Royce and Linda Miller know they were lucky, this time.

The owners and operators of Maryland International Raceway, an IHRA national event drag strip in Budds Creek, Md., were the victims of a robbery at their home. They cannot determine whether the crime was related to their association with the track or not, but regardless, for all the precautions they’ve ever taken in the name of safety, they were confronted by a pair of robbers.

This is the first time Royce has discussed the incident with the drag racing media.

For the Millers, August 18^th was no different than any other Tuesday. Royce had finished hosting a test session for NHRA Pro Stock team owner Jim Yates while Linda worked from home tending to the track’s book-keeping chores. The hour wasn’t late, about 8:30 PM.

Royce and Linda Miller know they were lucky, this time.

The owners and operators of Maryland International Raceway, an IHRA national event drag strip in Budds Creek, Md., were the victims of a robbery at their home. They cannot determine whether the crime was related to their association with the track or not, but regardless, for all the precautions they’ve ever taken in the name of safety, they were confronted by a pair of robbers.

This is the first time Royce has discussed the incident with the drag racing media.

For the Millers, August 18^th was no different than any other Tuesday. Royce had finished hosting a test session for NHRA Pro Stock team owner Jim Yates while Linda worked from home tending to the track’s book-keeping chores. The hour wasn’t late, about 8:30 PM.

Miller remembers that he arrived home, parked his Chevrolet Suburban in the garage and prepared to take the trash can to the curb for the routine Wednesday pick-up.

Linda was also in the garage, packing her car for a trip she had planned with her dad on Wednesday.

That’s when a casual interaction between husband and wife, while in their garage, was abruptly interrupted by a pair of brazen criminals who confronted the couple.

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“I had asked her if there was any more trash in the house and she turned around and let out a scream,” Miller recalled. “I heard footsteps and turned around.”

Miller was met by two men, dressed in black … one armed with a pistol and the other a roll of duct tape. Both were wearing ski masks.

“The one guy kept the gun on me and the other started tying Linda up with the duct tape,” Miller explained. “He tied her hands behind her back and I became immediately furious.”

Miller paused and continued, “I yelled at the guy who was tying her up, ‘Don’t you dare hurt her.”

Miller immediately began gathering details about the attackers.

“Best I could tell from the little opening in the ski mask is that both were twenty-something white males,” Miller said.

They also wore heavy work gloves which Miller described as “odd”.

That wasn’t the only oddity.

“They had a .38 snub-nose revolver,” Miller said.

Miller believes that was the first red-flag that went up about the experience with his attackers. During the course of the ordeal, other details would come to light which would lead him to believe the pair of robbers didn’t fit the role of career criminals.

“They asked if anyone was in the house,” Miller said. “The one guy kept tying Linda up and the other took me into the house. He told me to get down on my knees.”

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Miller, in the face of danger, refused his attacker’s command. Instead Miller repeated asked them what they wanted. The gunman demanded once again for Miller to get down on his knees and he refused again.

“He told me that if I didn’t get down, ‘I am going to blow your kneecap off,” Miller said.

Red-flag number two, Miller added, is that career criminals don’t “blow your kneecap off.”

Seeing that Miller wouldn’t kneel down, the gunman demanded he empty his pockets to the counter.

He placed his cell phone, about $400 in cash and his wallet down.

“He got close to me a couple of times and the gun was high and with a revolver, you have the hammer back and if you needed to grab the gun, you could still put your hand between the hammer and the body,” Miller said of the painful option. “It may hurt like heck, but you could stop it from firing.”

Miller found himself plotting his next move when the other attacker brought Linda into the house.

The gunman then began to grill Miller about the location of a safe.

“I told him there was one upstairs when I knew one didn’t exist,” Miller said.

He was ordered to walk upstairs and in that action, Miller believes, the third red flag became apparent.

“He followed me like a puppy dog,” Miller remembered. “I wanted to get him away from Linda and the other guy. When we got upstairs I told him there was no safe upstairs.”

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Miller then pointed him in the direction of her jewelry box, to which the attacker began rummaging through. The room was semi-dark because of the early evening hour and still Miller felt his best move was to bide his time.

In the meantime, the Miller’s son Chris, who also works at the track, had arrived at his parent’s home while his father and the attacker were upstairs. Chris was coming to assist his mother with preparing a laptop for her trip.

“When he arrived, the guy downstairs, whom we believed to be only armed with a roll of duct tape, started yelling to the guy upstairs letting him know he needed to come down there,” Miller explained. “He started freaking out.”

The diverted attention of his attacker was the break Miller needed to retrieve his firearm.

Miller fired two warning shots from the balcony of his bedroom to get the attention of his attackers with a stern warning that the third would go “through someone’s skull.” The attackers fled through the back door.

In their haste, one attacker took Linda’s wedding band while the other grabbed the cash and the cell phone from the kitchen counter. They left his wallet.

“Chris had stopped by to pick up dinner and seeing these guys flee out the back door with a gun leveled at him, you could only imagine what he believed was inside,” Miller said.

Miller believes his attackers knew the area considering the neighborhood is comprised of five and ten acre homes.

Miller has searched for a connection with the robbery to the track but cannot. He’s always taken the proper safety precautions such as listing the tracks address on any related correspondence related to MIR. The track also has an office established on the grounds of the strip.

And in the end, Miler believes, he and his wife were victims of a random act of violence considering the attack came three days after a major show at the track.

The attackers have not been caught but Miller hopes evidence retrieved from the scene will lead to the capture of his attackers.

“This was the first time in my 54 years that I have ever had a gun stuck in my face,” Miller said. “We’ve had break-ins and some vandalism but never an armed robbery at any of my businesses.

“I know I am lucky at the way this turned out. Lord knows what could have happened if Chris hadn’t shown up to create the distraction. I think the combination of their inexperience and Chris showing up as the reason no one got hurt.”