Man with cancer, shotgun stops robbery

LAKETON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WOOD) - Two men were arraigned on home invasion charges Friday after being held at gunpoint by the owner of the home they were trying to rob.

Dixon Smith was waiting for the two home invaders this time. They'd been in his Laketon Township house several times already, taking prescription drugs and a couple of thousand dollars-worth of coins a little at a time.

So around noon Thursday, he was waiting -- with a loaded shotgun.

==Watch above: Smith recalls what happened for 24 Hour News 8's Henry Erb.==

Smith ordered the two to lie down and held them at bay with the loaded gun while he called 911 and waited for Muskegon County Sheriff's deputies. No one was injured.

Alex Andrew Dickerson, 26, and James Leon Polk, 27, were charged with first-degree home invasion.

He said he knows Polk who, he said, grew up across the street and had been in his home many times. Smith, 63, said he even took Polk fishing in Florida years ago.

And, he said, he confronted Polk before about stealing.

"We had an incident a year ago," he said. "It turned to heroin."

Smith told 24 Hour News 8 it appears Polk and Dickerson had been coming into his home repeatedly.

Smith, who was diagnosed with cancer six years ago and is in remission from Stage 4 lymphoma , is taking a hopeful approach.

He would like to see the young men get rehab rather than a harsh sentence.

"Something that would straighten him out," he said. "But what are you going to do?"