Three teenagers picked the wrong time of day to break into a house, only to have a neighbor call the police, who arrived en masse while on their lunch break.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published May 5, 2004
CLEARWATER - A neighbor saw the kids breaking into a house late Tuesday morning. One of the kids smashed a back window with a crowbar, crawled in and opened the door for his two accomplices.
Once inside, the boys grabbed video games, a VCR and other electronics, then wrapped them in a blanket and hauled them outside.
The whole time, the neighbor was on the phone with Clearwater police. Dispatchers put out the call to nearby officers, telling them to head to the home on San Remo Drive.
It was just before noon. A lot of cops had just left the police station and were heading to lunch. A lot of them were in the area. A lot of them converged on the burglars.
Minutes later, the three boys were on the ground, held at gunpoint by two of the responding officers. One of the first to arrive on the scene was the police chief himself, Sid Klein.
"We had that area saturated," said Klein, who had been driving on Drew Street to lunch when the call went out. "There were cops everywhere. You should not do a daytime burglary when all those cops are going to lunch."
Police arrested the boys - one is 17; the other two are 16 - on charges of burglary and grand theft.
Police praised the neighbor who first spotted the burglars and called 911 about 11:50 a.m. He gave the dispatch center detailed descriptions of the boys, who took off running with their loot.
Rather than move in on them right away, officers stationed themselves in a perimeter around the neighborhood. Officers heading to lunch from nearly every department in the agency responded in one way or another, Klein said.
Klein actually was driving a hybrid gas-electric car that the department recently purchased. The department is considering phasing in the cars, which get about 60 miles to the gallon, as a way to save thousands of dollars in gas money each year.
The car runs on electric power that is generated by the turning tires, as well as a small engine. They cost about $20,000, quite a bit less than the Ford Crown Victorias the department uses now.
The cars wouldn't replace patrol cruisers, but could eventually be used by support staff and detectives. The one Klein was driving Tuesday is white, has a hatchback and looks nothing like a police car.
"The cops didn't even know who I was," Klein chuckled.
When the chief heard the call go out, he figured he could be pretty stealthy moving in on the burglars.
"I thought I could sneak up on them with my specialized electric vehicle," he said.
The chief arrived on the scene about the same time as bike team officer Joe Falcone and Detective Sgt. Doug Barry, who ordered the burglars to the ground.
