Tampa Bay area thieves may not want to tangle with new Bucs running back Noah Herron.

As Joe suspected, the Bucs signed a running back, so reports Stephen Holder of the St. Petersburg Times.

The Bucs signed former Northwestern University and Packers RB Noah Herron to a free-agent contract Tuesday, adding depth to a thin backfield after the loss of Earnest Graham to a severe ankle sprain Sunday.

Joe likes this move for a simple reason: Herron is no one to screw around with, as a burglar found out the hard way this summer.

According a criminal complaint, Herron was in an upstairs bedroom playing a video game and talking by phone with his girlfriend about 11:30 p.m. on May 30 when the doorbell rang twice. He ignored it and then heard people on his deck, so he called police.

When he heard breaking glass and realized people were inside and coming up the stairs, he called police a second time.

Then he unscrewed a bedpost, hid behind a bedroom door and saw a man enter and take cash from his desk drawer. Herron told police the man went to the stairs and called to someone else, which made him fear for his life as he realized there were at least two people inside.

When the second intruder came in, Herron hit him in the head, then shut the bedroom door to keep the other man out.

He said he heard one person running outside, and when the man on the floor started to get up, he hit him again and then went to his garage and told police a man upstairs needed medical help.

Herron put the scumbag in the hospital. Nice!

So you pieces of human debris out there, word to the not-so-wise: Don’t plan on breaking into Herron’s home when he moves to town.