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Girl, 11, confronts armed intruder in her home

Posted at 4:29 PM, May 11, 2012
and last updated 2012-05-12 18:40:19-04

SANDY -- Police here are looking for a man they said burglarized a home and held an 11-year-old girl at gunpoint.

Police said the girl was watching television about 2:30 p.m. Friday at her home near 9200 S. and 2300 East, when she went into the kitchen to get a snack. She saw the back door open and saw a man inside her home.

"The male suspect approached her," said Sandy Police Sgt. Jon Arnold. "She reached for her cell phone which was on the table. He knocked her hand away from the phone and put a small black handgun to her chest and told her not to call the police or talk to anyone."

The girl's mother, Kim Jensen, told FOX 13 her daughter ran from the house.

"Thank goodness she had the intuition to just run," Jensen said. "Had she not done that, I don't know that she would be safe right now. Who knows what could have happened."

The girl fled to a neighbor's house and asked for help.

"She just ran into our house and I'm glad (my husband) was there to be there for her, to help her out and call the cops and get things going," said Michelle Benson.

Arnold said police did recover a black bandanna from the backyard.

Police described the suspected burglar as 6-feet-tall, thin, with dark skin. His hair was long and in a braid, Arnold said. He was last seen wearing a black T-shirt and a black baseball cap. Police said the man was driving a silver, four-door passenger car.

Anyone with information is urged to call Sandy police at 801-840-4000.