ROANOKE, Va. – Imagine your teenager home alone watching Netflix in their bedroom, only to look up and see a strange man in the house. That's the terrifying reality one Roanoke family faced Tuesday.
And thanks to home security video they got a good look at the guy and are asking for you help to track him down.
When he realized he wasn't alone, he offered up an excuse that the family says doesn't make sense, especially when you watch the video back and his behavior inside the house. No one was hurt and he only got away with one thing, their sense of security in their own home.
Jennifer Farrow and her daughter Dixie still almost can't believe it happened and that it was all caught on camera. A man let himself in their unlocked back door while Dixie, a high school senior, was home alone in their house in Roanoke's Round Hill neighborhood. Jennifer rushed home once she found out it happened.
"The thoughts running through my mind, it was terrible, I'm crying all the way home and all I'm thinking is please Lord just let me get to her," Jennifer said.
Niether the intruder nor Dixie realized eachother was there until he went up the centrally located stairs in their foursquare home.
"I'm like halfway asleep, watching Netflix, when all of a sudden I just hear a noise," Dixie Overfelt said. "He was in my brothers' rooms upstairs, but then when I was like who are you he realized someone was in the house."
And neither mom nor daughter believe what the intruder said back.
"He was like is Peewee here?," Dixie said. "And I was like no, this is not his house, get out of my house, get out of my house."
Dixie chased him down the steps and out the front door before calling her mom and then the police. In the security video the man appears to be apologietic and look confused, but the two say what he did before he went up the stairs shows the real reason he was in the house.
"When he came in the living room and stopped and looked aorund, I knoew he was looking for something to steal," Jennifer said.
He didn't get away with anything and Dixie wasn't hurt. Police are investigating and Jennifer also blasted the man's pictures all over Facebook to help him get caught.
"We have cameras, there are firearms, this is just not the house you want to come into unannounced," Jennifer said. "Somebody on social media knows him, somebody will report him to me or the police."
Jennifer said some neighbors also reported a guy trying to get into their homes that matched the description of her home intruder and that if she had been home when it happened it would not have ended as nicely.