Deputies: Tips Lead To Man Who Burglarized Home With Child Inside
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DANIA BEACH (CBSMiami) – Viewer tips led to the arrest of a man deputies say burglarized a Dania Beach home while a 12-year old was inside alone.
Broward Sheriff's deputies arrested Simon Lee Hand, 17, for the July 26th burglary. He is now facing a charge of burglary of an occupied dwelling.
The day before his arrest, the mother of the child who was in the home at the time of the break-in spoke out - touting her son's actions.
The boy told detectives he heard a knock on the front door but refused to answer it.
"He was very brave. We are very proud of him because he did exactly what we told him to do," the child's mother, who asked that her name not be used, said.
She said she, her husband and teenaged daughter had left the house for a few hours that morning, leaving the 12-year-old in his bedroom.
The burglar decided to go through another entrance.
Security video shows the heavy-set man climbing in through the kitchen window of the home in broad daylight.
He quickly looks around before heading straight for what looks like an electronic device he then packs into a dark-colored backpack.He is then seen walking into another room of the home. All this as the family's 12-year-old son was home alone.
The boy told deputies he saw the burglar in his sister's room so he ran to the bathroom and hid. The intruder saw the boy in the bathroom and ordered him to stay there, not knowing the child had a cellphone.
"He was with 911 all the time. He was talking to them the whole time, explaining to them what was going on in the house," the mother said.
In all, deputies say Hand reportedly got away with about $1,000 worth of electronics, jewelry and the family's passports among other items listed in the police report.
Hand will also be charged with burglary of a conveyance, grand theft of a firearm and armed robbery with a firearm for two incidents from August.
