11-year-old grabs knife to scare off house burglars in Cape Coral

The back door to a family’s home in Southwest Florida was pried open during a burglary. A boy inside said he thought he was going to die, so he did what he had to for protection.

Cape Coral Police Department recently shared it was searching for two suspects accused of breaking into a Cape Coral home Aug. 6 while someone was home.

We learned an 11-year-old boy was there when a man and woman are accused of getting inside his family’s home, uninvited. He says he grabbed a knife and a pair of scissors to protect himself against them.

The boy spoke to us off camera Friday. He told us, once the burglars were inside the home, they pretended to be on the phone with his father and tried to get him to take the phone.

But he didn’t believe them and took action on his own, successfully getting the pair to leave. But he admitted to us he thought he was going to die.

CCPD is looking for your help in identifying this male & female. They are suspects in an occupied burglary of a residence at the 2700 block of Santa Barbara Blvd. S. on 8-6-21 at approx. 6:00pm. Anyone with any info. is asked to call the CCPD at 239-574-3223. Ref. CR# 21-017685. pic.twitter.com/lY0YasCAsb

— Cape Coral Police (@CapePD) August 17, 2021

The boy’s mother wants everyone’s help to find the two people accused of getting into her family’s home and terrifying her son.

“I was at work, and I had received a voicemail from 911 stating that my son had called, and somebody had broken into the house,” Gia Leguizamon explained. “He was in his room at first, and then, he heard pounding on the door in the front. So then, he ran into my room. And then, that’s when they had broken in from the back and had approached him.

When we visited the family’s home, damage could still be seen from what suspects left behind.

Luckily, what Leguizamon’s son did to confront the crooks is likely what scared them off before they could take anything.

“They would not leave,” Leguizamon said. “And then, he grabbed a knife and had threatened to hurt them if they did not leave. And that’s when they decided to go.”

Leguizamon says her son was also on the phone with 911 as the couple broke into the home.

“That’s very quick thinking. It’s super,” Leguizamon said. “I don’t think I would have had the same reaction.”

Leguizamon told us her neighbors also confronted the two suspects as they were trying to break into the front door, but they also pretended to be on the phone with the homeowner, acting as if they were supposed to be there.

Gia Leguizamon is thankful her son is safe, but she wants the community’s help to identify the people accused of breaking into her home to bring them to justice.

“I don’t think he could have handled the situation any better,” Leguizamon said. “I just wish I would have been there.”