Burglary Suspects Captured After Fremont Pot Grow Break-In
FREMONT (CBS SF) -- When Jennifer Smith was awakened early Tuesday in her Fremont home by the sound of footsteps on her roof she knew immediately it wasn't a raccoon.
"I was sleeping about 2:30 a.m. when we heard some footsteps on our roof," she told KPIX 5. "We knew it was a person so I immediately yelled to my husband to get his gun."
What Davis heard was the footsteps of two burglary suspects who had been interrupted as they attempted to break into a neighbor's home on Lake Mead Drive.
"I think the biggest concern is having the guns drawn on my house, with kids inside," said Smith.
"We had a neighbor call us," said Fremont police Sgt. Ricardo Cortes. "They had heard a loud crashing noise and when they looked into it (the sound) they saw their neighbor's garage door had been pried open."
Arriving police officers interrupted the alleged burglary of a marijuana grow house, but the suspects eluded immediate capture. Police then set up a perimeter and called in a helicopter to aid in their search of the neighborhood.
Smith was not aware of the police when she went outside to investigate the sound on her roof.
"I saw one of the suspects on my roof and I yelled to get off my roof or I would shoot," she said. "I could hear the other suspect on the roof and then drop off. I saw the police at the end of the block and yelled to them. They told us to get back in our house."
Smith went back inside, where she and her two children hid inside the laundry room while police worked to capture two suspects hiding in the neighborhood. A short time later, she could hear the police apprehend the suspect on the other side of the laundry room wall.
Both suspects -- Oakland men in the their 30s -- were taken into custody without incident.
CSI teams spent the late part of the morning processing the home. A warrant was signed at around 10 a.m.
Police were seen carrying four large burlap bags filled with marijuana plants to take into evidence.
Detectives said more details of the investigation are still to come.
