Security video shows a woman with an infant in her arms appearing at the front door. She knocks and rings the doorbell. The homeowner told ABC7 News a nanny was in the house but did not answer because the woman was a stranger. At one point, the woman outside even peered through the window to see if anyone is home.
A little while later, two men appear in the back of the house, after jumping a fence from the neighbor's yard.
The video shows them trying to pry the sliding glass door from its tracks. They use a metal bar as well as a shovel to loosen the door, but they have no luck. They suddenly dash off, apparently startled by the nanny, who looked out the window. Moments later, one of the intruders jumps over the fence back into the yard again. He left something important in his hasty retreat. The homeowner says it looked like a store variety radio scanner.
"Fortunate that somebody was home and was able to scare them away and they took off and left," San Jose Police Ofc. Albert Morales said.
Morales says it may have turned out differently if the intruders actually got into the house and confronted the nanny and the child.
"A 14-year-old boy had been shot and killed over here in a gang-related incident," A.J. Strong said.
Strong is a board member of the Autumn Terrace Homeowners Association. He says there's not only gang activity and burglaries, but a rash of other crimes here in the development of over 100 homes.
"I don't know of a home here that doesn't have at least one car that's been broken into since we've all moved in," Strong said.
In 2012, home burglaries in San Jose increased an alarming 23 percent from the previous year. The numbers are still rising this year.
"The increase this year has been a 13 percent increase compared to the same time last year," Morales said.
