Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SANDY — An older couple had a frightening moment when they answered the door to what they thought was the police, but what turned out to be burglars armed with guns.
The Greens live in a neighborhood near 200 east and Pioneer Avenue in Sandy, and said they had never had problems before. Clayton Green had no idea that his morning would turn into something so terrifying.
When Green answered a knock at his door, he saw a man wearing what looked like a badge around his neck.
"You see the badge on, you automatically think they're a lawman, but obviously he wasn't," Green said.
When he let the men in his home, the next guy that walked in was wearing a bandana over his mouth and wielding a gun.
"They come over to us and stuck a gun to our foreheads," Green said. "At first, I thought it was a joke."
But, he and his wife quickly realized that it was no joke when they saw the zip ties come out. The two burglars forced the Greens to get on the ground and proceeded to tie them up. Then they ransacked the house and demanded the combination to the safe.
I don't have anything in the safe, and I kept telling 'em it wasn't doing any good. But he says, 'we're going to shoot you.' And I said, 'Well, you'll have to shoot me. I don't know the combination.' And that's about where it ended.
–Clayton Green
Green says the men were persistent about the safe as they ransacked the rest of the house.
"I don't have anything in the safe, and I kept telling 'em it wasn't doing any good," Green said. "But he says, 'we're going to shoot you.' And I said, 'Well, you'll have to shoot me. I don't know the combination.' And that's about where it ended."
Neighbors were horrified when they heard what happened.
"It's incredible and heartbreaking and very scary this happened," said neighbor, Michael Rogers. "They'd give you the shirt off their back if they could. They'd do anything to help anybody out."
Rogers has lived around the Greens since he was a kid.
Another neighbor witnessed the burglars leaving the house in their getaway car.
"I looked out the window and watched a white van pull in front of my BMW," said Carl Burnett."They made a left-hand turn going down 8530 South again. They picked up people, two men jumped in the van down by the railroad crossing."
Cops now say they want to find these burglars in the worst way. There's always the chance because the way their burglary was carried out, they could try again.
"There's a general trust in the public that when someone presents themselves as a police officer that they are a police officer," said Sgt. Jon Arnold. "That's why we want to get out to the public to be aware."
In fact, police are reminding people that you don't automatically have to open the door to anybody. You can ask them to show ID. You can also call dispatch to try to verify that there are cops at your door.
