3rd Time Wasn't a Charm for Home Invader

A home invader looking for an easy mark tried his hand at breaking into two St. Petersburg homes Wednesday morning before settling on a third. That’s when St. Petersburg Police caught the 32-year-old red-handed.

The incident unfolded around 1:30 a.m. when police received calls from two homes in the area of 22nd Avenue North and 63rd Street. Residents at two homes said someone had broken their windows and attempted to come inside. In both cases, the person responsible fled without actually entering.

When police arrived in the neighborhood, they heard a commotion coming from a different home in the 6300 block of 22nd Avenue North. At that third home, police spotted a broken out jalousie window and heard a woman’s screams, an email from department spokesman Mike Puetz said.

It didn’t take them long to turn their attention toward that home. Once inside, police officers encountered a man armed with a knife.

“He was quickly disarmed at gunpoint and taken into custody,” Puetz said.

With the man secured, officers interviewed the home’s occupants and discovered that the homeowner was in the hospital and the woman’s two adult daughters were sleeping inside when they heard the window break. When they got up to investigate, they found the man already in their living room, Puetz said.

The two women began to retreat toward their bedrooms when the intruder picked up a dresser and threw it at one of the woman, injuring her arm. The second woman threw a lamp at the man and went into the kitchen, grabbed knifes and began to throw them at the man.

The intruder recovered one of the knives, but that’s when police arrived on the scene.

Michael Odhiamba was booked into the Pinellas County Jail on one count of armed residential burglary to an occupied home. He was being held Thursday morning on $150,000 bond.

Charges in the two other burglary attempts are pending, Puetz said.

Photo Credit: Michael Odhiamba/St. Petersburg Police Department

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