Crime & Safety

Inside the Police Reports: House Burglar Awakes Man, Tells Him Everything's Cool

When you're sleeping in your house, awaking to a burglar is always startling. But, this is more than that.

No, it wasn't a dream.

However, if the victim had been in REM sleep -- rapid eye movement -- it is likely that he may have thought he was dreaming. But, according to owners of a home at the 400 block of Holly Ridge Drive, the bold burglar was all too real.

On Saturday, Aug. 25, one of the victims had fallen asleep with the lights and television on in his room. About 2:15 a.m., he awoke to a nearby noise.

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As the victim peeled his eyes open, there right next to his bed was an unknown man dressed in all black with a brown shirt over his face. The suspect kneeled down, grabbed a laptop on the floor, and then gave the victim some not-so-comforting advice: " It's all right buddy. Go back to sleep."

The suspect then left the room, and disappeared out the rear of the family's duplex.

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The mother of the other victim was also sleeping at the time, and she was unaware the entire time that anything was going on.

Police arrived several minutes later and searched the area for a man matching the victim's description, but no one was positively identified.

The mother-son pair have only been in the neighborhood for two months, but they've seen the suspect hanging around apartments located on Pine Street. And, one day earlier, the male victim said that the same man -- same clothes and same voice -- had chatted him up in the front yard. 

Police discovered that the man had gained entry to the home by removing a window pane in a rear door.

That same morning, around 5 a.m., an alarm sounded at the nearby , where there was also evidence of a burglary.

About that same time, police arrested a Jack Campanale in the parking lot of the , very near the animal hospital on Lawrenceville Highway.

Police deemed Campanale a burglary suspect and recovered a Sony Vaio laptop and a weapon.

Eventually, Lilburn officers contacted the victims from the initial burglary on Holly Ridge to see if the recovered laptop was the one stolen from their home.

Turns out, it was. 

Campanale, of Pine Street in Lilburn, was charged with two counts of burglary, possession of a weapon during a crime and possessing a tool for the commission of a crime.


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