BRISTOL Burglary victim's patience pays off

The victim held the intruder at gunpoint and ordered him to call 911.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
BRISTOL -- Jerald Miller's home has been broken into before, but no one took his .45-caliber handgun.
So the 49-year-old state Route 88 man camped out in his living room with his gun to catch the intruder.
His patience was rewarded about 10 a.m. Tuesday.
"Someone was here last week and even last year, and I just had a feeling someone would come again," the Bristol Township man said.
"So I was here waiting for him and greeted him as he sashayed into my living room."
He pointed the gun at the teen-ager and ordered the boy to sit down.
"I told him to pick up the portable telephone and call 911," Miller said. "I wanted his voice on the 911 tape."
On the 911 tape the teen says to the dispatcher, "I was just at this house and this guy thinks I was breaking in and he wants the sheriff down here and he has a gun on me."
That's when Miller gets on the phone and tells the dispatcher the boy entered his home "unannounced and uninvited."
Arrested: Deputy Roger Gregory arrested the teen on a charge of delinquency by way of aggravated burglary. The boy is being held in the Trumbull County juvenile detention center pending a hearing. Police haven't said whether the teen is a suspect in the previous break-ins at Miller's home.
"Last week someone stole a fishbowl with about $80 worth of change, a pocketknife and a compass," Miller said.
"I felt whoever did this knew our routine. They knew my son was in school, and they knew I would be at work, and they knew that my large dog is friendly."
So Miller hatched a plan.
Lying in wait: Instead of going to work, he drove down the road, parked his truck in the school parking lot and walked back to his house.
He sat quietly inside, not answering the knock on the front door.
"I heard the person go around to the back of the house and come in the back door," Miller said, noting that door was not locked.
"The person did not call out and ask if anyone was home. He just walked into my living room. I know he didn't expect to find me here," Miller said. "I just wanted to protect my house."
sinkovich@vindy.com