Carrollton police believe they solved a string of home burglaries thanks, in part, to one of their K9 officers.
At about 2:30 a.m. Thursday, officers were dispatched to the neighborhood south of Frankford Road and west of Old Denton Road for three reports of home invasion burglaries.
When they arrived, they located 19-year-old Reuben Lee Garcia of Addison on the 1200 block of Mackie Drive. When Garcia tried to flee police, K9 officer Fax was commanded to pursue and took Garcia down by the leg.
Officers then found several items stolen items on Garcia.
"He had property on him definitely linking to the three break-ins,” said Carrollton Police Spokeswoman Jolene DeVito.
A resident in one of the homes, Mark Thompson, said he and his parents quickly had some of their recovered property returned.
"Luckily, they caught the guy,” said Thompson.
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Thompson said he was in a separate structure on the property when his mother called over from their main house asking if he was inside. His mother said she’d called to the person, thinking it was her son, but only hearing grunts and a toilet flush in return.
"She stays in the middle bedroom and saw somebody walking into the master bedroom,” said Thompson. "So I grabbed my gun, come running in here, looked and the cabinet doors are open, the medicine cabinet, the laundry room, her purse is there with all the, ya know, been rifled through."
The Thompsons reported several of their prescription medications missing, as well as money. Thompson said they also found a hammer in one of the rooms they believe the suspect dropped.
"Thank God my mom and dad were safe,” he said.
Thompson, who’s lived in the house for 38 years said they’ve always felt safe there and don’t lock their back door; a policy they plan to change as they believe the intruder hopped their fence and came through there, leaving the door wide open afterwards.
DeVito said none of the entries were forced in the reported burglaries.
The Carrollton PD is crediting the quick take-down by Fax for the fast end to the incident.
"Fax is a very fast dog. Fax runs a six-minute mile, you can't out-run Fax. You're welcome to try, you can't do it,” said DeVito.
Garcia is in the Carrollton Jail on three counts of burglary of a habitation.
