Brazen Burglar Walks Into Home, Holds 91 Year Old At Gunpoint
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DEERFIELD BEACH (CBSMiami) -- Deputies are searching for a brazen burglar who held a 91-year old woman at gunpoint.
Broward Sheriff's Deputies released a sketch of the man they are looking for on Thursday.
Investigators said Barbara Sutton was sitting sipping coffee in the backyard of her Deerfield Beach home around 6 a.m. when she heard her side gate creek open.
That's when a man - sporting a gray hoodie and dark pants - walked in and headed straight for her.
"My heart started racing and I started screaming. I thought a kid with a gun didn't belong in my back yard," Sutton said.
Sutton was so shocked she dropped her phone and began yelling for help – prompting the burglar to brandish a gun and point it at her.
"I was looking at a quilting video on YouTube and there was a kid with a gun in my face," she said.
He told her to be quiet and walked straight into Sutton's home where he came face-to-face with her 91-year-old mother, Florence Jones.
"He pushed past me into my house to my mom. I was screaming at the top of my lungs the whole time and I think I woke everyone up," Sutton said.
The burglar allegedly pointed the gun at Jones and grabbed her purse before walking out.
That's not all he got away with. As he walked out, deputies said he picked up Sutton's cell phone off the floor and took it with him.
Next-door neighbor Lisa Congemi called 911.
"I heard someone screaming and yelling no, no, no," she said.
"I think because I was screaming he was scared and he grabbed a purse off the kitchen counter," Sutton said.
BSO said the gunman also fled with a wallet, $200 in cash and two Apple iPhone 6s worth $700 each.
Now residents around the neighborhood are on guard.
"It's very upsetting. We need to proceed with more caution around here," Congemi said.
Sutton is putting new locks on her gates to keep intruders out.
This nurse practitioner said she never thought she'd be caught off guard.
"I am hyper vigilant in public. I know how to act an ATM. I don't sit with my back to the door at restaurants. I know where I am in in parking lots at all times," she said. "But I refuse to be afraid to have a cup of coffee in my back yard. I refuse to live like that. I want him off the street."
BSO is processing the recovered iPhone for DNA that could lead to the suspect.
Deputies are asking anyone who recognizes the person in the sketch to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at (954) 493- TIPS. Crime Stoppers will pay up to $3,000 for a tip that leads to an arrest.
