Highland, Ind. Teen Foils Home Invader
HIGHLAND, Ind. (CBS) – A Northwest Indiana high-school student and her little brother were home alone Wednesday morning and getting ready for school when a burglar broke in.
CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports what happened next.
With only seconds to react, 14-year-old Yasmin's quick thinking helped her and her brother escape from harm.
The burglar broke through their back door at 7:15 a.m. while Yasmin was styling her hair looking in her bedroom mirror.
"I hear loud banging, and I tell my brother to shut up and he's like, 'It's not me,'" she said.
She got up, still thinking the banging she heard was her brother in the kitchen – until glass in the door window shattered.
"He stuck his hand in there and unlocked the door," Yasmin's mother says.
Yasmin jumped into action. She called her brother Armando into her room and shut the door.
"At first I was kind of frightened because I didn't know if he wanted to steal something or if he was going to take me and my sister," the boy says.
Yasmin shoved furniture against her door, flicked off the light, and dialed 9-1-1.
The intruder tried to force his way into the room.
The family says the suspect walked right out the front door to get away.
Several Highland police officers training nearby rushed to the scene and surrounded the area.
Yasmin and her brother say they never got a look at the guy.
"I'm thankful that Yasmin was angry, first of all, that someone was in our house and that she acted as fast as she did," her mother says.
