Woman surprises burglars upon return to home

February 24, 2006

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

MEADOW LAKES - Up until a week ago, everyone in Susan Doran's Dean Drive neighborhood, north of Wasilla, felt safe because it is a rural area, and they all know each other. But that changed after Doran arrived home last Friday morning and, without realizing it, thwarted a burglary.

&#8220Now I feel creepy,” Doran said a few days later.

Doran had been gone only a short while to pick up her mail and a few groceries, and returned about 10:30 a.m.

&#8220There was a car in the driveway that I didn't recognize,” Doran said. &#8220It was small, old, boxy and faded blue. I thought maybe it belonged to a friend of my husband. It was blocking my access to the garage door. Looking back, now I wish I had blocked them in, but I didn't.”

When a man in his early 20s came around the side of the house from the back, Doran rolled down the window of her car to talk to him. She felt safe there, almost at the end of a dead-end street where she had never felt threatened before.

&#8220He told me he lost his dog and was looking for it,” she said. &#8220I believed him because it does happen. People come around looking for their lost dogs, but he wasn't forthcoming. I had to ask him what the dog looked like, did it have a collar, what its name was.”

Doran asked the man how she could get in touch with him if she found the dog, and he told her he lived down the street about a block on the other side, she said. But Doran knows the people who live around her and knew that no one in that area was that age, or had children that age, so that struck her as wrong, she said.

But just then, another man came around the side of the house and walked up to her car. He leaned toward her and opened the car door.

&#8220That scared me,” she said, &#8220but he was polite and just said, ‘Sorry for bothering you.'”

The men left and Doran went into the house to find a broken back window.

&#8220Looking back, it must have alerted them when I opened the garage door,” she said. &#8220And they came out through the window the same way they came in.”

As she called 911, Doran said, she noticed several things, including guns and a video camera, had been set next to the window, ready for removal. The two men had taken the Doran's fire safe outside the house, but dropped it outside the broken window, she said.

Doran describes the burglars as short-haired white men in their 20s, with no facial hair. The taller man was about 5 feet 10 inches tall and thin, she said. He was wearing a gray jacket, but had no hat, she said. The other man was a little shorter, with a round face, and wore a dark blue or black puffy down jacket and a dark wool cap, she said.

They looked friendly, she said, and at the time, Doran believed they were looking

for their lost dog, which is why she didn't think to write down the license number of the car.

Doran said that from the outside of her house, no one can tell whether she and her husband are home or not.

&#8220So I wondered if they had been watching the house,” she said.

&#8220But the trooper who responded said that they probably just knocked on the door and when no one answered, they broke in.”

News of the break-in surprised Joan Gagnon, a neighbor who lives a bit farther down the road.

&#8220It's always been a quiet neighborhood,” Gagnon said. &#8220It's an area where we know each other's comings and goings, so usually our neighbors know when there is a strange car in the area.”

The lost dog was a credible story, Gagnon said.

&#8220We see signs at the corners about lost pets,” she said. &#8220There are animals around here. I think most people would say, ‘I'm really sorry, can I help you look for it?' I don't think that's out of the ordinary.”

Besides alerting their neighbors, the Dorans plan to install a security system, Susan Doran said, but they have lost their sense of peace and privacy.

Gagnon was aware of an increase in burglaries from reading the newspaper, but never expected it to happen in their safe and quiet neighborhood.

&#8220But I guess it surprises everyone it happens to,” Gagnon said.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.