North Texas property investor comes face to face with burglary suspects

A carefully staged home was left trashed in south Fort Worth.

"The property is for sale," Angela Souder said. "On Saturday we had three showings. The first one starting at 10:15 in the morning. So, I woke up early, got here around 8:00 and just wanted to make sure that everything was okay."

Souder is the owner of the home.

Police said they received a call for a home and vehicle burglary on the 5000 block of Walla Avenue.

"I'm still shaking talking about it, to be honest," Souder said. "Two people were literally living here," Souder said. "Like coming into my own property and not feeling protected in my own home... it's very scary."

Officers noted signs of forced entry in the back of the home.

The window screens from the middle bedroom were ripped off.

"The first thing that I noticed was this window being open," Sauder said. "The latches have been broken."

Souder shared pictures with NBC 5 that show windows blocked by paintings, a table pushed up against the main entrance, multiple pieces of furniture damaged, broken windows, vape cartridges, and bags of food.

“It had been about a week that I wasn't here. So, with them having the food items, QT Cups, McDonald's they had been here for an extended amount of time,” Souder said. “There were cigarette burns on the countertops in the bathroom. Over here, the sliding glass door that was shattered into pieces… the mattress had cigarette burns in it, the box spring, (and) all the sheets.”

Souder claimed the damages add up to more than $20,000 after her purse was also stolen.

“They had actually kind of scattered in different directions and broke into my vehicle and stole my purse,” Souder said. "(I had my) Social Security cards, my kid's socials, you know, money from Spring Break, my wallet, just every other, you know, thing that you can think of that would be in a woman's purse.”

Souder said she yelled for them to get off her property. The pair jumped out of the window and ran. Next door, a neighbor's Ring surveillance camera captured the moment a young female and male walked across their property.

Fort Worth Police confirmed that the two individuals in the video are the suspects wanted in connection with the burglary.

The woman in the video is dressed in a red sweatshirt. The man is pictured in a black short-sleeve t-shirt, khaki pants, and red and white Nike shoes.

“The police were able to get fingerprints, which was really good,” Souder said. “We're hoping that we're going to be able to find these criminals.”

Souder has made flyers with pictures of the suspects and is offering a $500 reward for information that may lead to an arrest.

The property investor has since cleaned up the home and restored the damages in time for scheduled home tours on Tuesday afternoon. Now, she wants to alert other investors and realtors across North Texas to be better prepared.

“Lesson learned for me. I want to have mace. I want to have something that I feel good about,” Souder said. “I just want to really create awareness for the City of Fort Worth and for realtors, investors that are walking into these properties. You just don't know what you're going to walk into.”

Fort Worth Police could not immediately comment on whether burglaries of unoccupied homes listed for sale are on the rise.