Burglar gets beaten, thrown off balcony in Federal Way

FEDERAL WAY -- A burglar got more than he bargained for Monday morning when he broke into a Federal Way apartment.

That's because one of the residents, a 20-year-old boxer named Colton Vaughn, didn't take kindly to the crime and beat the burglar before throwing him off a third-story balcony.

Vaughn said he woke up early Monday morning to get a glass of water in the kitchen of the two-bedroom apartment he shares with his brother, Kirk, and his wife, Alexandria.

It didn't take long for him to realize that something was wrong.

"I started to drink it, and it was really, really cold inside, and I was like, 'why is it so cold?' And I felt a cold breeze coming from the sliding glass door," he said.

Just then, he looked over and saw a man wearing a ski mask and gloves coming at him.

"I knew immediately that he was here either to harm me or to steal our stuff," Vaughn said.

Had the burglar known what was in store for him, he likely would have turned around and left.

Vaughn said as the burglar approached him, he decided it would be a good time to put his seven years of boxing skills to use.

"So I started hitting him," he said. "I hit him about six or seven time. I was yelling, 'Kirk! There's somebody in the house.'"

Moments later, Kirk came rushing out of his bedroom, ready to back up his brother.

"And I came running out with my pistol," Kirk said. "(As) soon as I came out here I was right here with my gun, had the hammer cocked back."

But by the time Kirk made made it to the living room, the burglar had assessed the situation and made a beeline for the sliding glass door to escape.

With his adrenaline pumping, Vaughn gave him a lift.

"I grabbed him by the collar and the back of his belt, I threw him right over the balcony," he said. "He put off a little bit of a scream and when he hit the ground is when he made a loud thud and was like, 'ughh' really really loud."

After the encounter, the brothers ran downstairs to find the burglar, but he was already gone.

Police tried to pick up the man's scent using a K9 unit, but didn't have much success.