Sheriff: Girl returns home from school, finds man in her house

Palm Coast brothers accused in burglary

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – Two brothers from Palm Coast were arrested after a 13-year-old girl arrived home from school to find one of them inside her house, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.

David Christopher Willett, 30, and Alex Robert Haggett, 25, are accused in the incident, which took place in the B section of Palm Coast, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Department.

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Just after 2 p.m. Monday, sheriff’s officials took a phone call reporting the break-in on Birchwood Drive. The 13-year-old girl got home from school, found a man she didn’t know in a bedroom of her home, and yelled at him when he approached her, investigators said. The teen then ran from the house and went to a neighbor’s residence, where she called authorities.

The man left before sheriff’s officials arrived, deputies said.

When authorities got to the house, they started investigating and spoke to a neighbor, who reported seeing the same man from the burglary enter a silver Ford Focus, then drive away. Neither the car, nor the suspect, were found immediately.

But during a search for the car, people from a Lowe’s store in Palm Coast called the Sheriff’s Department and said a man matching the description provided earlier had just left the store carrying a box, deputies said.

A witness at the store spotted the Ford Focus as it left Lowe’s and followed the driver -- until he or she lost sight of the car near Beachway Drive.

Using this information, deputies were able to find the Focus near the intersection of Beachway Drive and Belle Terre Parkway, investigators said.

Haggett was driving and Willett was his passenger at one time, according to officials.

Deputies found Willett a short time later, walking near Belleaire Drive and Becket Lane. They detained both men for investigative purposes, sheriff’s officials said.

The 13-year-old girl identified Willett as the man she saw in her home, and a neighbor identified him as the man he saw running from the Birchwood Drive house. The same neighbor also confirmed Haggett to be the driver who took Willett from the site of the burglary, deputies said.

Willett was charged with the burglary of an occupied dwelling, possession of burglary tools, and criminal mischief. He’d just been released from the Florida Department of Corrections on Aug. 30. Willett was previously jailed for trafficking in stolen property, and grand theft.

Haggett is accused in the attempted burglary of an occupied dwelling.

Additional charges are pending.