A Lemon Grove family is thankful it’s the holiday season - because they were out of town when their home was burglarized. The thief, caught on the family’s home surveillance system as he's smashing into a window with a hatchet.
Police said the man has been identified as 20-year-old Tyler Yates. The break-in, happened on Golden Avenue - in broad daylight - on November 19th.
After Yates broke the window, he pushe it in with his hands and climbed through the shards to get into the house.
10News spoke exclusively to the family’s grandmother, who lives down the street. She's the one who caught the thief and called 911. She was sitting in the driveway as police rushed in to take down the burglar.
"Yea I saw them take him out the house, and he was all full of blood,” Shelly McClure said. “I just put my head down and I prayed.”
McClure said her six grandkids, her son and her daughter-in-law were out of town during the break-in.
They would have been in the house,” she said. “If my grandkids were in there, he could have killed them, anything could have happened.”
McClure said this is now the second break-in at the house, and even though the family is strong, the kids are now afraid to stay there.
“I’m angry but I’m asking God to take that away from me, but I’m hurt, you’ve invaded someone space, you invaded their home, that’s unfair,” she said.
Yates is due in court on Wednesday.
