Burglars Enter Lafayette Home Through Doggie Door; Chased Off By Homeowner, Police

Three men police suspect drove to Lafayette to burglarize a home found a unique way to enter the targeted residence, police said Tuesday, and also found a Lafayette police officer on their tail as they were leaving town.

Police Chief Mike Hubbard said the trio targeted a home near Sierra Vista Way around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, one of the men staying behind the wheel of their rental car while his partners ran around the back of the residence and entered the home through a doggie door.

"That was unusual," Hubbard said. "I'm obviously not going to say 'get rid of your doggie doors' but it does show to what lengths these guys are willing to go to get inside a home..."

The homeowner, upstairs at the time the men entered the residence, called police and may have been seen by the third man -- waiting outside in the car.

"We believe he tipped the other two," Hubbard said. "They left in a big hurry."

Such a hurry, in fact, that their car blew a red light and attracted the attention of a motorcycle officer, who immediately fell in behind the vehicle, radioing back with license plate information and initiating a chase when the driver accelerated away at high speed.

"At that point we didn't know we'd had a burglary," Hubbard said, "and we didn't want to endanger the public for what we thought was a traffic violation. When we realized they were involved in a burglary attempt the car was through the Caldecott and gone."

The vehicle was later found, crashed and abandoned, in Oakland, Hubbard said. Nothing was taken from the targeted residence and no one was hurt during the incident.