The Final Countdown: 1

Chelsea Mitchell Security Resources

Here it is, the FINAL apprehension of our Final Countdown. This apprehension won the first place vote by our employees because of how oddly it ended up, with stolen vacuums, lost shoes, police chases and more.

A male and female intruder pair used a log from an outdoor fire pit to break into a child’s bedroom at the North Bend, Wash. home at 4 a.m. The male intruder draped his jacket on the TV, apparently thinking that he would be in there for a while. They also apparently didn’t care what they took—ski socks and a bag with old makeup in it were among their stolen “treasures.”

Sonitrol Pacific Verification Center operator Kris Etheridge was aware of the situation beginning with the rock’s first contact with the window. She immediately dispatched police and kept them alerted to the suspects’ location within the home. The homeowners were not staying in the house that night.

Some of the items they tried to steal. 

When King County police showed up, the suspects left the loot, and the jacket, and took off through the back doors into a wooded area. The woman lost her shoes on the chase and decided to hide. This decision resulted in the K-9 finding her—but not before the hypothermia set in.

Half an hour later, K-9 caught up with second suspect. That canine apprehension landed the suspect in the hospital for bites.

Adding to the excitement on the scene was the fact that police were changing shift during the apprehension, meaning that twice the normal amount of officers were present at the crime scene.

A neighbor to the burglarized home was moving at the time and had a large amount of home goods in his truck. Wanting to make that the suspects hadn’t dumped any stolen goods in the truck, the residents of the Sonitrol Pacific-protected home were called to verify that none of the belongings were theirs.

A shard of glass from the window. 

Within hours of the break-in, both suspects had already been arrested and all of the family’s possessions were still inside the home. Sonitrol Pacific’s unique audio verification system for catching criminals did its job perfectly—alerting expert monitor Kris to the situation, who then called the police with exact details to help them catch the bad guys.