PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. — Investigators say around 11:30 on Monday morning a woman called Prairie Village police after seeing a man and two teenage boys kick in the front door of a house at 74th Terrace and Canterbury.
Once inside, police say the three burglars stole several items including a large-screen TV, and sped off in a red car.
Just two blocks away, Steve Eddy said he ran to nearby Saint Ann Catholic Elementary School, where kids were on recess, to tell teachers about the three burglars on the run from police. The school immediately went on lockdown.
“Just working in the yard and heard the noise of a car chase come along,” Eddy recalled. “The guys jumped out and ditched the car.
Police say the crooks ran in different directions and the one of them had a gun.
“When he unloaded the stuff, I saw, you know, a black gun kind of spin out,” Eddy said. “Probably seconds later another guy got out of the car and climbed the wall of what used to be our post office.”
But fast-moving cops quickly grabbed the wall-climbing suspected burglar and his two accomplices. Police also recovered the stolen goods, thanks they say to neighbors watching out for each other.
“We just happened to have somebody that was home during the day and able to see them and called the police, which is the right thing to do,” Captain Wes Lovett with the Prairie Village Police Department said.
“That’s the way it’s supposed to work,” Eddy said.
Police say the three suspects are awaiting burglary charges, and the two teens are just 17 years old.