KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Using home surveillance video equipment, a Kansas City man catches would be thieves breaking into his home while he was there working.

“I was just working from home, talking on the telephone because I’ve been battling poison ivy since the weekend, and, the next thing I knew I told a co-worker to hold on because I heard the doorbell ring and then I heard two loud bangs,” said 31-year-old Nathan Engert of Kansas City.

Within moments, Engert dashed out of his office and suddenly had a brief encounter with not one, but three strangers.

“I run down the hallway and see these guys come inside my house.  I have the confidence that I could take them. There was no physical threat, but it was just awful because they were inside my home and it felt like they violated me,” said Engert, who’s also a 6’2”, 200 pound, trained martial artist.

“I wasn’t afraid. I was mainly just startled and just wanted to protect my home,” said Nathan, who lives near 83rd and McGee in Kansas City.

Police say the young burglars kicked Engert’s front door off its hinges and once inside, one of the guys quickly looked around the home while another tried to steal Engert’s flat-screen TV from living room wall.

However, the young crooks had no idea that Nathan’s nearby surveillance camera caught the entire crime on camera.

“My home got broken into about a year ago. I never thought this would happen again, but yes it did.  The minute I raced down my hallway, one of those kids screamed and then all three ran real fast out of my house,” said Engert.

Investigators are now reviewing the video they call “decent” in hopes of trying to catch the three teenagers who once outside, hopped in a waiting maroon, getaway car.

“I know it sounds a little weird, but thankfully I have poison ivy and that I was home, otherwise, I wouldn’t have been here Tuesday morning around 11 a.m. when they broke into my home. They could’ve gotten away with everything,” added a relieved Nathan Engert.