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SALT LAKE CITY -- Three kids who saw someone breaking in to their neighbor's house Friday night quickly called 911. Police arrived on scene and caught the burglar red-handed. Officers say they're happy that, despite the children's ages, they knew what to do when they saw trouble.
"My heart was going fast. I got scared," one of the children, a 10-year-old boy, told KSL. His mother didn't want her son's identity revealed but allowed him to talk to us.
It happened Friday night around 9:30 as he was playing with video games. "I just heard, like, a glass break," the boy said.
He and his sisters went to the living room window, looked outside and saw the burglar. "He put his hand inside the door, and he started to unlock the door, then he got in and grabbed the plasma TV," the boy explained.
That TV, a brand new 50-inch Samsung, is valued around $1,200. Once the boy understood what was going on, he told his older sister to call 911. "My big sister, she started shaking," he said.
Salt Lake City police Lt. Melody Gray praised the children, saying, "The two were able to give some really excellent descriptions and information to dispatch."
The dispatcher told them to stay inside and wait for police to arrive. "They got there quickly and [were] actually able to catch our suspect coming out of the house," Gray said.
The TV's owner came home about an hour later, relieved to find out his young neighbors stopped crime in its tracks.
"He said, ‘Thank you for saving my stuff, the TV and my house,'" the boy said.
The 17-year-old suspect was arrested for burglary and auto theft. Apparently, he drove to the house in a car he stole from his girlfriend's mother.
E-mail: ngonzales@ksl.com
