Burglar Caught in Alma Real Residence

By LYNN BORLAND, Special to the Palisadian-Post At 5:50 a.m. Saturday, I met my running group at Pharmaca on Sunset. They proceeded on to Will Rogers Park, but since I’m nursing a hamstring pull, I decided to take a shorter route through the Huntington: down Toyopa and back up Corona Del Mar to Alma Real.   I noticed a police helicopter overhead, but kept running until I reached the 600 block of Alma Real, where the police had the street yellow taped. I saw about 15 patrol cars, a hook-and-ladder fire truck, an ambulance, attack-dog vehicles and numerous policemen armed with assault weapons who had set up a perimeter around a house.   A police officer told me that somebody had broken into the house and the silent alarm system had alerted security. At first the police didn’t know if there was anyone home, so they didn’t want to arouse the intruder(s) in case he had taken hostages.   In checking with neighbors, the police verified that no one was home and then sent in attack dogs that cornered the robber in a back bedroom. He was very aggressive and when the police confronted him he had to be physically restrained. I saw him being loaded onto a gurney and put into an ambulance. He was white, tall and thin, with greying hair and a scruffy beard. His face was bloody and his nose was quite red. He had a black knapsack that we speculated was for his loot.   Meanwhile, the police told me that the helicopter had been forced to land at the nearby Recreation Center. When I ran past and saw the helicopter next to the PPBA sign, I continued home (only three blocks), got my camera and headed back to take pictures.   LAPD Officer Jim Miller later explained that a warning light came on in the helicopter that indicated a possible engine fire. ‘The protocol is to pick a safe place and land as soon as possible,’ he said. A mechanic was dispatched to the area and determined that the helicopter could be safely flown back to base.   Other than that, I had an uneventful Saturday morning run.