ATASCOCITA, Texas – Deputies are searching for the burglars who stole a family's Christmas.
At about 9:30 a.m. Monday, Sarah McCracken, her sister, and brother were inside their home in Atascocita when they heard something.
"We heard it again and he ran over to the door and kind of like pushed it a little bit and we kept hearing the slight knocking," McCracken said. "And then all of the sudden, we hear a boom!"
Authorities said burglars kicked in the front door and set off the burglar alarm. The three children hid in a closet. McCracken called 911 while her 12-year-old sister contacted their mom.
"I was trying to whisper while I was on the phone," McCracken said. "I kind of figured if they heard us, they would try to figure out where we were. So I told my little brother and my sister to be quiet just in case and I tried to whisper on the phone so they wouldn't know we were in there."
Their mother rushed home from work as a 911 dispatcher sent Harris County sheriff's deputies to the house.
The children could hear the men coming up the stairs, but the suspect never found them.
"Normally, whenever people rob or something, they sometimes, if they find someone, they hurt them! And so, I was scared," said 12-year-old Emily Wallace.
No one was hurt. The three kids said they did not know the burglars were gone until deputies arrived.
Once they went downstairs, the kids found expensive Christmas presents missing, and a TV and a couple of iPods were gone from another part of the home.
Their mom says the burglars possibly got away in a charcoal-colored Monte Carlo with a hubcap missing on the back driver's side.
"It's Christmas. These are children. It's not about me and my possessions. You can take anything I have, but my children," said mother Charity Wallace. "They look forward to Christmas. I understand people don't have things. But we struggle just like everybody else. Our Children deserve to have a Christmas and not be scared. That's the main thing. My children now, they don't want to stay in their own home! Because they feel violated and it's not right."