02/14/2009

Associated Press

Patrick Rosario had a clever way of making sure a pair of burglars didn't get away with his three flat-screen TVs: He stole their van.

The 32-year-old, laid-off Washington Mutual manager was in the basement of his Bellevue home Tuesday afternoon when he heard the thieves upstairs. He called 911 as he snuck out of the house and, against the advice of the dispatcher, hopped into the getaway car — a white Ford van that was parked in front of his house, still running — and drove away.

The burglars took off on foot, leaving a pile of televisions, a laptop and a jewelry box by the door. A witness who was visiting a home across the street saw them. According to the detectives' report, "the males looked back ... and appeared startled."

"I wish I could have seen the look on their faces," Rosario told The Seattle Times.

He said he recognizes it probably wasn't the wisest thing to do, but it nevertheless earned him some high-fives from responding officers.

"Two pulled up, and they looked over at me and go, 'You stole their car — way to go, dude. That's awesome,'" Rosario said. "Another told me that I just made her month."

The suspects remained at large.

Rosario, a technology-program manager who is one of the thousands of WaMu employees laid off following the bank's historic collapse, was working in his basement, building a fiberglass part for a car. His wife, Jamie, was at work, and his 2-year-old son, Thomas, was at day care.

He heard something like a knock on the front door, then a loud noise. Up the basement stairs, he peered through a one-inch opening under the door into the main living area, and saw a pair of unfamiliar jeans. He could hear the slap of electrical cords against hardwood as one of his TVs was being hoisted away.

He hurried back down, grabbed a hammer for self-defense, and ran out a back door. In front of the house, he encountered the van.

Rosario told the dispatcher he was taking the van and drove it to a friend's house to wait for the police.

"We expect responsible adults to make their own decisions," said King County Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart. "Clearly, this worked in this case, but in another case it might not have."

Rosario said he's already replaced his broken door, bought pepper spray and installed a "robust" alarm system.

"I got lucky," Rosario said. "In retrospect, it was pretty stupid."

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Information from: The Seattle Times, http://www.seattletimes.com