YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP, Mich. – An 11-year-old girl said she scared off a man who broke into her family's home in Ypsilanti Township to steal guns and jewelry in the middle of the afternoon.
The damage to the front door is still evident, and the fear is very apparent on the face of the girl, who said she rushed up the stairs for safety when the man broke in.
"He started to kick the door down and I hid in the closet," the girl said.
The break-in happened just minutes after the girl's grandfather pulled out of the driveway near Textile and Cary drives.
"That time of day, 1:30 in the daylight, and I just left. It's unreal," her grandfather said.
Yet that's how the scenario played out for the 11-year-old girl, who was home alone.
"He didn't go anywhere else but upstairs," she said. "He ran upstairs and went in my papa's closet, in his bathroom."
After picking up two shotguns, a pistol and expensive jewelry, the man headed toward the closet where the girl was hiding.
"He came into the place where I was at and I told him to get away from the door and then he ran," she said.
That's when she called her grandfather, who quickly turned around. She then made a chilling call to 911.
"Someone just came into my house," she told the 911 operator. "Somebody came into my house and I tried to call my father and I was hiding in the closet. They broke the door and I don't know where my dog is."
"I'm very upset," her grandfather said. "You break into my house, you take my property in broad daylight. You got my granddaughter in there. What would you do?"