Local

Teen describes encounter with burglar

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A 15-year-old girl who faced a burglar alone in her Dekalb County home said she was more than terrified when he found her.

Emily Street said she tried her best to hide from the man who kicked in her front door, but she thinks he may have heard her frantically texting her mother for help.

"At first when he opened the door he said, 'Oh,' and he ran out as fast as he could, because I had a phone in my hand and I was like, 'Please put it back,' and knew he wasn't going to.  And then he was like, 'Don't say or do anything or I'm going to shoot you," Street said.

Street's mother, Christin, said she was in Buckhead getting a haircut when she received her daughter's text.

"The text said, 'Mom someone is in the house, help' and that is the worst thing you want to hear," Christin Street said.

Street said because she was calling 911 from a different county than her daughter, they kept putting her on hold.

"I just started calling 911 and tried three times to get through. It was really frustrating. I kept trying to hang up and call back and finally went berserk as a parent would," Street told Channel 2's Craig Lucie.

The dispatcher had to transfer her call because their home is in the Briarcliff Woods subdivision, which is in Dekalb County. She said that 911 experience and the fact that her daughter was home alone with a burglar in her house has changed her views on strict gun control laws.

"I've always been one of those people that think you don't need a gun in the house, especially with children because it can be used as a weapon against you. Now, we are definitely rethinking that. Well, not rethinking it, we are going to get a gun. We are going to have a gun and teach our kids how to use it. It's really important to do that," Street said.

Christin Street said if their home is burglarized again, the ending may be very different.

"They (burglars) have to realize that on the other side of the door is going be a gun. I think that's the way it's going now," Street said.

Her daughter told Lucie she is just now starting to feel comfortable in her home again.

"I'm better than I was the first day," Emily said.

She saw the man take off in a silver car minutes before police arrived at their home.