Garrett Loftin was just trying to do his job when he says someone shot at him.

Loftin works for Enerco, a company sub-contracted by Duke Energy. Loftin inspects power poles. He told Rowan County Sheriff’s deputies that Wednesday afternoon, he was at work inspecting poles in the 100 block of Buccaneer Circle when he heard two shots fired nearby.

Loftin said he could hear the pellets falling in the trees around him.

He looked around and saw two men standing on the porch of a house about 10 yards back from the road, and told deputies that one of them, Caleb Loudon Spencer Heffner, 18, was holding a black Mossberg shotgun.

Fearing for his safety, Loftin ran back to his truck. There, he says he was approached by the other man, identified as Zachary Honeycutt. According to the report, Honeycutt went to the window of Loftin’s truck and asked him what he was “doing down there.” Loftin told him he was just doing his job. Then he asked why Heffner shot at him.

“That’s how we do things,” Honeycutt reportedly told him.

Loftin told deputies he was so afraid that he drove off. As he left Buccaneer Circle, he reported that he saw Heffner and Honeycutt get into a blue or green Ford truck and leave. When deputies arrived at Buccaneer Circle, they spoke to a neighbor who reported that he saw the incident. He told deputies he was standing in the road when he saw Heffner fire a black, pump shotgun twice into the air in the direction of Loftin.

When questioned, Heffner and Honeycutt told deputies they were shooting at a squirrel. Deputies seized the shotgun and discovered that it had been previously listed as stolen.

Heffner’s father reported that the family has had the gun since 2009, when it was given to them by his brother. He told the Sheriff’s Office they could keep the shotgun, as he hadn’t been aware it was stolen and wanted nothing to do with a stolen gun.

Heffner was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and placed in the Rowan County Detention Center under a $2,500 secured bond. He has no previous criminal record in Rowan County.