Following the Ferguson police stand-down order from the Missouri State Highway patrol, frustrated citizens and area shop owners have taken up arms to defend themselves and their businesses from looters.

This is how store owners in #ferguson are responding to looters pic.twitter.com/mktEBo3zJE — Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) August 16, 2014

Store owners now taking matters into their own hands. #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/UDVTc2Plg6 — Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) August 16, 2014

Frantic calls from an unnamed Ferguson shop owner to county police were met with a bureaucratic squabble, and ultimately no response from law enforcement. “There are no police!” the shop owner told local news source Fox2Now.

Captain Johnson from Missouri State police told the complaining caller that his department “had it under control” and claimed that there were police outside the shops. But the business owner said he witnessed looters carrying out goods without any officers in sight.

“We trusted the cops to take care of the situation,” the shop owner told the station in an interview. “That’s what they said, they gonna keep it peaceful. They didn’t do their job.”

Civilians fear for their lives as they walk into their ransacked business and catch looters in the act. Without knowing if the thieves are armed, shop owners feel they must protect themselves and their assets by carrying firearms. “It’s supposed to be the ‘land of the free’ but I don’t feel free carrying (this),” the store owner told Fox2Now.

This Store owner with his gun out standing guard. His store was hit the hardest. #ferguson pic.twitter.com/6Zn2euUp5R — Shimon Prokupecz (@ShimonPro) August 16, 2014