Burglary Attempt at My Home

Burglary Attempt at My Home

Returning from some errands on Monday, I see a white pickup truck in my driveway. Thinking someone is trying to sell me tree trimming, gutter cleaning or something like that, I didn't pull into my driveway, I went two doors down the street to the end house, turned around in their driveway and waited for him to leave.

He went to my front door then walked back to his truck, didn't get in and went to the back of the house. First thought is he is knocking on a back door, but he didn't return for a couple minutes...too long.

My neighbor sees me in his driveway, asks why, I tell him and he suggests I call it in to our police department. I was just about to do that. As I am on the phone with the dispatcher, the guy comes out, my garage door goes up and he drives his truck into my garage.

I race down in my car to another neighbors driveway just in time to see my garage door close. I hit my remote to open it and at the same time the police come screaming down the street and pull into my driveway blocking the truck in the garage.

Officer gets out, draws his gun and runs into the house. Total response time...phone call to arrival, less than 45 seconds.

My first neighbor is now coming down the street, stops and starts blowing his horn and backing up. I took that to mean he saw the guy (it's actually two guys) running through the back yard. I got back in my car and went to the other next door neighbor's driveway, got out of my car and started to chase.

So, now we have the police officer running through my back yard, I'm running through my next door neighbor's and my other neighbor is running through his. I got to the back property line and stopped and thought how stupid this was as I didn't know where they were nor if they had a gun. Back to my car. My neighbor wasn't so smart, he went after them for about a quarter mile before he lost them.

Returning to my driveway, there were about 5 police cars there from different communities. I learned that six other communities had responded and set up a perimeter around this area in a matter of minutes. The coordination was outstanding. Learned later that this was an unusual circumstance as it was a burglary in progress. Most times, cops learn of the burglary a couple hours later or the next day. Here, they had an opportunity to capture someone, stop a crime spree and possibly link them to other crimes in the area. Police were fired up.

First guy was caught in about 10 minutes. Back to my house, they now had to clear
it for any other suspects. No one found. Now CSI shows up. I'm told I can't go back into my house till they are done. This began at 1:30 and I didn't get back in till
7 PM.

The search continues for the second suspect. Police decided to go door to door in a certain area and notify the residents of the burglary and at large suspect. While doing so, one of the cops saw the suspect in a creek. Had been there for 2 hours. That had to be cold!

Bottom line: Broken window, muddy carpets, nothing taken.

Amazing surreal experience seeing someone move their truck into your own garage. Lesson learned: Use the stupid alarm! I rarely use it during the day. Had I had it on, it would have tripped a few minutes earlier and end result would be the same. Had I not come home when I did...and had no alarm on...the possibility of having lost quite a bit was more probable.

Second lesson: In our community, contractors are always trying to sell us something. If someone comes to your front door...and if you answer or not...and you don't know who they are, call the police and let them check it out.