Stratford, Conn.– An 11-year-old girl’s stick figure drawing has led to the arrest of a serial burglar. Now she’s being honored by police in her hometown.
A string of burglaries on Rebecca Depietro’s street prompted her to take action, “I was like oh I can draw a picture of him.” She went on to draw a stick figure sketch after police came to her door in Stratford a few months ago. They were asking if she’d seen anyone suspicious and luckily, she had.
She admits, “I drew a picture of him it wasn’t like the best picture it was just a head some legs..I thought like oh he’s probably just going to crumple it up and throw it out.”
Instead, police took the two minute doodle seriously. Chief Patrick Ridenhour with Stratford Police says, “For us to take that sketch and match it up it was remarkable.”
They matched it up to suspect Pedro Bruno who has since confessed to 10 burglaries, including the break in at Depietro’s own home.
The 11-year-old got a standing ovation at the Stratford Police awards ceremony. The honoree says, “Like wowwww like you’re awesome, like you did it, I have to give a lot of credit to my art teacher.”
Depietro says she’s not quite sure if she wants to be a sketch artist when she grows up but police say thanks to her drawing, not only were they able to make an arrest, they were able to recover some of the items the suspect stole.
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