A 9-year-old girl’s remarkably calm demeanor during an emergency call to 911 helped law enforcement respond swiftly to her home following a break-in.
“There’s someone breaking into my house,” the child is heard telling the 911 dispatcher shortly before 6 a.m. on Friday.
The girl and her family were home when a man smashed through a downstairs window and entered their residence, the Westminster Police Department said. The girl’s father, who was in the kitchen at the time, confronted the intruder and pepper sprayed him before dragging him out of the home.
Because the child was able to call 911 quickly, police officers arrived at the scene within three minutes. They found the suspect in the backyard of a nearby home and took him into custody.
Police identified the suspect as 34-year-old Jorge Mendoza Diaz, who was arrested for residential burglary.
“I am very glad that the actions of both the 9-year-old and her father were such that kept the situation from possibly becoming much more serious,” Westminster Chief Darin Lenyi said. “Based on her performance, I invite the nine-year-old, when she grows up, to become a member of the WPD as either a police officer or dispatcher.”
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