Police Search WDM Neighborhood, Arrest Home Burglars - ABC5 News Des Moines, IA

Police Search WDM Neighborhood, Arrest Home Burglars

Jessica Daley

jdaley@myabc5.com

@TheDaleyReport

People in a quiet West Des Moines neighborhood were shocked to see police officers running around with their guns drawn Wednesday afternoon. They were responding to a report of a home invasion.

A woman says two men broke into her house while she was in the home. It started a two-hour search for the men through the woods around this area of South 50th and Grand Ave.

The West Des Moines school district even told buses not to drop kids off in this area while the search was going on.
 
Eventually police caught Jatniel Pastrana-Santiago and Julio Torres-Anglero. They are charged with second degree burglary. Police are investigating to see if more people were involved.

The woman told ABC5 about that scary moment but did not want to be identified for her family's privacy.

"Frozen. It's a freeze of a frame of that first encounter of somebody creeping up the basement."

This wife and mother of two doesn't know the next time she'll be able to be alone or walk down into her own basement.

"Of course it's fear. It's beyond fear actually."

She was doing laundry when she heard a thump. A few minutes later she saw two intruders and managed a few words.

"Who are you? What are you doing in the house?"

The men ran outside and even to her surprise, she followed.

"I ran after them to hopefully, I guess, to see or get a number plate of some sort. I was able to tell the first three digits."

Within minutes, she says the police arrived and arrested one of the burglars. The other man was caught about two hours later.

She couldn't believe this would happen in the middle of the day in her area.

"Just have your guards up. We're planning on get a security system installed."

A neighbor says one of the men went to the front door earlier in the day dressed in overalls with a bucket, maybe posing as a worker checking to see if the home was empty.

The family is glad two of the men are caught and hope if anyone else was involved they will be as well.