Crime & Safety

Updated: Woman Shoots at Would-Be Burglar

Following a burglary alarm "glass break" alert, the Sugar Valley Road resident heard someone trying to open her sun room door.

Updated 1:30 p.m. Friday

Investigators are cross-checking information to determine if the attempted burglary could be related to a February home invasion on Sugar Valley Road.

In the previous incident, a homeowner in the middle of the night chased a burglar out of the living room.

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Anyone with information on either case is asked to call the Criminal Investigations Division at 770-382-5050, extension 6029, or Cartersville-Bartow County Crime Stoppers' tip line at 770-606-TIPS. Tipsters also can text "CBCS" and the tip information to CRIMES (274637).

Original Report

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A woman fired a single shot at a would-be home burglar, the silhouette of whom she saw "aggressively pulling on the door handle," according to the incident report.

Shortly before 2 a.m., authorities received an alarm company alert of glass breaking at the Sugar Valley Road home in Cartersville. The 48-year-old female resident said her bedroom keypad notified her of activity at her sun room door and she got a gun.

While the plumbing company employee initially walked past the door as she investigated the disturbance, she said she feared for her life and fired a shot after seeing an outline of the burglar, who was trying to get in the house.

After firing the revolver, a .38 Special, through the back door, she said she didn't see anyone or hear anything. The woman then went to the bedroom of her 17-year-old daughter, who reported she was asleep until she heard the gunshot and her mother's request she call for help.

The girl called her grandfather, who came to the house, along with deputies requested by the woman who reported to 911 she could hear someone trying to open the door.

Deputies, who saw no signs of the burglar outside the house or in an unlocked storage building, reported no signs of forced entry or damage to the home, other than the bullet hole through glass and a curtain on the door.

Several family members there when officers arrived also said they had not seen the burglar. Police noted a barbed-wire fence had been cut, but probably sometime before the incident.


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