By Nathan Hardin
nhardin@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — A 14-year-old girl hid in the closet of her Dunns Mountain Road home Monday afternoon as two thieves ransacked her house.
The girl was home alone after school at about 3 p.m. when she the door bell began ringing and a man started loudly beating on the door.
Before running to hide, she noticed a second man walking around the outside of the home.
From inside the closet, the girl called her mother, who in turn called a neighbor to check on the house.
Two men broke in through the front door and stole about $3,000 in jewelery, investigators discovered when they arrived. The burglars also took a guitar and an amplifier worth about $800.
They left in a pickup.
Deputies “flooded” the area with officers, said Rowan County Sheriff’s Office Capt. John Sifford, but the truck, described as a faded light blue extended cab pickup, was not found.
The neighbor who was contacted approached the house after being called and told authorities a third man was driving the pickup.
As the neighbor got close to the home, the driver revved the engine several times and the two men exited the home and fled.
Investigators said the truck was facing the roadway during the home invasion.
The suspects were last seen heading toward Stokes Ferry Road on Dunns Mountain Road.
A neighbor wrote down the license tag, the report said, but the tag was registered to a Nissan Sentra in Marshall, N.C.
Authorities are still determining whether the tag was stolen.
Coupled with scrap metal thefts, Sifford said, the Sheriff’s Office has seen an increase in daytime burglaries recently.
“I think that we are seeing somewhat of an increase in daytime burglaries, especially when you combine them with the people stealing metal in the daytime,” Sifford said. “There has definitely been an increase in that type of activity.”
In March, an Old Beatty Ford Road man was assaulted when he tried to defend his parents’ home during a burglary about 2:20 p.m.
More than $8,000 worth of property was taken in that break-in. Kannapolis Police said they caught the Concord couple believed to be responsible for the break-in during another daytime burglary the next day.
Sifford said most people are likely to work during the day, leaving their homes relatively unprotected.
“That’s why it’s always important for a neighbor to call us if they see an unusual vehicle,” he said. “We’d rather be on the way than have to get there after the fact.”
Authorities ask anyone with information about Monday’s burglary to contact the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office at 704-216-8700 or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.
Contact reporter Nathan Hardin at 704-797-4246.
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