A Fruitport teenager suffered a terrifying experience when she came home from school Thursday afternoon.
“I opened the door, and I heard something in my house. So then I started screaming,” Julie said.
She stood face to face with a burglar. Moments before that, she had seen a second man run into the woods next her home in the 4900th Block of Sheridan Road.
“He ran around me, went out the front door and I grabbed the house phone and I called 911, and I chased him out down my driveway,” she explained.
She flagged down drivers. That`s where her neighbor Felicia and Savannah come in. Felicia happened to be backing out of her driveway.
“I`m like Julie what`s wrong, what`s going on? And she`s like he broke into my house and can you just follow him, please just follow. I`m like yea, I can do that,”
The best friends followed the man they say he was trotting down Sheridan Road. They say he eventually slowed to a walk.
“Savannah threw me her phone and was like ‘take a picture of him,’” Leynn said. She snapped a photo just in case the man got away.
Fruitport police said a group of teenage boys just getting out of school helped the girls keep the burglar at bay until they arrived. They circled the man and told him to stay put.
A K9 track led to the second suspect. Both men were arraigned in district court on Friday.
Police said Milton Marshall, 49, and Todd Lemieux, 42, have multiple felony convictions and had just been released from prison.
Now they’re heading back to jail thanks to some quick-thinking Samaritans.
“I was scared, I didn`t` really get scared until after the fact and I was like oh, well, that happened and we were a part of it,”
“I’m glad we did it, I’m glad we were there,” Leynn said.
The Muskegon County prosecutor said both men are in jail for first degree home invasion. Marshal is being held on $100,000 bond. Lemieux has a $50,000 bond.
