Decatur family hides inside closet during burglary

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Decatur police are looking for burglars who hit three homes and several cars. One family whose house was broken into says they put their two young children into a walk-in closet near their bedroom, called 911 and stayed in the bedroom with the door double locked until officers arrived.

The family declined to do an on camera interview with Channel 2's Craig Lucie because they didn't want to spotlight the crime, but say the burglars were in the home for about 3 minutes. Another resident did talk to Lucie on camera about how the crooks tried to get into his home early Sunday morning.

"What's surprising is they did it just above the security sign," said Dennis Cook.

Dennis Cook showed Lucie where the burglars tried to climb into his Decatur home on Hilldale Drive that he just bought last month.

"My daughters were in the house. They slept through the whole thing," Cook explained.

While his daughters slept, Cook said he immediately jumped out of bed.

"As soon as the window came up, the alarm came on. We got up and the security people called us. I cut the lights on. The window was open and nobody was around," said Cook.

Forty-five minutes before Cook's alarm sounded, burglars hit a home on the 500 block of Kirk Road, which is less than a mile away. The burglars did get inside through  a window and ripped a TV off the wall. The police report says the alarm woke the family up and they heard the burglars downstairs.

A half-mile away and a few hours later, Decatur Dispatch received another burglar call.

A mother who lives on Buchannan Terrace said she and her son were sleeping when someone broke into their garage, started packing tools and whatever they could find into her car.

"They had the car loaded as if they were going to take it," the mother told Lucie.

The burglars tried, unsuccessfully, to hotwire her car. She said when that didn't work they went across the street and broke into her neighbor's car.

"They (went) through it and her purse," she explained.

Decatur police were not available to do an interview about the break-ins, but they are processing fingerprints taken at the three different scenes to see if they can track them down.

WSBTV