LISTEN: This 14-year-old girl stopped an intruder with kitchen knives and a cell phone camera
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Zoe Sottile, CNN
(CNN) — A 14-year old girl in Massachusetts warded off a man who broke into her house — and police said she even helped them catch a suspect.
The girl was sleeping in her home in Middleborough when she woke to the sound of an intruder, according to a news release from the Middleborough Police Department. She saw a man stealing things in her house — then grabbed two kitchen knives and confronted him, her mother told reporters.
The intruder dropped the items and fled, police said. But the girl captured video of his vehicle and its license plate on her cell phone.
“I got him out of the house. I scared him,” the teenager can be heard saying in an audio recording of a 911 call released by police. “I took a video of his truck leaving so I have his license plate number.”
The girl told CNN affiliate WCVB it was scary. “I didn’t have much going through my head — it was just kind of adrenaline,” she said.
“I really didn’t realize that she had it in her to stay so calm under fire,” the girl’s mother told CNN affiliate WBZ. “Grabbed two kitchen steak knives and she went back and stood outside the door and started screaming at him ‘Get out of my house. Get out of my house. You don’t belong here.'”
She added, “I’m blessed to have a daughter like her.”
Massachusetts State Police caught a suspect, whom they identified as Joseph Ridge, 58, shortly after, the news release said.
CNN was unable to determine whether Ridge has an attorney.
He was taken to the Middleborough Police Department, where he was charged with aggravated breaking and entering during the daytime, trespassing and disorderly conduct, according to the police department.
“I would like to commend the courageous actions of this girl,” said Chief Joseph Perkins in the department’s news release. “Even in the midst of an extremely scary event, her bravery assisted us in identifying the man believed to be responsible for breaking into her home.”
The girl was uninjured, according to the police department.