Thief thwarter has gumption in spades
09:01 PM CST on Thursday, January 22, 2004
By KARIN SHAW ANDERSON / The Dallas Morning News
MESQUITE – If Robin Jones says she's 5 feet tall, she's bragging.
But maybe she looks tough in a long T-shirt and underwear while brandishing a dirty garden shovel.
A would-be burglar found her menacing enough Wednesday morning. Ms. Jones, 34, spied the man trying to make off with a 32-inch TV stored in her garage.
"I wasn't scared," she said later. "I was trying to scare him."
She grabbed a shovel, sneaked up behind the man and "did a Sammy Sosa on him," she said, swinging the garden tool to demonstrate. After whopping the burglar on the head and back, she made him put the TV back.
"I cussed him," Ms. Jones admitted. "I said some bad things. ... Then I told him to turn around so I could hit him again."
Again, the thief obeyed, cowering with his hands on his head. About then, a car waiting in the alley behind Hancock Drive began driving away. The chastened burglar caught up and climbed in.
"I thought later about how his accomplice could have shot me," Ms. Jones said.
Her mother returned from a trip to the store, learned what had happened and drove off to find the burglars' car and get the license number. Police took over the search, but to no avail.
Sgt. Shannon Greenhaw, a police spokeswoman, said thefts from garages are common.
"That's why we always tell people to shut their garage doors, even if they are just out mowing the yard," she said.
As for taking a shovel to an intruder's head, Sgt. Greenhaw doesn't advise it.
"We'd rather you be a good witness than get hurt," she said.