TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. — When 17-year-old Morgan Vorbeck heard the doorbell ring at six in the morning, she knew something was wrong; then she heard someone walking through her house.
"I saw a light beam kind of go across the wall, and I was like this is interesting why would someone have a flashlight in my house?" Vorbeck said.
The high school senior knew someone was inside her Tarpon Springs home on the 1000 block of Windsor Hill Way when she heard the recognizable creak of her backdoor opening. The break-in happened Thursday morning.
"I didn’t hear any footfalls or any steps or anything, so it sounded like he was staying still,” Vorbeck told ABC Action News reporter Michael Paluska. “Soon after, I saw his head turn into my bedroom. And he looked at me, and he stood there for like 10 seconds before I could even register anything.”
Vorbeck thinks she startled the burglar as much as he scared her. She said her mom left for work a few minutes earlier. Her car is in the shop, so the driveway was empty. She thinks the burglar thought nobody was home.
“I said you need to leave our house you are on private property; you need to leave, get out of my house,” Vorbeck said.
The burglar stood in Vorbeck's doorway for a few more seconds then ran out of the home empty-handed.
“Very happy that someone was watching over and protecting me in that situation,” Vorbeck said. "It could’ve gone a bunch of different ways. Something convinced him just to bolt out he knew it was the right choice just to leave.”
Vorbeck said it was dark in her house and the man was wearing a hoodie and covering his face.
Police said the burglar came into the home through an unlocked rear door of the location.
“We just assumed that it was going to be locked up like it always is,” Vorbeck said. “So, even if you think you are locked up, check again make sure."
Anyone with information about this incident can contact TSPD detectives at (727) 938-2849.
