DEL MAR, Calif. (KGTV) – A Del Mar couple is warning others after a terrifying home invasion attempt Saturday evening.
Mark and Teri Kohn were watching television in the living room of their home on D Antibes Street, north of Del Mar Heights Road.
“All of a sudden the power goes out and my husband tells me another SDG&E power outage. I said no Mark, ours is the only house with the lights off so my mind is racing. Let’s see up and we see a flashlight someone walking. with a flashlight thinking of you, it’s dark,” Teri said.
“My husband was like, ‘Wow, SDG&E actually answered,’ I said that’s not SDG&E, that’s somebody coming to our house!” Teri said.
That’s when her ninety-pound German shepherd realized what was going on.
“He went to the patio door, so my husband is screaming, he walks away from our property and then he starts barking,” Teri said.
The intruder ran away to a waiting truck or van parked in the street.
“It was simple, they just lift the lid of the utility box and there’s just a big breaker that you just touch and it shuts off all the power, including the security cameras,” Mark said.
The couple has lived in the Mar area for more than thirty years. Crime has not been a problem.
“The first one was shocked by the whole thing. She was terrified to go to sleep that night, but then she got angry, it’s like she was raped,” Mark said.
The pair now have a padlock on their circuit box.
“What I’m struggling with is how they got to the yard, if we were to go outside, you’d see there’s a wall on the perimeter of the yard and there’s a door,” Mark said.
San Diego police and the sheriff’s department are investigating whether cutting power is a new tactic they’re seeing in violations.
The couple had been out of town the previous week, so it’s possible the intruder thought the house was empty.
“We never really thought about anything like that, but now you go to sleep at night and you think to yourself, what’s the chance of something unpleasant happening, not a comfortable feeling,” Mark said.
