Teen in house as burglars break in

By REBECCA CATALANELLO, Times Staff Writer
Published September 18, 2007

TAMPA - A 17-year-old girl locked herself in a bedroom Monday afternoon as three teens used a crowbar to pry open a window and burglarize her family home, deputies said.

Panicked, the girl called her mother from her cell phone and told her in a whisper that someone had tried to come in the front door before heading around to the back.

Then, she hung up, turned off her ringer and did just as her mother instructed: She went to a back room and locked the door.

Zina Cannon, 44, was 20 to 25 minutes away from home when she called 911 to report her daughter's emergency, according to a 911 recording released by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

"I said, 'Hang up. I'll call 911. I'll call you right back,'" Cannon repeated to a 911 dispatcher. "And now, she's not answering."

For almost 11 minutes as Cannon talked with a dispatcher, she had no idea if her daughter was safe.

But her call gave law enforcement enough time to converge on the house on Fawnridge Circle in full force about 1 p.m.

Deputies arrived in cruisers and a patrol helicopter. They brought search dogs.

Robert Hunsinger, Christopher Kinsey and Anthony Steen, all 17, were arrested within 10 minutes after deputies arrived, said Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway.

They were caught with a laptop computer, jewelry, coins and video games, deputies said.

Cannon's daughter, whom Callaway did not identify, was safe. She'd been talking on the phone with her father while her mother and 911 tried reaching her, said the 911 tape.

"She's just scared to death," Cannon told a dispatcher after hearing she was safe.

"We have five deputies on scene now and they're trying to take care of the problem," the dispatcher reassured her.

"Thank you so much," Cannon said.

A man who answered the door Monday evening said the family would be reserving comment about the incident as it heads to court.

Hunsinger, of 3710 Meadow Bridge Road, Steen, of 10017 N 22nd St., and Kinsey, whose address was unknown, are each charged with burglary of an occupied residence, grand theft and resisting arrest without violence.

Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report.

[Last modified September 17, 2007, 23:43:11]