Burglar Breaks Into Home, Gets Caught While Sitting On Toilet
Burglar Breaks Into Home, Gets Caught While Sitting On Toilet
POSTED: 10:54 am EDT May 7, 2004
WHITEFISH BAY, Wis. -- Burglars beware: a bathroom break on the job can get you busted.
That's how Otha Smith got caught.
Dewey Coulson went to the bathroom in the middle of the night, only to find an intruder using the toilet.
"When I turned the corner ... I saw the light was on, and I thought someone had just left it on so I opened the door, and there was this guy sitting on the toilet," said Coulson, 19. "So I said, 'What are you doing in my house?' And he said, 'I just had to use the bathroom."'
Coulson ran upstairs to get his stepfather, and when they returned they saw the man trying to leave.
"He was walking really slowly, and then he saw us, and he started running toward these doors and he grabbed the handle and my stepdad and I closed on him," Coulson said.
He and stepfather Dave End wrestled with the man to subdue him until police arrived.
Coulson's mother, Cathy End, said the intruder likely wasn't in the house long before heading to the bathroom.
"There was some money out of my wallet, but that's as far as he got, I guess, before nature took over. The toilet part just blows my mind," she said.
Smith, 42, who police said apparently entered through an unlocked door, was charged Wednesday with burglary to an occupied residence, a felony.
Because of two prior burglary convictions, he could face 21 years in prison if convicted.
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Burglar Breaks Into Home, Gets Caught While Sitting On Toilet 
