Two male juveniles in Palmetto with pending criminal charges were caught Wednesday morning while burglarizing a home on Carlton Drive.

Detective John Cooper, Police Chief Bobby Fronebarger and other officers responded to a call from neighbors at approximately 10 a.m. reporting the likelihood of burglars present in a nearby home.

Cooper and Officer Allen Robinson arrived at the residence while Fronebarger and Officer Mike Upshur patrolled the immediate area after learning that the two might have fled on foot.

Cooper spotted the two juveniles, later verified as ages 15 and 16, exiting the house as he rounded the corner into the back yard. Cooper ordered the two to stop but they fled through the back yard and into a heavily wooded area, populated with briars and underbrush and waist-deep swamp water.

Cooper and Robinson gave chase while Fronebarger and Upshur moved to a location on the other side of the wooded area, near the city treatment plant. Determined not to allow the burglars to escape, Palmetto police herded the unwitting felons through the underbrush and the swamp. The teenagers were apprehended as they emerged from the swampy water. Bags carried by the burglars contained a laptop computer, camcorder, cell phone, camera and a credit card.

Cooper surveyed the residence, finding a kitchen and living room area in disarray, with items thrown needlessly around the house. The refrigerator door was open, with items such as milk and catsup having been removed and thrown onto the floor, onto a lamp and the kitchen table and onto the screen of a large television in the living room.

“They really tore this house apart,” Cooper said.

A subsequent check of the briar-infested woods by Cooper, Robinson and Officer Richard Cheek revealed no evidence left behind by the burglars during their brief flight.

The couple who had reported the burglary arrived a short time later at Palmetto Police Department, thanking officers for their response. The officers, in turn, thanked the couple for their service tho their neighbors.

Charges against the two teenagers are pending on other crimes in the area, Cooper said.

Two other burglaries have occurred recently at residences on Carlton Drive.

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