Tosa Residents Have Run-Ins, Run-Offs with Young Burglars

On successive days this week, Tosa residents had close encounters of the really aggravating kind with youthful burglars.

One woman accosted the brazen young man who'd just walked into her home and rifled her purse, and in another incident a wife and husband teamed up to chase off a would-be bike thief.

'I swear, you turn your back for two minutes and....'

At 3:18 p.m. Tuesday, a resident of the 2200 block of North 63^rd Street called police to report that her home had just been burglarized and that she had confronted a young suspect just outside the house.

The victim said that she had gone out her back door to put out her garbage, estimating she was out of the house for no more than two minutes.

When she came back inside, she immediately saw that her purse was open and rifled and that there was a trail of dropped coins leading toward her front door, which had been unlocked.

She ran outside and found a young man on the sidewalk, and she accused him of burglary. He denied taking her things and told her to go away, then strode off and turned east onto West North Avenue.

searched the area but did not spot the suspect.

The woman described him as black, 18 to 22 years old, 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet tall, 140 to 145 pounds, with short black hair, and with what she described as a “ruddy” or “pitted” face. He was wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans and possibly had a chain wallet, she said.

Cash, her driver’s license and several credit cards, which she immediately canceled, were taken from her purse.

'We're not just a couple, we're a team'

At 5:30 p.m. Monday, an unknown burglary suspect was chased off by a neighboring couple after he was seen entering an open garage in the 4400 block of North 108^th Street.

A woman said she had looked out her front window and saw a boy riding a bike back and forth in front of her home. Shortly, two more boys on foot appeared and joined him.

The first boy rode ahead up the street on his bike, another lingered near her home, and then the third entered the garage of her neighbor and came out with a bicycle.

She yelled for her husband, who was outside doing yard work, and they both ran after the suspect, who dropped the bike and bolted on foot. The husband chased the boy for two blocks but could not catch up.

The suspect in the attempted bike theft was described as black, about 15 or 16 years old, 5-feet 6- to 8-inches tall and weighing about 130 to 140 pounds. Her description of his companion on foot was exactly the same, while she said the first boy she saw, riding a bike, was 6 feet tall or a little taller and weighed perhaps 150 pounds.