by Timothy Rutt
Alert neighbors may have thwarted a burglary on Maiden Lane Sunday afternoon.
In an email message circulating among the newsgroups, a Maiden Lane resident said that his wife came home at about 1 PM to find a car with hazard lights flashing parked next to their house. Suspicious, she carefully opened up the front door of their empty home and, through a window, saw an intruder in their back yard.
She closed the door quietly and dialed 911. She also backed up her car from her driveway to obstruct the path of the parked car, and flagged down a couple in a passing vehicle and convinced them to further block the road.. She also saw a woman -- described as Hispanic and in her 40's -- slouched on the front seat of the suspicious vehicle.
After seeing the road was blocked, the woman in the suspicious car made a U-turn and sped north on Maiden Lane. The car was described as light goldish or some other light color, newer-looking four door sedan.
In an interview Monday, the resident who sent the email said that the husband of the couple who was flagged down checked out his back yard after the suspicious car fled, and the intruder was gone. The resident later found a tire iron by the hot tub in the back yard.
Meanwhile, the neighbor in back of their property said that he was looking into his own back yard at the time and saw two nicely-dressed African American youths, about 16 years of age, come tumbling out of his oleanders and fall onto the grass, escaping through the backyard gate. Sheriffs who were called to the scene failed to find anybody.
The resident said that another neighbor reported that two African-American men had come to her door earlier, asking for somebody who didn't live in the home. He theorizes that they were door-knock burglars, looking for an empty house or escape route.
While there's only a rough description of the suspects, and a partial license plate from the suspicious car, the resident told us that there was some possibility that the intruders may have been caught by the security cameras at Rubio Canyon Land & Water's covered reservoir nearby.
But, he told us, his wife was "the hero of the day. She showed up at exactly the right time."
