HOUSTON (June 26, 2012)—A trucker who caught two men burglarizing his parked 18-wheeler in Houston beat one of the burglars to death, police said Tuesday.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office said the trucker, whose name wasn’t immediately released, parked his rig shortly before midnight Monday and later returned with his wife to find the two men burglarizing it.

Deputies said the men fled, but the truck driver gave chase and caught one of them.

The two fought and the burglar tried to hit the trucker with a metal bar, authorities said.

The trucker snatched the metal bar from the man and beat him with it, authorities said.

Deputies say the 60-year-old man was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

The second man fled into the woods and has not been found.