Victim Spots Alleged Burglar Registering As Sex Offender At Turlock Police Department
TURLOCK (CBS13) - It didn't take long for Turlock police to catch a burglary suspect.
He came right to them but not to turn himself in.
It was a very strange set of circumstances, a woman found herself face to face with a suspected burglar not just once but twice.
"I kind of walked towards him letting him know I wasn't afraid of him," said Adrianna, who didn't want to use her last name.
Adrianna heard someone pounding loudly on the front door of her Turlock apartment.
When she didn't answer, she says the suspect came around the back and pried open her sliding glass door.
"I said 'who are you,' and he said 'hey is josh here,' like he knew him," said Adrianna.
Josh is her husband.
Adrianna had never seen the man before and she knew her husband didn't know him.
"I said you can't be in here," said Adrianna.
He left without taking anything. She called police and her husband.
"I heard my wife crying and so instantly I was very, very upset," said Josh.
A few hours later, Adrianna headed down to the police department and as she went to leave, a man caught her eye.
"I did, like, a double take and I was, like, that's him. That's the guy," said Andrianna.
It was the same guy who she says broke into her apartment hours earlier, 37-year-old Larry Laugen.
Why was he there?
Turns out, police say, he was registering as a sex offender.
"He probably didn't think he was going to get caught, but he just happened to be here at the perfect time when the victim was walking out with the officer," said Officer Mayra Lewis, Turlock police.
A stroke of luck, but learning he was a sex offender made Adrianna uneasy.
"It didn't settle very well with me," said Adrianna.
So instead of focusing on what could have happened, she's choosing to focus on what did happen and how she handled a convicted sex offender, who's now facing serious new charges.
"Just staying calm and not being hysterical," said Adrianna.
Adrianna believes the suspect was either looking through her mail or garbage and that's how she believes he knew her husband's name.
Besides having to register as a sex offender, the suspect now faces a charge of burglary.
