A 9-year-old girl in Westminster is being praised for her quick thinking and composure after calling 911 during a home invasion early in the morning on April 3.
According to the Westminster Police Department, Jorge Mendoza Diaz, 34, broke into the family’s home by smashing a window while the girl was upstairs. Her father confronted the intruder, using pepper spray and forcing him out of the home. As the situation unfolded, the child calmly called 911 and reported, “There’s someone breaking into my house,” as reported by NBC Los Angeles.
Police arrived within three minutes and arrested Diaz in the backyard of a neighboring property. He now faces charges of residential burglary.
Westminster Police Chief Darin Lenyi commended both the girl and her father for their actions. “I am very glad that the actions of both the 9-year-old and her father were such that kept the situation from possibly becoming much more serious,” Lenyi said in a statement. He also invited the girl to consider a future role in law enforcement as either an officer or dispatcher.
The Westminster Police Department shared the 911 audio, edited to remove personal details and unclear sounds, on its official Facebook page, highlighting it as a valuable example for parents to use when teaching children how to respond in emergencies.
Further illustrating the significance of the young girl's composed actions during the crisis, an audio clip of the 911 call was published, demonstrating her ability to accurately convey the seriousness of the situation to the dispatcher, as highlighted by a CBS News Los Angeles report which noted, "The calm nature of the nine-year-old can clearly be heard in the 911 call."
