A Beacon Hill woman is thanking technology and Seattle police after waking up with a burglar a foot from her face.
Bea Kelleigh said it was just after midnight on Sunday morning when she noticed some sort of shape next to her bed.
"I reached out to touch it, thinking maybe it was something I left there by mistake, and it moved and it kind of whacked me," she said. "I was completely scared. No question about it, screaming."
The intruder ran out of the house with some camera equipment and her cellphone.
Kelleigh chased after him but he took off down the street. Police, she said, showed up in less than five minutes.
"There were 20 some police here," she said. "They canvassed the area."
Kelleigh admits hers isn't the first burglary in the neighborhood.
KIRO 7 found five others with just a few blocks of her house over the last three months.
But Kelleigh said she was tired all day and made a crucial mistake that made her vulnerable.
She left her car outside instead of putting it in the garage before she went to bed.
"I had forgotten to lock it," she said, "So somebody got the garage door opener, opened the garage, and came into the house."
Fortunately, Kelleigh also had the Find My iPhone app on her phone, which tracks the phone using iCloud.
Police could tell the phone was half a mile away on Beacon Avenue South. They knocked on the door and began questioning the people at the house, and an officer who was with Kelleigh back at her house told her to set off the alert.
Officers could hear the phone "pinging" inside.
"I got everything back," Kelleigh said. "That's an unusual good fortune story."
Police arrested a young man inside, she said.
"I'm just ending up grateful that I didn't get hurt," she said. "It could have ended up very differently."
The suspect is in King County Jail for investigation of burglary.
KIRO 7 asked police if they believe he's connected to the other burglaries in the area. They tell us they are looking into every possible lead.
KIRO
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