JayB McLain never expected to have to be a hero, especially in the middle of the night.

But the Twinkles Food Mart sales clerk — who lives behind the store in a house with his family — was turned into one when he thwarted a break-in and held a suspect at gunpoint until police could arrive and take the suspect into custody early Sunday morning.

“I was up watching TV and all the sudden I heard the alarm,” McLain said. “And I was thinking, ‘oh no, not again,’ and I ran out front and when I didn’t see him when I looked in at first I thought, ‘oh no, he got away.’”

But McLain found his man — Darrell Ronnie Baker, 29, of 20 Copeland St., Rome — and held him at gunpoint inside the store. He said he kept Baker on the ground for 10 to 20 minutes until police could arrive and attempt to take him into custody. McLain waited outside the store until officers arrived because he didn’t know if Baker had accomplices.

“I kept telling him, ‘you don’t have any other place to go,’ and I said ‘I’m your only way out,’” he said. “I said ‘your best bet is to stay put man.’”

Before police arrived, Baker was able to flee into the store’s bathroom, where McLain said he did damage to the ceiling trying to escape.

“When he saw the cops or the lights, he bolted to the back of the store,” McLain said. “He tried everything he could to crawl out that store but he couldn’t go anywhere.”

Though McLain said he wasn’t exactly sure of what he would do, he said that if he’d not had the gun he would still have done something.

“I would have at least called 911,” he said. “I would probably have been more cautious.”

Mostly though, McLain was glad that they finally caught a perpetrator of any kind.

“I’m glad we finally got him,” he said. “It’s probably been six times that store has been broken into and no one has been prosecuted.”