2 charged after widow, 83, hears noises, finds man in house

6/30/2007

TEMPERANCE - An 83-year-old widow who heard noises and the beeping of a telephone off the hook about midnight went searching with a flashlight and found a man wearing a ski mask and gloves piling up tools in her basement, authorities said.

The man entered the home on West Temperance Road through a basement window Thursday night, took the phones off the hook, and shut off the power, Monroe County sheriff's Sgt. Jeff Kemp said.

But the man ran out the back door when the woman asked him what he was doing, Sergeant Kemp said.

The sheriff's dog, Nitro, and Sergeant Kemp found him about a quarter-mile away more than 40 minutes later.

The man, 18, of Temperance, then gave up his accomplice, an 18-year-old man from Toledo, Sergeant Kemp said.

Both men were in the Monroe County jail last night, charged with home invasion.