A 4-year-old girl pointed out a hiding burglar in her Antioch home Monday evening after her mother saw the burglar and fled, leaving the little girl inside, police said.
Janae Yaeger's mother, Bliss, was holding her daughter's infant sibling inside the home in the 4900 block of Ridgeview Drive at about 7:45 p.m. when the burglar came into the home through an unlocked door, police said.
The woman fled out the front door with the baby, but left Janae inside, police said. Officers arrived and found the girl at the top of the home's stairs.
Police sent the little girl out to her mother. She told her mother she saw the burglar hide in her bedroom closet, police said. The mother told the officers and they found the suspect hiding in the closet. He refused to come out but after a brief struggle he was arrested and identified as Demaria Lopez, a 21-year-old homeless man, police said.
"Some bad guy broke into my brother’s room. Then he went into my room to hide in the closet to hide from police," Janae said, adding she was not scared by the burglar. "I was brave."
But Janae's mom was. “It was pretty frightening, just the thought of her with a stranger. It was pretty scary. Anything could happen," she said.
Lopez was booked into jail in Martinez on suspicion of burglary and resisting arrest, police said.
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No one was injured in the incident, according to police.
Anyone with information about the case has been asked to call Antioch police Detective McManus at 925-779-6940.
