Update: Burglar Eludes Capture After Break-In Interrupted by Resident Returning Home

Lawrence Township police spent more than two hours this afternoon (Friday, Feb. 3) searching for a burglar who fled from a house on Stonicker Driver after a female resident returned home and interrupted his crime.

Despite the exhaustive manhunt – which included the use of a police tracking dog and numerous officers, some armed with machine guns – no suspect was located.

It was about 3:10 p.m. when the woman called 911 to report that just a few minutes earlier she had discovered a stranger in her home on Stonicker Driver, near Allen Lane.

Lt. Charles Edgar, spokesman for Lawrence Township police, said the woman told police the man was walking down the steps from the second floor as she entered the house. He said the man said something to the woman, ran out a rear door, jumped a fence and was last seen running into the woods that separate Stonicker Drive from Franklin Corner Road.

Numerous police officers responded to the area and, within just minutes of receiving the woman’s 911 call, they had set up a perimeter in an effort to contain the burglar if he was still in the area. Officers were positioned in various places at the edge of the woods on Stonicker Drive and Franklin Corner Road and along the Five Mile Run creek that runs through the wooded area and continues behind businesses on Brunswick Pike (Route 1).

Police conducted a search of the house to confirm that no one was hiding inside. Officer Ron Buchanan and his canine partner then searched the woods in the hope the dog would catch the scent of the burglar.

Edgar said a preliminary check of the house by the resident suggests that nothing was stolen, but he said the woman will need to do a thorough walkthrough of the home before police are certain the burglar did not get away with anything.

The burglar was described as a white male, in his 20s, about 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet tall with a slim build, wearing a black leather "bomber" jacket, blue jeans and sneakers. He was believed to be carrying a crowbar.

Edgar said it is too early to tell if today’s burglary on Stonicker Drive was committed by the same man who broke into a house on Crabapple Lane on Jan. 24. That crime took place at about the same time of day and Crabapple Lane is just a couple blocks away from Stonicker Drive. (Click and to read about the Crabapple Lane burglary.)

Anyone with information about the Stonicker Drive burglary, or any of the other recent break-ins in town, is asked to call Lawrence Township police at (609) 896-1111.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 9:45 p.m. on Feb. 3.