PEARLAND, Texas – A Pearland man had to quickly duck behind a trash can when a group of car burglars fired multiple gunshots at him and his dog early Wednesday morning.
“We need to make it a little shrine now that it saved my life,” Mark Bautsch told KPRC 2.
He had just stepped out for a routine morning walk with his 5-year-old rescue dog, Shiner, when they stumbled into car burglars in the act.
According to Pearland Police, it happened around 4:20 a.m. Wednesday in the 3700 block of Inland Drive.
The suspects could be heard first firing nine rounds on surveillance video toward Bautsch and his dog, but luckily it was trash day.
He found a neighbor’s garbage can to hide behind while inadvertently letting go of Shiner’s leash, before the dog ran off.
“My first reaction was to move as fast as I can, almost dive behind the recycle bin and trash can,” he said.
He now has bandages on his elbow and knee and bullet holes riddle the neighborhood, including a car, front window, and garage door.
Pearland Police said they have received reports of 17 car burglaries in the neighborhood so far but there could be more. Surveillance videos from neighbors showed them rummaging through cars.
Minutes before Bautsch stepped outside, he said surveillance video later helped him realize the suspects had broken into his wife’s car and stole a taser, but he didn’t know the suspects were in the neighborhood when he started his day.
“If I would have come out two minutes sooner, I might have been facing him point blank,” Bautsch said.
Seconds after the gunfire, surveillance video captured the getaway car, a black Toyota Camry, honking several times. Police said that’s how they alerted the burglary crew, scattered through the neighborhood, to get in the car and take off before firing at least two more rounds.
Bautsch found Shiner, shaken up, hours later at a neighbor’s house.
“He’s still scared. He’s been hiding in the closet,” Bautsch said, adding that Shiner tore his paws up a bit after running away so quickly.
But their morning of terror won’t change how they start their day in the future.
“It’s an anomaly here in this community,” Bautsch said. “I’m not going to let it stop the way we live and my daily routine. But again, I feel like that I might have to be a little bit more precautious, unfortunately.”
About an hour before the Pearland car break-ins, around 3 a.m., Friendswood Police told KPRC 2 the same suspects are believed to be responsible for a string of at least seven reported car burglaries in the West Ranch subdivision.
Investigators at FPD saw the surveillance images of the suspects in Pearland’s Facebook post and matched it to the vehicle in their own investigation, a spokesperson for the department said.
Both departments are now asking neighbors to check surveillance cameras for any footage that could help detectives and encouraging everyone to lock their vehicle doors before going to bed.
Any tips can be reported to the Pearland Police Department at 281-997-4211 or Friendswood Police Department at 281-996-3300.