I usually write about crimes from an outside perspective, talking with victims or families and police officials, and it comes from a distance.

But this is a story from the inside, with gratitude for some terrific police work and a reminder of the importance of calling police when something happens when it happens.

We have a little dog, Riley, who doesn’t typically bark overnight, unless the raccoon or the opossum is eating the cat food on the front porch again. And then, he barks at the front door. But about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday, he was making low, “nuffing” barks at the back door.

That’s not normal, so I picked up my phone and turned on the backyard camera.

It took me a short second to understand I was watching a man walk out of our carport, between our cars.

“Jim, there is a man walking out of our garage,” I said. Before I could begin to dial 9-1-1, my retired police husband was up, grabbing a heavy flashlight and moving out the front door, with me right behind him.

We have a large butterfly bush at the bottom of our front steps on the sidewalk that connects to our driveway, which is actually one of Lexington’s historic alleys that run between streets. So the man who was coming down the alley toward our street did not see my husband until they were nearly face to face.

“Can I help you?” my husband said, in the voice I recognized from his years as a police chief. By then I was on the phone with 9-1-1 dispatch telling them we had a theft in progress.

The young man jumped when my husband spoke and took off running, and we then realized he had a partner who had been coming from the other side of the street, who took off running at the same time.

We told police which direction they were heading and Jim gave them a very detailed description.

And then we waited. I hate to admit that I began to be annoyed that it was taking so long for them to arrive. I should have been more patient, because when the officer finally arrived to talk with us, he told us they had one in custody and a K9 unit on the trail of the other.

Of course, they went in the direction we told them to see if they could find them first. And it wasn’t long after, they let us know they had them both.

We were not, by any means, the only victims of this pair that night that were going through our neighborhood looking for unlocked cars and taking anything they could find. I don’t lock my Jeep because there’s not much point, you can simply unzip it, but I don’t leave anything of value in it, either.

But others did have property stolen, including financial items like checkbooks and bank cards, and the two men were charged with seven counts of breaking and entering into a motor vehicle along with first degree burglary, which is no small crime.

Our local police chief said there had been a rash of these incidents of late, but the problem was that people would discover the theft the next day, and although they had some camera footage, it hadn’t been enough to make a full identification. So our call that night in the moment helped make the difference.

But I say it was great police work. The officers made the right choices. Knowing we were safe, they chose to track these two down first while the trail was fresh. And it worked.

So many times, I have written about crimes only to have police tell me no one is talking, no one is giving information, even when they know something. And it hamstrings police efforts to solve crimes.

They just cannot do it alone. We need to help. As much as I understand some have reason to distrust some police, we can’t expect them to solve crimes if we will not share what we know.

I didn’t like getting into my Jeep the next day. I could clearly see the fingerprint dust on the door and handle but I didn’t mind that. It was opening the doors and seeing the way the thief had strewn my belongings around so carelessly. All that was there were a jacket and reusable grocery bag in the back seat, and in my glove box, my Jeep ducks, a few notebooks and pens for work, a bunch of napkins and a few candy wrappers I hadn’t thrown out yet. But they were thrown all over the car, and it made me angry to think of someone else invading my space, inside my Jeep that I love.

I am glad they caught them, glad for all of us that were burgled, glad that we put at least this little crime spree to an end.

And I know I won’t change everyone’s mind about making that phone call. But I wish it would. Because the only way things are going to have good endings more often than not, the only way things are going to get better, is if we are willing to trust.

They did their job and did it well this week. I’m proud of my hometown Lexington police department. We all should be.

Elisabeth Strillacci covers crime, courts, Spencer, East Spencer and Kannapolis for the Salisbury Post.