Listen to this video first of the 9-11 call.

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Then watch the news report. At least one of the suspects is an illegal alien.

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What a brave little girl ! Good job by the 9-11 operator and the police.

TROUTDALE, Ore. - A 12-year-old girl helped police capture three suspected burglars who broke into her house Monday afternoon while she was home alone.


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The terrified girl placed a 9-1-1 call while she hid inside her room under the bed. She described the men to the dispatcher and what kind of car was outside. She said she could hear the suspects in the house.

“He’s rummaging around,” she told the 9-1-1 dispatcher. “I can hear.”

“OK. Talk quite, OK?” the dispatcher responds. “Can you tell where the noises are coming from?”

“Yeah, it’s right down the hall.”

At one point the man was inside her room.

A Troutdale police officer was nearby and a minute later he arrived at the home on Southeast Pelton Avenue with his gun drawn.

Officers arrested the man in the house, another in a getaway car, and the last suspect who ran down the street.

A neighbor, Tim Casey saw the arrests and only later learned that his 12-year-old neighbor had called police.

“She was saying she tried to call her dad first,” said Casey. “He’s a TriMet bus driver. She wasn’t able to get a hold of him so she called 9-1-1. I know that one of the officers gave her a big hug and told her, thumbs up, ‘that was really good thinking.’”

Prosecutors said Jorge Avila-Rodas was one of the men who terrified the girl. They said he has a history of drug use. After being released from jail Monday night, the judge agreed that he should be locked up again.

His friend, Benito Flores-Amador also faces a first-degree burglary charge and according to the jail he’s suspected of being in the country illegally.

The third man, Alexis Colidres-Munoz also pleaded not guilty to the same charge.

All three will be back in court next week.

Detectives are trying to figure out if this burglary is linked to the rash of similar break-ins in East Multnomah County.

Detectives said they have the DNA from the suspects and they plan to compare it to DNA found at a recent daytime burglary in Gresham.

There have been five burglaries in Troutdale in the last several months. Each one was during the day and with a door forced in. No one’s been home at the time until in this case.

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