I can’t wait, it’s almost New Years Day! There is only five more hours until midnight. My mom told me and my brother that we had to go visit our grandparents tomorrow, in Iowa, so we will have to get up early. Pajamas on, we raced up the stairs to our bedrooms. He beat me. His room is on top of the stairs and mine is down the hall on the left.
I was almost asleep around 11p.m. when I heard a window break. I sat up in my bed, my heart was racing. I heard the shriek of the stairs as if somebody was approaching my brother, Matt’s room. I hid in my closet. I heard Matt scream, I couldn’t understand what he was saying, his voice was hoarse. Suddenly everything was quiet, I was trembling. Peeking through the gap between the closet door and the blue walls I noticed something strange. The sheets were off my bed. I looked around from inside the closet. The man is in my room. He was in my room by my dresser searching through my jewelry box. After a few minutes he proceeded to search the rest of the house. I was so nervous, I couldn’t breathe. About a half an hour later, I heard the crack of the stairs. The door shut. Slam! I think he’s gone. Out of my closet I walked towards Matt’s bedroom. The house was a mess. Matt was laying on the floor, unconscious, with a puddle of blood surrounding his head by time I got to him. I ran down the stairs, almost falling, to my mother’s bedroom. She is such a heavy-sleeper; the screams never woke her up. I told my mom about Matt and she quickly raced to the telephone and called 911, the police and ambulance are on the way. My mom went upstairs to comfort Matt while I called my Uncle Jerry to stay with the police so my mom and I could go to the hospital with Matt. My Uncle Jerry arrived quickly because he only lives two blocks away.
We were at the hospital for three and a half hours. Matt had to get twelve stitches on the back of his head where the glass, from the window, cut him. When Matt gained consciousness the last thing that he could remember was that a heavy- set man with a dark colored ski mask attacked him.
The police called in detectives to take prints from the scene. The prints found on the door handle belonged to a deceased man, Robert Young. The prints and strands of hair from my bedroom came back to a Michael Tomas. But it couldn’t have been Michael he has been in Washington, D.C. for the past three weeks. We couldn’t find any other prints at the scene, besides the two already found and our own. There was also an unknown fingerprint on the jewelry box.
Maybe we will never find out who attacked my family. He stole gold necklaces and diamond rings. The damage to my house totaled fourteen-hundred dollars. My father passed away three years ago so the damage will be hard to repair with my mom’s low income. My family will always remember New Years Eve of 2004 as a nightmare. Cautious and frightened of the attacker coming back we changed the locks in our two- story brick house in Phoenix, Arizona.
********* Three Months later**********
A man of the same description broke into our house. We hid in the basement and called the police. We could hear the crack of the floor above us as if he was in the kitchen.
The police surrounded the house before the man could get out. The man’s fingerprints matched the unknown fingerprints from the scene. The police took him into custody and were relieved that my family didn’t have to worry about him attacking us again.
The man’s name was Charles Perkins. He just got married three months ago. The detective went to ask the wife questions involving her husband. She had an abundance of jewelry on. The jewelry she was wearing fit the description of the stolen jewelry from the house that Charles Perkins attacked. A few weeks later, Charles went to court and was charged with trespassing, assault, and theft.