Woman hit by escaping thief's vehicle

MILLCREEK — A woman was taken to the hospital after confronting a thief in her home and then being hit when he escaped in his getaway vehicle.

Bernadette Bittner, 52, took her dog for a walk Monday morning and returned to find everything normal. She went inside her garage and into the house, near 3600 East and 4100 South, leaving the garage door up and the inside door unlocked.

After coming out of a bathroom, she was startled to find a man inside her home holding a laptop computer. He threw some items at her to keep her from following him, said Unified Police Lt. Don Hutson, but she followed him outside where his getaway vehicle was parked in the spot her Honda Accord — with the keys in the ignition — had been. It was found about a block away.

The man jumped into his vehicle, a white Chevy Blazer, and drove out of the garage either pinning Bittner briefly between the vehicle and the garage wall or knocking her down, Hutson said.

The man escaped, leaving Bittner with leg and back injuries. She was eventually taken to University Hospital in fair condition.

"There are a lot of people out there who are waiting to victimize us," Hutson said. "We need to take precautions to make ourselves less of a target, less of a victim."

Bittner's husband, Chris Bittner, said the thief tried to steal the laptop and a stereo speaker, but only made off with the speaker. He said he would like the thief caught, but that wouldn't change his wife's injuries.

— Joseph M. Dougherty