Teen's text foils robbery
Categories: Teens & tweens, In the news
Even for big kids, staying home alone can sometimes seem a little creepy. But for a thirteen-year-old Ohio girl, a sick day resting at home really did play out like something out of a horror movie or crime show.
When a red pickup pulled into the driveway, Lauren Durnbaugh texted her mom at work and asked if she was expecting someone. When the girl heard someone coming in through an unlocked door, the terrified teen quietly slipped back to her bedroom and hid under the blankets on her bed.
"When I was walking in my room to find somewhere to hide, I figured if they were coming to rob us, you wouldn't just look in someone's bed for something," Durnbaugh told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira on Thursday. "You would be going in their closet and looking everywhere else."
While quaking under the covers with her phone, the girl sent her mother a terrified text: "Mommy omg im scard i think were being robbed im hiding help me!"
While racing home, Durnbaugh's mother called 911 and by all accounts reacted as any mother tiger would, ramming the thieves car in her driveway and wrestling with the female stranger in her house while police arrived. Thanks to Lauren's quick thinking, she was shaken, but unharmed and the criminals were captured.
I'll never figure out the tricks kids know that enable them to text so quickly because it had been me hiding under the covers, the place would have be stripped bare before I'd finished texted "OMG!"
And because I can never remember which button turns off the stupid ringer off on my phone, that would have given my hiding place away right off the bat.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Andi 5-04-2008 @ 8:06PM
Some phones have QWERTY keyboards on them nowadays but yeah, I don't get how they do it either. Great thinking on her part (even though I know it was probably mostly out of fear).
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FNH 5-04-2008 @ 8:31PM
And the door was unlocked because.... ??????
Its 2008
.. she got lucky
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Kate 5-04-2008 @ 9:20PM
the door was probably unlocked because she was at home, i dont know many poeple that lock their doors when they are in their homes.
cocobaker813 5-04-2008 @ 8:35PM
She's a real smart chica, and I'm so glad she called mom for help via text. Those are some fingers she has! Mom's jumping on the crooks was so crazy(in a good way)! I would've wanted to kick the a$$ of anyone who tried to hurt my baby too!
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Alexis 5-04-2008 @ 8:43PM
I totally agree....the door should have been locked!!! She's lucky something worse didn't happen. I hope she has learned to lock her door.
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knippenr 5-04-2008 @ 8:43PM
Should have shot the burglar.
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Kyle 5-05-2008 @ 12:50AM
where is a teen girl gonna get a gun?
gypsygranny 5-05-2008 @ 4:49AM
If only more people would realize that guns don't kill people ~~~ people kill people with whatever. If guns cause crime, matches cause arson.
Learn & respect the power and you will be protected.
smith&wesson
Debbie Morgan 5-05-2008 @ 3:20AM
A teenager being trusted with a gun is probably not the best idea but I agree that she should have had something better to protect herself with besides a cell phone. Non- lethal weapons come in several forms from the average stun device to stun batons that the police use to the innocent looking cell phone stun device. It looks like a cell phone but is really a stun device. This would have been a good thing for her to have in addition to her actual cell phone. She could have called for help with one and incapacitated her attacker with the other! There are lots of places to get them but check out http://officialsafetyandsecurity.com first.
Clicktrick 5-04-2008 @ 8:57PM
FINALLY a teen using a cell phone at the right & for the right reason! I'm glad she lived to tell about it.
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cannotbelievethis 5-04-2008 @ 9:04PM
I know how to text, but not as fast as the kids... their fingers fly... quick thinking on the girl's part, quick thinking (and a very Charlie's Angels move) on the part of her mom. True, the door shouldn'tve been unlocked, but some burglars might see that as confrontational (no I don't suggest leaving your doors unlocked) and become even more violent... glad it turned out so well!
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maryjane 5-04-2008 @ 9:05PM
i will be practicing my text messageing skills ....im not that good right now ...plus i got a tricky phone...the cheap one by net ten
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johnnyboy 5-04-2008 @ 9:10PM
Good for her, too bad we all have to look out for these asswipe thieves
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Princess 5-04-2008 @ 9:22PM
Smart girl, but come on Mom, teach your
daughter to lock doors and windows until
it becomes second nature. It's sad but that's
how the world is now.
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Princess 5-04-2008 @ 9:25PM
Kate, you must live way out in the country.
This girl should have been taught to always keep
doors locked, whether someone is home or not!!!!
Sad, but this is just the way the world is now.
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shannon 5-04-2008 @ 9:45PM
I totally agree I always keep my doors locked even if we are home. You just never know nowadays what's on a person's mind. I'm so glad this story had a happy ending. I live in NC and the same thing happened to a little girl that was home alone due to being sick. Unfortunately she was killed.
melissa 5-04-2008 @ 9:32PM
it's called T9 or Word on your phone...you can text paragraphs in seconds. learn it. live it. love it. really.
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trish73 5-04-2008 @ 9:43PM
Melissa.......... I'm one of those adults, that have to have some things, spelled out for me. Tell me, more about T9, or "Word" How does T9, get you to text, a paragraph, in just seconds? You can E~mail me, if you like. Thanks. I live alone, and would like to know more about it. I don't think, I have to put my address, on here, because, I've had others E~mail me, without me giving them, my address. Thanks again.
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Jenn 5-05-2008 @ 1:07AM
Trish,
for T9 you just hit the number that responds to the letter. You do not have to press it more than once to scroll through the letters. for example cat would be 2-2-8 rather than 2-2-2-2-8. if the word you are looking for does not automatically come up, you use "usually" 0 to scroll through words.
Jenn
trish73 5-04-2008 @ 9:47PM
Melissa............ Please read my comment to you, I didn't see a place to reply, until, I had already written you. Thank you, again.
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