LITHOPOLIS, Ohio, May 1, 2008
Teen Hid While Burglars Ransacked Home
Suspect Sat Right Next To Her As She Cowered Under The Covers
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Lauren Durnbaugh, 13, said she figured the thieves would look in closets and under her bed for items to steal, so she curled up under the covers and kept still, even when one of the intruders sat at the edge of the bed and unhooked cords from her laptop computer.
"I could feel him sitting next to me. He was inches away," Durnbaugh said. The intruders apparently were unaware of her presence, authorities said.
While Durnbaugh hid Tuesday morning, her mother rushed home while phoning 911, a call that led to the arrest of two suspects, authorities said.
"My daughter's home from school and she says there's people in the house," her mother, Margo Roby, says in the 911 call released Thursday. "She thinks we're being robbed. She said there's people in the house, she can hear their voices."
Durnbaugh, who was home sick, said she was in a hallway when she heard someone open an unlocked rear door. She climbed into bed as the suspects began ransacking rooms in the house about 15 miles southeast of Columbus.
"OMG Im scard," Durnbaugh said in the text message to her mother, who was working at a car dealership about 15 minutes away. "I think were being robd Im hiding help me!"
Roby said she looked at the message and instantly felt sick.
"Just a rush of panic," she said. "And I could not get out of there fast enough."
Speaking slowly while driving at speeds of up to 85 mph, Roby told a sheriff's dispatcher she was worried she would run out of gas before she reached her daughter.
Roby, 53, said she used one cell phone to call authorities and another to stay in contact with her daughter. But Durnbaugh hung up several times because she was afraid the intruders would hear her mother's voice
"And I thought her phone would ring to music, so I was afraid to call her back," Roby said. "So, of course I'm driving, sick to my stomach, waiting for her to call me."
Roby arrived home and saw that the intruders' vehicle parked in her driveway. Worried that the intruders were about to drive off with Durnbaugh, Roby said she rammed her vehicle into the back of the suspects' car.
"All that popped in my head was they could walk right out and put her in that car and leave," she said.
One of the suspects, Jenna Marie Burns, came out of the house and Roby wrestled with her just as sheriff's deputies and the Lithopolis police chief arrived, authorities said.
Durnbaugh went back to school Wednesday.
"It's still kind of nerve-racking, just thinking about what could have happened," Durnbaugh said. "But I'm OK."
Burns, 20, of Orient, and Jeremiah Lee Fyffe, 26, of Lockbourne, were charged with burglary. Both remained in a county jail Thursday on $100,000 bond. A robbery charge was also filed against Burns accusing her of assaulting Roby, authorities said.
Burns' mother, Virginia Burns, has said her daughter is goodhearted but made a bad choice in people to associate with. A phone listing for Fyffe could not be found.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The prospect of home invasions is VERY scary, especially by criminals that invade homes that are known to be occupied. These criminals are entering a situation where they expect resistance. (Luckily, these bozos appearantly thought the house to be unoccupied and didn''t seem ready to be violent.)
For those of you that don''t like firearms (I respect the decision of any law-abiding individual either way), things like dogs, cell phones, and flashlights are good things to keep near you at night. Maybe if Sean Taylor had a dog he would still be alive and playing football.
God bless, stay safe.
1. Because it has a happy ending
2. Because this smart mom raised her daughter to THINK and not just react or process info
3. And mom was a thinker too
This could have gone soooo wrong on so many levels if the daughter had not thought to NOT get under the bed or in the closet, if she had NOT had her cell phone, if the man had been on the bed instead of the woman theif, if the mom had called back, if her mom had waited to get her messages.
Kudos to mom, and daughter and thank goodness, she was called before the police. Anyone besides me noticed that had the mom not got home when she did, at least one of the suspects might have gotten away because the police did not arrive so quickly? A dangerous situation certainly--but people often take the law into their own hands--because if they waited on the police--they''d lose everything. This is just the truth.
Even with security systems, sometimes it takes the police about 25 minutes to respond to the alarms. Time for the crook/rapist/murderer to do his thing, clean the home out, have coffee and a cigarette, and leave at his or her leisure to boot.