A Scio Township woman often wakes up in the middle of the night, telling her husband that she thinks she's hearing someone breaking into their home.
Tuesday morning was the first time she was right.
The woman, who asked to remain unnamed for fear of her and her family’s safety, woke up when she heard rummaging around in the lower level of the three-level home in the 1600 block of Abigail Way.
“It’s like your nightmare coming to life,” she said. “And, my initial thought is my kids and right after is ‘I don’t even want to see them, I want them out of my house.’”
The home invasion was one of four break-ins early Tuesday morning at homes with residents present: There was another incident in the 1600 block of Abigail Way and one each in the 1700 block of Harley Drive and the 1500 block of Scio Ridge Road. All of the homes are west of Ann Arbor near Scio Church just west of I-94.
Three arrests of juveniles ages 14 and 15 followed, and a fourth teen was questioned. Police said they're connected to all of the break-ins.
The woman from Abigail Way told AnnArbor.com in an interview Friday that she woke up about 1:15 a.m. or 1:30 a.m. Tuesday and heard rummaging in the lower level of the home. The couple was sleeping in their ground-floor bedroom while two children slept upstairs.
The woman said she initially thought it was the dog or her children moving around, but ruled that out when she continued to hear noises. The truth came to her quickly.
“I realized there was a lot of noise, and everything sounds louder at night, but there was some distinct movement, shuffling of things,” she said. “And it was like, I think something is happening and someone is in our home downstairs.”
The woman immediately started calling out to her children and making noise to let the intruders know she was awake. Soon, she started yelling she would call 911, which she did immediately after.
Looking over the balcony of the ground floor into the basement, the woman could see the door to the basement patio open. She told dispatchers the intruder was no longer in the home, while her husband went downstairs to investigate if something large had fallen.
She was terrified — the family doesn’t own a gun and she didn’t know who was in her basement, what they were doing and whether they were armed.
“Life can change in a matter of seconds, because we have no idea what’s about to happen,” she said. “It’s a frightening reality.”
Dispatchers told her to take the family into one room and wait for deputies. About 10 minutes later, Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office deputies were on scene. She praised dispatchers and deputies for keeping her and her family calm in the immediate aftermath.
The search for suspects began quickly. A K-9 unit responded to the scene and began the search, and further investigation brought deputies to evidence dumped in the 2700 block of Scio Church Road. The woman said investigators found identification among the stolen items.
Three suspects were arrested and a fourth questioned. One is held in juvenile detention and two were released to their parents, according to Sgt. Geoffrey Fox. They were all between the ages of 14 and 15, the woman said.
The reality of what happened — and the young age of the suspects — is sinking in for the family. The woman said she went into crisis mode when she heard the noises from the intruder and didn’t really process what was happening.
Now, as the stolen items — a Nintendo Wii, an Xbox, a camera and an iPod Shuffle, among other items — are recovered and the suspects are facing charges for the home invasions, the woman is looking to move on.
However, she’s disheartened her home was broken into by children.
“I’m saddened by the fact that it’s youth,” she said. “I hope there’s some early intervention with these guys and they don’t grow into hardened criminals.”
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.