Sarah emailed us about a man who tried to break in to her home last night while she was home:
I was at home at about 5:45 pm this evening when I walked in on a strange man trying to enter my house. I wasn’t thinking and just ran at the guy, yelling, “What the hell are you doing?!” which frightened him. He muttered and turned and left at quick walk, eastbound on N 80th St. The guy had clearly not cased the house – there’s nothing valuable here, and there were easier points of access to the house than the route he’d chosen. I was in another room, and hadn’t brought in the mail or the trashcans yet; I’m sure he thought there was no one at home and was just trying to get in quickly and look for anything he could take. Still.
Here’s what I saw: he was about 5’8″ or 5’9″, about average build – slightly stocky, but not heavy (no gut, that I could see). Probably in his mid-30s. Caucasian, but tanned/sunburned. Medium brown, curly hair. Wearing jeans, a baggy slate-grey T shirt, and a baseball cap. Didn’t get a look at the shoes, nor much of a look at the face – he kept it down and turned away. He had a utility knife which he’d used to cut the screen of one of my front windows – a quick vertical slash and then a quick horizontal, and had grabbed the screen and was pulling it out when I confronted him. The cops sighted him once, already west of Greenwood and heading westbound, but they didn’t catch him – they’d said they would call me to come down and ID him if they caught him, and I didn’t hear anything tonight. I also talked to a neighbour on the south side of 80th, who said my description sounded just like a guy who had been prowling in the alley, casing houses on the south side of 80th a few days ago.
Keep those windows locked!
