Kids foil burglary in Wahiawa

A 15-year-old girl kept a cool head yesterday as she fled with her three younger siblings undetected after burglars broke into their Wahiawa house.

The girl was home baby-sitting her younger brother and sisters -- the youngest only 8 -- when they heard a knock on the door around 9 a.m. They then saw a man and woman climbing through the window, and she called 911, police said.

"She corralled all her siblings and fled to a neighbor's house," said Detective Timothy Donahue.

"I think the girl did a wonderful job," he said. "She appeared calm when I was at the house. ... What she did under the pressure she had, it was pretty commendable."

Police arrived in a couple of minutes at the house on Peach Street and found one suspect under a bed in one room, and the other hiding in a closet in another bedroom.

They arrested a 28-year-old Ewa Beach man and a 35-year-old Ewa woman, both convicted felons.

The woman, who was arrested for suspicion of first-degree burglary, drug and weapon offenses, has seven felony and seven misdemeanor convictions. Police said she is known to officers for burglarizing homes in the area.

The man was arrested on suspicion of first-degree burglary, possession of burglary tools, drug offenses and two counts of probation violations. He has 14 convictions, four of them felonies. He was convicted in February of two counts of auto theft, two counts of unauthorized possession of confidential information and two counts of third-degree theft.

Normally, burglars hit homes "where people are out," Donahue said. But this case was "a real 'Home Alone,'" he added, referring to the 1990 movie starring Macaulay Culkin in which burglars break into a home where a boy was left behind by a vacationing family.

Sgt. Leslie Morris also said the children "did an excellent job in assisting police."