13-year-old’s quick thinking credited for keeping her safe during break-in

HARRISON TWP, MI — Chloe Symington curled up beside her bed, whispering softly into her cell phone. “He’s in my room,” the 13-year-old told the 911 dispatcher.

Then the line went silent.

On Thursday afternoon, two men broke into the Symington house in Harrison Township, ransacking the rooms in search of valuables. Chloe, home sick from school, sat motionless among things on the floor, trying not to breathe. A man walked in, wearing a black cap and a jacket. He crossed the carpet, stopping some 3 feet to Chloe’s right. He looked around, then left, yelling that the coast was clear — no one was home.

“How did he not see you?” asked the dispatcher, who’d stayed on the phone even when Chloe stopped responding.

“I don’t know,” said Chloe, trying to wedge herself under the bed.

Chloe’s cool head not only saved her from harm, but helped police catch the two men as they left her home thinking no one knew what they had done.

On Friday afternoon, at the 41-B District Court in Clinton Township, Daniel Laflin and Michael Zdanukiewicz, both 19 and of Clinton Township, were arraigned on charges of home invasion, conspiracy, larceny of firearms and assaulting/resisting a police officer. They’d walked out of the Symington home Thursday with the family’s Christmas presents — Apple electronics, a camera and jewelry. They’d also taken a gun belonging to Noel Symington, Chloe’s father. The men’s black van was at the end of the block.

So were sheriff’s deputies.

The men saw police, dropped the goods and ran. Laflin was on probation for felony drug charges. Zdanukiewicz had no record. Both were arrested nearby.

“These are very serious charges,” Magistrate Daniel Goulette said Friday as he arraigned Zdanukiewicz by video. The home invasion charges carry a sentence of up to 20 years. Laflin said he was getting help for a drug problem. Zdanukiewicz barely spoke.

Goulette set Laflin’s bond at $50,000, Zdanukiewicz’s at $30,000. They’ll be back in court within the next two weeks.

Noel Symington said he is proud of his daughter, who took his advice to heart — stay calm, panic later.

“It’s common sense that cooler heads prevail,” he said. “In a situation that is out of control, you have to remain in control.”

Chloe said she heard knocking on the door about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, but didn’t answer — she isn’t allowed to when no one is home. She saw the black van drive away. A few minutes later, she heard more noises. The two men had entered through the garage door. At the top of the stairs, she looked down. One was rifling through things in a table by the door. His back was to her. She grabbed her phone, ran in her room and called 911.

“I think there’s someone in my house, I don’t know who,” Chloe said to the 911 dispatcher. “I’m 13 years old, I don’t know what to do.”

The burglary lasted a few minutes at most. After they left, Chloe stayed under her bed until the 911 dispatcher assured her police were there.

She called her mom, then her dad. Both were at work. Both raced home. Her sister, Kelsey Symington, 19, was at her boyfriend’s house, waiting for a ride to work. She, too, detoured to Hamon Street. “She’s my little sister,” said Kelsey. “She means the world to me.”

Kelsey’s anger doubled on Friday, as she learned who the burglars were. Laflin was an old acquaintance who’d been to the house before. She said she hadn’t talked to him in years.

“I’m just so heartbroken right now,” Kelsey said.

The eighth-grader said throughout the ordeal, despite the fear, she channeled her father’s words.

“My life was on the line,” she said. “Who knows what would have happened?”

She lost her composure only for a second, she said, when the sound of her dog’s feet on the downstairs floor stopped. The yellow Lab is friendly, and didn’t bark, she said, so she wondered: Is he dead? Did the robbers take him? But the dog was safe.

Macomb County Sheriff Tony Wickersham gave the teenager kudos for having a cool head.

“She did a great job,” Wickersham said. “Obviously, you never know what to expect. And such a young girl, knowing someone broke into her house, she did a great job remaining calm.”

Noel Symington said the ordeal has left the family shaken, but not broken. The loss of Christmas presents is nothing compared with what could have happened.

“We’re the same people as we were yesterday,” he said Friday, “just a little smarter. The four of us are still together.”

Read the story here.

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