUH !!

  • Bruce Lloyd October 3, 2018, 8:18 pm

    I know all the liberals love these guys. I wonder if they would think that way if faced with those two scumbags, at night in there place of business. I would have liked to be alive at the time of the Inquisition when those guys tried to invade my home. Let me count the ways. To quote EBB. The law will not teach them, prison will not teach them. Maybe the victims will teach them. God bless America (of the 20’s) Witchmeadowdoc.

  • Gary September 21, 2018, 7:29 pm

    I work hard for what I have, any scumbag thug comes into my house expecting to be able to just walk out with anything…..ha. I guarantee that they won’t be walking out with anything, much less walking out at all…
    They’ll never walk again…..if they live.

  • Ransom September 21, 2018, 4:31 am

    Very simple. As a criminal you make a conscious decision that your victims rights don’t matter…. ….Then neither do yours. It’s your decision.

    • Chuck September 21, 2018, 7:42 am

      Exactly!

    • William Zipkin November 7, 2018, 1:10 pm

      Well Put !

  • Aloyisus Fornortener September 21, 2018, 4:06 am

    We enjoyed throwing an occasional VC or NVA dirt bag out of the Huey once in a while. The wide eyed response of the friends of the skydivers would prompt an immediate response from those with their legs dangling out of the door……. of what we wanted to know. This wonderfully cruel and unusual punishment saved our soldiers, sailors, Marines lives. Too bad the bike shop owners did not have access to “elevated punishment techniques”. These two could and would have been dropped off deep into some swamp area in central Florida…never to be found…except as a pile of alligator crap few days later.

    • Willy February 8, 2019, 6:08 am

      You are proud of that huh? You would still do it to someone if you could, huh? You have a serious mental problem mister.

  • Max Hoyle March 18, 2017, 12:53 pm

    Good show!!! this needs to happen more often!

  • rick March 8, 2017, 10:47 am

    They made one small mistake, as a ex police officer, dead men tell no tails! Rid the world of useless disrespectful trash.

  • Rick November 5, 2016, 8:37 am

    LOVE IT…….but we all know that they will sue and win, only in America

  • vinny November 1, 2016, 5:03 pm

    I think the store owner did fine. If these bastards don’t like being tortured, dont commit crimes.

    • mtman2 September 23, 2018, 3:31 am

      Yeah- like what would they done to him had they got the drop 1st-?

  • FWiedner November 1, 2016, 8:36 am

    If the whiney losers are still able to whine about whatever they were subjected to while in private custody, their captor did whatever it was wrong.

  • Davi October 31, 2016, 11:13 am

    Take them to the back room, pull out the garrote, and apply it slowly.

  • The Dark Ranger October 30, 2016, 2:09 pm

    ===============O get a rope..He had the right to shoot the pinheads!

    • onefeather October 31, 2016, 8:09 am

      Agree.

  • Allen Williams October 28, 2016, 5:35 pm

    I commend the store owner for doing what he did. Want to do the crime, suffer the consequences.. If you hadn’t tried to rob the store and set the owner up, you wouldn’t be where you are. If more people would do this, at what the store owner did, there would be a lot less crime.

    • Chuck October 29, 2016, 10:41 am

      I too have no problem with the store owner’s actions. You know the system will not punish the perps.

  • cisco kid October 28, 2016, 3:16 pm

    Naturally on a forum like this first you hear racist comments (we do not know the background of these men as to whether they were citizens or not and that should not matter anyway) and then comments like “torture is great fun” and people have no civil rights. True, these dirt bags committed a crime but we should not let our country disintegrate to the level of a 3rd world country where there are no laws against anything and right wing fanatics commit murder because they want to bypass the laws and the courts. I for one do not want to live in another “Hitler’s Germany” where its ok to murder anyone that is not racially correct (according to Nazi’s) or does not tow the right wing party line. We have laws, we have courts and we must use them or in the end everyone will lose all of their rights, even the right wing Nazi’s themselves.

    • BJG October 28, 2016, 4:03 pm

      Get off the race kick, you some sort of liberal clinton supporter? Asking if their US citizens isn’t racist. .

    • Mark October 28, 2016, 6:40 pm

      I don’t want to live in a free society that allows one party to pay criminals to commit violence at the other party’s rallies so that a dishonest news media can spread false narratives and influence an election…but unfortunately I do live in that country. For some liberals and Democrats this behavior is ok therefore violence is ok as long as it’s not directed at them. Lovely!

      • mtman2 September 23, 2018, 3:34 am

        Why else would be the reason to disarm us other then toletarian control- sure ain’t for our safety…

    • Froghill October 29, 2016, 2:14 pm

      Cisco Kid
      How do you equate this story with living in a 3rd world country? I have never seen someone leap as far as you did in your post.
      I worked for everything I have. If people want the same things then let them work hours of overtime, scrimp and save until they can get the things that they want and if they want to take other people’s property that these people worked for then fine but let the lazy and criminal of this country understand that every action has consequences, good or bad every action does have consequences.

      These guys and criminals like them should catch a beating when caught stealing. It’s a good thing these guys didn’t break in and steal from a muslim business in Iraq or, well yeh comparing this case to turning into a totally lawless 3rd world country is disingenuous and a lazy analogy/comparison

    • FWiedner November 1, 2016, 8:39 am

      Generally speaking, I believe that bleeding hearts that coddle scumbag criminals don’t deserve either the respect or the protection afforded by better men.

  • BJG October 28, 2016, 2:22 pm

    Could have taken a hand and an eye, they should thank God their still alive.
    Who gives a damn about the these low lives . Are they even US citizens.

    • onefeather October 31, 2016, 8:10 am

      Well said.

  • dAVE October 28, 2016, 11:51 am

    By the time this is all over,
    He’ll wish he would have just shot them.

  • Rob P October 28, 2016, 10:01 am

    Predictions: #1 – The two knuckle-heads will be charged with breaking and entering. The public defender will plea it down to a lesser charge like trespassing, and these two thugs will walk. #2 – The “Torture Trio” will be charged with something crazy like “kidnapping” which will eventually be reduced to aggravated assault. They might even have to do some time. #3 – In the mean time, the two thugs go straight to some left wing, dirt-bag lawyer and claim their civil rights have been violated. They will bring a civil suit against the shop owner for several million dollars. They’ll eventually be awarded much less than that, but still enough to make the shop owner wish he had just shot and killed them in the first place. #4 – The shop owner and his business go bankrupt paying defense attorney fees and fines. #5 – The two recidivistic thugs are arrested again for burglary within a year. The alternate story goes like this: “BANG”! “BANG”! — The End

    • Jerry S. October 28, 2016, 11:25 am

      You have just described the Clinton Crime Syndicate’s approach to our justice system, so vote against her, at all costs.

      • Z October 28, 2016, 3:11 pm

        I greatly dislike HRC but how the hell are you conflating the office of the President with the justice system? It’s President of the United States not King of America.

        • timothyf7 October 28, 2016, 5:18 pm

          Are you not aware that Bill Clinton met with AG Loretta Lynch privately on a plane, while his wife was being investigated. And Comey, the FBI Director, being a friend, former business associate and former member of the #5 Corporate donor to the Clinton Foundation, finds no chargeable offenses Last time I looked, the AG and FBI director are a major cog in the Judicial System in the United States of America. Would you have been given the same opportunity that Hillary was granted? Without these two instances, she would have faced charges in our Judicial System.

  • KurtW October 28, 2016, 9:58 am

    Except for the INTENDED victim being charged, all I could think of was “AWESOME!!!”,
    Note to everyone else in the future – finish them off when you’re done. At this point in our “protect the criminal” society, I have absolutely no problem with whatever the intended victim of a robbery or attack does to a caught predator.

  • Greg October 28, 2016, 9:56 am

    WHAT??? 2 hours of torture and these 2 thugs still have all their fingers and their nuts? Ahhhhh, these millennial’s are way too soft on crime. Lol

    • BJ October 28, 2016, 1:25 pm

      Beautiful. lol

    • Ransom September 21, 2018, 4:37 am

      You can’t take their fingers as that’s a guarantee they’ll be on public assistance forever. But definitely take their ability to procreate and create more little scumbags.

  • Ken Sawyer October 28, 2016, 9:48 am

    Yeh I know all about moderation and you peckerheads who take over people’s computer who do not want you.

    • NOVA October 28, 2016, 7:14 pm

      Were you drunk when you wrote this? Sit down, take a breath and try to formulate a reasonable response to whatever issue you seem to be whining about.

    • Robert October 29, 2016, 1:41 am

      That’s not even an intelligible sentence. What could you possibly be trying to say?

  • Ken Sawyer October 28, 2016, 9:46 am

    It seems it would be as easy to stop sending this crap as it was to send it.

  • Frank Opiela, Jr October 28, 2016, 9:36 am

    These low life thugs should have been shot and saved taxpayers money, they are lucky that is all that happened to them. These thugs will probably be out on the street soon and the store owner will still be locked up, this is how pathetic our country has become.

  • Harry Sr October 28, 2016, 9:33 am

    Too bad they did away with the public stockades, everyone could have had a shot at them and these idiots could have joined the rest of the scumbag dope dealing trash who have passed on.

  • J. Wilkey October 28, 2016, 8:52 am

    I sure don’t see 2 hours of torture or beating on the two criminals. Detained for hours and scared straight, maybe?

  • Allen Lawson October 28, 2016, 8:49 am

    The bad guys were stopped .what happens to them is their fault . I would bet about 97% of Americans feel the same .if you don’t put a sign in your yard that says gun free zone. Chances are you will have a better attitude soon .

  • ROBERT PAGAN October 28, 2016, 7:55 am

    Jerks are lucky to be alive. Of course they will serve 6 months for breaking and entering and the store owner will lose his business, have to pay restitution ($$$$), and spend 2 years in prison for cruelty/torturing beyond reasonable use of force. Our country is about to go through a radical change for the worse.

    • Mister Ronald October 28, 2016, 8:40 am

      These Criminals got way less then they deserved.
      The store owner should get some sort of award for teaching these thugs that “CRIME DOES NOT PAY”
      Home invaders, Burglars, Car Jackers all need to be put to death or at least LIFE IN PRISON.
      They are not fit to be in society at all. “””EVER”””

  • Cyrus October 28, 2016, 7:28 am

    Did you take a good look at the Torturers? They look about 5 minutes away from a Horrific Group Crime themselves!

    • Veritas October 28, 2016, 9:55 am

      Really not nice to speak about your relatives in such a fashion.

  • Mike October 28, 2016, 7:21 am

    “Bring out… The Gimp”.

    • jim October 28, 2016, 8:21 am

      ROFL and L and L!

    • Dan October 28, 2016, 9:03 am

      LOL!!!

    • Ed October 28, 2016, 9:38 am

      What a couple of sad sacks!!! They are lucky the owner didn’t just shoot them. And as someone else said, I see no signs of torture, I imagine they wouldn’t hesitate to torture the owner to get what they wanted….

  • Dustin Eward October 28, 2016, 3:44 am

    …just kill them and be done with it. Sprinkle some crowbars on them…

  • Grant October 28, 2016, 3:16 am

    Give the shop owner the keys to the city and a reward . he might have detoured these Thugs from robbing other innocent citizens.

  • Ace McGurk October 26, 2016, 10:10 am

    The locked door of the bicycle store was to protect the burglars outside. LOL Their mistake was opening it.

  • Tom Horn October 25, 2016, 6:25 pm

    Think the bicycle shop owner watched a little too, much, Pulp Fiction. I suspect the new name of the shop will be, Gonzales & Eller Bike Shop, when their lawyer get through with the owner and his companions.

    What mpr said (see below).

  • mpr October 25, 2016, 3:24 pm

    I know this sounds cruel, but it would have been easier and perfectly legal if he shot them when he confronted them,…. only one story to tell… they should thank him for showing mercy…. but that will never happen.

  • TommyT October 25, 2016, 12:04 pm

    They didn’t kill or castrate either one of the thieves, so I guess it’s just a case of “he said, he said.” The two were in the shop illegally; so, they should be prosecuted. The owner(s), insufficient evidence…

  • SuperG October 25, 2016, 11:58 am

    Hypothetically, once these drug addicts get out on the street and start relating their saga to their peers, more and more will not target that store.
    I think it’s a lot like not going into a backyard where you know they have a dog, as the cost may be too high.

  • David Siedel October 24, 2016, 8:22 pm

    I would of demanded they rape each other.
    What a pitiful country the USA has become.

    • Franks57 October 28, 2016, 11:45 pm

      You got that right, the store owner should have made those 2 pathetic thugs rape each other & then cut there nuts off & let them bleed to death, that way we would have 2 less thugs back on the streets, because nothing will happen to them & the store owner will probably end up getting sued & losing his business. Criminals, thugs & dope dealers have more rights than the honest working class citizens of this country. This is how pathetic this country has become.

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