It happened in the early morning hour when I was just drifting off to sleep. CSpan was on the TV in my bedroom and I also had a light on as well close to the large armoire that housed the TV. Then I began hearing creaking noises close by and I did not pay much attention because of the high winds that pummel the most northern part of Palm Springs close to the large windmills. It's the wind, I thought.
But the creaking continued and it began to concern me that something else was going on.
And it stopped me from even thinking about sleeping. I had a brief thought about getting a knife from the kitchen.
I rolled out of the right side of the queen bed and looked back at the sliding glass door about 2 feet from the left side of the bed and it was WIDE OPEN. Suddenly, a man stood up with his back mostly turned to me. I SCREAMED and he fled out the open slider.
I called 911 in a panic and had to answer the woman dispatcher's incessant questioning that seemed to go on forever while trying to slow down my breathing. She knew I was in a very shocked state and urged me to slow my breathing down so I would not pass out .She told me the PSPD were on their way with their K9 dogs and I would not see them yet because they were coming in silent, no lights or sirens. She told me not to be alarmed if I saw them in the back of the house but the police were going to be inspecting the area around my house and the other houses in this gated community before they talked to me.
ABout 10 minutes later, the police were at my door and I was questioned again about the incident and my description of the intruder whom I had encountered. He had been only two arm lengths away from me. I described the man the best I could.
Hispanic, dark T shirt, baseball cap, and soft features, small nose, etc. Then we went into my bedroom and they asked if anything was missing. Maybe like a computer, the policeman asked while he held up my mac power cord and that's when I noticed that indeed my MacPro and iPad were missing. They had been resting on the left side of the bed, my usual place, and all that was left was the cord.
A few minutes after that, one of the policeman got a call that they had detained a suspect who was hiding behind a tree 100 yards away from the gated community. Then I was asked if I could ID him and I said I thought I could even though it had been the briefest of encounters, it was still so fresh in my mind, he was so close to me, and so frightening!!!
The police drove me to an area outside the gated complex and there he was, handcuffed with bright lights of the police on him. It was the guy that entered my house uninvited. Baseball cap, dark T shirt, small nose, and I gave a positive ID.
According to police, he gave another story and did not confess to the crime. The police looked for my computer and iPad but it was too dark.
The next day, detectives continued to look for the computer and iPad on the perimeter of the gated community. A white string laying on the desert ground intrigued one of the detectives so he followed the string along and found that it was then tied to a blue rope so he followed the blue rope which led to a bush where my computer and iPad were stashed for a later pick-up.
Four weeks later, the desperate burglar pled guilty and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Apparently, he needed money for drugs. However, this was not a totally random crime as he was a new employee of the pool cleaning company that took care of my small pool and spa. And apparently, he had scoped out the house and knew that I had just moved in and was not sufficiently aware of how to operate the house alarm system properly.
Well, now I know how to put the alarm on while I am at home and turn off the motion detector. I am rethinking living in the high desert, however. It seems that Los Angeles is doing deals with outlying communities, paying these small communities to take their parolees.
It makes one wonder if having a weapon handy say on my bedside stand would have been a good idea.
Could I have pulled the trigger? Would the desperate burglar frightened for his life grabbed the gun from me and turned it against me?
The whole scene was too shocking and it happened too fast to know whether it would have been a wise decision to pull a gun on a burglar who was just too desperate for drug money.