Like many girls her age, 14-year-old Savannah Jones started working as a babysitter by watching her relative’s children. Savannah was alone with her 4-year-old niece Zoyee when she heard a knock on the door of her California home. She peeked through the peephole and saw a suspicious man she didn’t recognize.
Something didn’t feel right, so Savannah grabbed Zoyee and hid her in the bathroom. Savannah ran back to the main part of the house and heard the man trying to open their locked door. She tried calling her mother, then the man started kicking.
With no time left, Savannah ran for the bathroom to hide with her neice just moments before the door gave way. Now the intruder was in her house, and Savannah knew her top priority was keeping Zoyee quiet long enough for help to arrive.
Unable to talk for fear of being heard, Savannah began texting with her mother, Maria Muratalla. “I was very scared not so much for myself, but just Zoyee,” the brave young teen told KTLA, a local CBS affiliate. Muratalla called her neighbor who quickly ran over to their house, but the intruder had already left after ransacking two rooms.
Police arrived a short time later with a K-9 officer but were unable to find the intruder. The girls stayed successfully hidden and emerged unharmed from the bathroom.