PEMBROKE PINES, FLA. (WSVN) - A teenager hid upstairs in fear as two burglars broke into his Pembroke Pines home, Sunday.
The 13-year-old boy told police a silver sedan pulled up to his home, around 1 p.m.
Two men got out of the car and knocked on the front door, the teen said. He looked through the peep hole and didn’t recognize them, so he didn’t open the door.
“I didn’t answer because they’re strangers,” said the teen. “I looked through the peep hole – there was one guy, he just ran back to his car, and then one minute later, I heard a loud bang in the back.”
The teen, who was home alone, ran to the closet in his parents’ bedroom upstairs.
“I just ran without thinking,” he said.
He then called 911. “People just broke into my house. Please get help,” the teen told the 911 operator.
The subjects went to the backyard of the home and smashed the sliding glass door to get inside.
“They’re breaking in,” the teen whispered to the 911 dispatcher. “Help!”
The duo then began ransacking the house while the teen hid inside the upstairs closet.
Video shows one of the burglars going through drawers in the kitchen.
The teen’s mother received an alert that there was movement in the home and then saw the subjects moving around on a camera on her phone. Initially believing the subjects were friends of her son, the mother called her son. However, he was on the phone with police.
“I kind of feel like, ‘I’m going to be dead,'” said the teen.
The teen said the 911 dispatcher tried her best to keep him calm. “She was telling me, ‘Just stay where you are, wait for the police to come,'” he said.
“Stay in the closet, OK? Don’t move until I ask you to,” the dispatcher told the teen during the 911 call.
The burglars broke down the door to the master bedroom but never came in contact with the teen.
They got away minutes before police arrived.
“I’m doing well, just a little shaky about what happened,” said the teen.
Resident Ina Reid said the ordeal is troubling. “It’s quiet. It’s a quiet neighborhood,” she said, “so when something like that happens close to home, you’re worried.”
Other neighbors of the victims said there have been break-ins in the neighborhood before, but never when there was someone home at the time.
“We have an alarm, but we don’t have security cameras,” said Joseph Reid.
“That is something we are thinking about,” said Ina Reid. “You never know. Security camera – you can see who comes by the door, you know, so if the door knocks, you have to look out.”
Pembroke Pines Police believe the two subjects are between the ages of 16 and 19, and said they fled in a silver four-door car.
If you have any information on this burglary, call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a $3,000 reward.
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