A burglar broke into a Covington, Washington home, and what he did while the family was asleep left everyone confused and concerned.
According to the King County Sheriff’s Office, the burglar decided to calmly make himself a meal, eating half of a Lean Cuisine frozen entrée and some Eggo Waffles. The man also randomly decided to start the dryer in the home, though it appears that he did not touch their clothes that were inside the machine.
Deputies were called to the home at around 4 a.m., after the homeowners had been startled awake by the burglar swinging open their bedroom door.
Amy Padgett said that she was awoken by a noise early that morning, but she was not concerned until she and her Marine veteran husband heard the sound a second time.
“With that, our bedroom door flung open and there was an individual standing in our bedroom door,” Padgett said. “That is the image that does not leave my head.”
After the door swung open, Padgett screamed, and she, her husband, and their 19 year old son chased the man down the stairs and out of the house.
“The individual then kind of turned around and got to the front door, asked if he could get his shoes, at which point my husband informed him no, he really needed to leave our home,” she said.
As soon as they had gotten the burglar out of their home, they called 911.
When deputies arrived on the scene, they discovered that the suspect had gotten into the home via an open ground floor window, removing the screen and climbing through.
The window had been left open all night accidentally, as the area was experiencing a historic heat wave.
“We had the windows open, my husband and I each thought the other locked the window, nobody had,” Padgett said.
Padgett surveyed their home after the burglar left to see what he had done, and found that their bathroom was in disarray and their dryer was turned on.
“But it was all our laundry. He just started it again,” Padgett said.
The suspect had also eaten some Eggo Waffles, a Lean Cuisine meal, yogurt, and popsicles, and had used her son’s Epi pens.
The burglar was later identified as Philip Neal Cedarleaf, who had been faced separate burglary charges from just two weeks before this incident.
He was found by police just a short distance away from the Padgetts’ home, and was taken into custody and charged with residential burglary. At the time of his arrest, Cedarleaf was in possession of several items stolen from the Padgetts, including cash and car keys.
