Fourteen-year-old Savannah Jones is garnering headliners after saving both herself and her 4-year-old niece from a dangerous home intruder.
Savannah was babysitting her 4-year-old niece Zoyee at her Montclair, California, residence.
Sometime around 3:30 P.M., the girls heard a knock at the door.
Savannah and Zoyee weren’t expecting visitors. When they looked through a peephole, they were alarmed to see a strange man that they did not recognize.
“When I was standing there, I saw the doorknob move,” Savannah told CBS Los Angeles.
And that was all it took for the young teen to go into full-on survival mode, rushing her young niece into the master bedroom bathroom to hide.
Soon, the man downstairs began kicking down the door.
“I had (my niece) hiding behind the toilet, and I locked myself in there,” Savannah explained in an interview with CBS Los Angeles.
In another interview with KTLA 5, she said, “I was very scared. Not so much for myself, but just Zoyee.”
Hidden in the bathroom, Savannah frantically began texting her mother, Maria Muratella, for help.
Muratella was stuck in traffic and could not get there in time. She described the situation to KTLA 5 as “the worst feeling ever.”
But eventually, Muratella was able to enlist the help of a neighbor who contacted authorities and went to the house.
By the time the neighbor got there, however, the intruder had already taken off.
When police arrived, they discovered that the home invader had ransacked much of the home, including the master bedroom which was attached to the bathroom where the girls had been hiding.
“I could hear him going through my mom’s room. He came towards the door where we were hiding. I was just hoping that he wouldn’t know that we’re in there,” Savannah told KTLA 5.
Savannah has had a hard time coping with the effects of the home invasion but is trying to stay optimistic.
She told KTLA 5:
“I think about how he was in the same room as us, what he could have done… But then I think what he didn’t do and what didn’t happen.”
When the incident occurred, Savannah’s home invader had yet to be located. He was described as a bald, black male between the ages of 20 and 30 years old.
A reward of up to $1,000 was being offered for information leading to his arrest and conviction, and anyone with information was asked to contact the Montclair Police Department at 909-621-4771.
It’s unclear if the man was ever apprehended, but Savannah, on the other hand, was hailed as a hero.
Click the video below to learn more about how Savannah saved the day!
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