Denton police used a drone to track down a getaway car and arrested two men Wednesday after a homeowner walked in on a burglary at his house on Fannin Street, according to a police report. A third person believed to have been inside the home was still unaccounted for.
Officers were sent to a home in the 900 block of Fannin around 6:40 a.m. Wednesday. The resident told police he had been staying with his girlfriend, and when the two of them returned to his house they found three people inside. The couple shouted at the intruders to leave, then went to a neighbor's house, and the neighbor called 911.
Police said the back door appeared to have been forced and the house had been ransacked. An airsoft pistol was among several things missing. The resident also said a friend's truck had been parked at the house and that they saw the third person tearing it apart.
Using descriptions of the suspects and their vehicle from the resident and witnesses, officers sent up a unit from the department's Drone as First Responder program. Officers spotted a matching vehicle close to I-35E and Fort Worth Drive, and the drone operator reported that the driver's shirt matched what witnesses had described.
During the traffic stop, officers found the missing airsoft pistol in the car, according to the report. The driver, a 20-year-old from Krum, and his passenger, a 52-year-old from Denton, were arrested on suspicion of burglarizing a home. Both were still in the Denton County Jail on Thursday afternoon.
