Burglar plays hide and seek

She jumped into a closet to try and hide from the men breaking into her house.

The last thing she expected was one of the robbers getting into the closet with her because he was trying to hide from police.

But for the brief time the burglar was in the same small closet with the woman, whose West Jordan house he was robbing, he had no idea she was there — even though he was literally pressed up against her.

The incident happened about 9:45 a.m. Thursday at a house near 3700 West and 8600 South. Three men were dropped off in the neighborhood by a fourth person, possibly a woman, said West Jordan Police Sgt. Greg Butler.

The men cased out homes that looked unoccupied, Butler said. They would knock on doors, and if no one answered, go around to the back and break in.

A 21-year-old woman, who did not want to be identified, said she had just gotten home from Salt Lake Community College and was doing work on her computer in the basement when she heard someone pounding on the front door.

"Some people were standing at the door, I didn't know who they were," she said. "Everyone in our house who can get in has a key."

Because of that, the woman said she didn't answer the door. A few moments later, she heard someone pounding on her downstairs window.

"I didn't know quite what to do. Then I heard the window shatter," she said.

The woman ran to an upstairs bedroom, grabbed a cordless phone and went into a closet to hide and call 911. While the men were going through the house, she was on the phone with dispatchers.

"One of the burglars came into the room I was in. He started digging through jewelry and everything else they could find," she said.

The woman could see what was happening through the slots in her shutter closet door.

"I was pretty scared. Nothing was going through my mind except, 'Please don't look and find me,"' she said.

But then, one of the burglars went to the closet and rummaged through the bottom, actually bumping the woman's boots and legs in the process.

"If he would have looked up, he would have seen me," she said.

When the man left, the woman continued talking to dispatchers. Police arrived at the house two minutes later, before the trio had the chance to get out.