[symple_googlemap title=”Santa Monica attack” location=”700 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA” height=”300″ zoom=”13″]Detectives are investigating two residential burglaries in Santa Monica that occurred within two hours of each other, including one in which a woman awoke to find an intruder standing over her, a police lieutenant said Friday.
The latest burglary occurred about 4:45 a.m. Thursday, when a man entered a home in the 700 block of 18th Street through an unlocked door at the rear of the property and stood over a woman’s bed, according to Santa Monica police Lt. Saul Rodriguez.
The woman woke up and screamed, he said.
“The suspect put his hand over the victim’s mouth and told her to shut up,” the lieutenant said. “Family members were (awakened) by the commotion, which caused the suspect to flee out of a rear door.”
The woman, a roughly 100-pound grandmother, told NBC4 she was “sound asleep” when she was awakened by a noise, then she screamed when she saw the man.
“He said shut up and he put his hands over my mouth,” Bernice Tesreau told Channel 4. “And I kicked him and punched him and did everything I could to get his hands off my mouth.”
Tesreau’s daughter, Krista Strauss, said she responded to the commotion and saw the man standing in the home.
“(Tesreau) was still screaming from her room, and I along with her started screaming at the top of my lungs, ‘Just get out, get out,'” Strauss told the station.
The intruder was described as 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-9, with a thin to medium build and wearing a hoodie style sweatshirt, with the hood up.
About two hours prior to that burglary, officers responded to a “suspicious circumstances” call in the 300 block of 16th Street, where a suspect scaled a wall and entered an unlocked and unoccupied guest house, which activated an alarm, Rodriguez said.
The alarm activation caused the suspect, described only as a male, to flee the location.
Rodriguez said detectives are unsure if the two incidents are related, and asked anyone with any information regarding the burglaries to call them at (310) 458-8452.
— City News Service