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Team coveragePolice say an 11-year-old boy did everything right by calling 911 and hiding when two men forced their way into his house yesterday while he was home alone. Officers don't believe the burglars ever knew the boy was inside the house and credit him for smart, quick thinking.
Eleven-year-old Michael had stayed home from school sick, and his mom had just left to take his sister to school when three men broke into the home. Michael admits he was scared, but he stayed calm, and that's the advice he has tonight for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation.
Michael says it all came down to a gut feeling that something wasn't right with the two men ringing his back doorbell "I had no clue what was going on. I felt like I was on a roller coaster and there were butterflies in my stomach," he said.
Michael dialed 911 but didn't press send while he waited. When the men began ringing the front doorbell, Michael made the call. "They said, ‘Are they in your house right now?' And that's when I heard the door open and someone come in," Michael recalled.
Following the advice of the 911 operator, he hid under his bed as one of the men kicked in his bedroom door and walked inside. "They're holding my backpack, which is scary because why do they have my backpack?" Micheal said.
Police responded moments later and chased two men leaving in a pickup truck but didn't catch them. Investigators suspect a third person snuck out of the house during the chase.
When an officer checked on Michael, he found the boy still under the bed, phone in hand.
"This child did everything right. He immediately sensed some danger and called 911 and let the officer sort out whether or not it's an emergency, and then he hid himself under the bed," said Lara Jones, spokeswoman for the Salt Lake City Police Department.
"911 is a tool, and it's a powerful tool. He knew from being taught before that he can call that number and help is coming," Michael's mother, Debbie, said.
Tonight, Michael is thankful for the person on the other end of the line who kept reassuring him he wasn't alone. "When they started talking, I just started feeling better because I knew someone was coming and someone knew this was happening," he said.
Police were able to get a license plate number on the pickup: it's 645 PTE, possibly on "Arches" plates. The truck they're looking for is described as a late ‘70s green Ford pickup.
Michael says the burglars took his iPod, his Nintendo DS and his brother's gaming system. Michael mowed lawns for a year and saved his birthday money to buy those things.
If you have any information that could help officers locate the burglars, call the Salt Lake City Police Department at 799-3000.
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