ATLANTA — Atlanta police are searching for a barefoot burglar who broke into a family’s home while they were fast asleep.
The brazen break-in happened just before 6 a.m. Jan. 5, right off Peachtree-Dunwoody Road near Little Nancy Creek Park.
A wife and mother who did not want to be identified said her family just moved into their Buckhead home last month. They decided to rent until they figure out where they want to live.
They should be searching for new homes. Instead, they are installing new security measures.
“He came up these three flights of stairs,” the woman said.
Frightened but uninjured, the woman showed Channel 2′s Michael Seiden the staircase the burglar used to climb through her kitchen window while she and her husband, along with their three young kids, were fast asleep.
The woman said the intruder’s hand print is still on the glass.
“It’s absolutely nuts," she said. “I woke up to seeing a person leaving my room and I had assumed it was my husband. I had turned over and my husband was in bed with me," she said.
She said she and her husband chased after the intruder, who was wearing dark clothing and a beanie and was barefoot.
“My husband calmly said to him, ‘Sir, this is our home. You need to leave now!' I was even, like, ‘That’s the door. Just walk out straight,'" she said.
Surprisingly, the intruder left without saying a word. But as soon as he got outside to the driveway, he took off in the family’s minivan. Police recovered it earlier this week and didn’t find any damage.
Now, this family has taken new security measures, including a doorbell camera.
"I’m sad that it happened, but I’m grateful that it had the ending that it did because one misstep, one change of intention, one thing could’ve ended very, very differently,” she said.
The family believes the burglar was homeless.