Dogs, surveillance system help scare away Dallas crooks

DALLAS - A Northwest Dallas homeowner knows what it feels like to have his house broken into. And he used his surveillance system to scare two burglars away.

Michael Farrel’s dogs first scared the two young men, but not enough for them to leave. They also set off a motion detector, which alerted Farrel.

He checked in and expected it was just his dogs, but then he saw the two masked men. At least one of them had a gun.

Through his surveillance system that has an intercom system, Farrel started talking to the burglars.

“So I get on the camera. I tell them, ‘Get out. Police are on their way.’ You know, repeat it several times that police are on their way. At this point you can see it on the video that the guy and dog hears me. He runs to the hallway, tells his buddy that’s in the back, you know police are on their way. And then they both turn, run out the back door,” he said.

The men left before they could take anything. Farrel said he still hopes they are caught before they target someone else.

Both men were wearing masks, but Farrel points out that one of the men is a distinctive 6 feet 8 inches tall wearing acid washed jeans.

In their hurry, the crooks also left behind an Addison-based JW Energy backpack. The backpack is one of the best leads police have so far.