Teenager confronts suspected home intruder, helps police catch him

MIDDLEBOROUGH, Mass. (WCVB) - A Massachusetts teenager is earning rave reviews after she confronted a home intruder and helped police catch him.

“I think it was very scary,” 14-year-old Avery Cormier said.

Cormier did not let fear stop her when a stranger broke into her home in Middleborough, Massachusetts, on Friday morning.

“I heard the boots walk through the house and I thought that my mom might have just forgotten her phone and came back until I realized that’s not my mom,” she said.

So, she grabbed two steak knives from the kitchen and confronted the man.

“I was screaming at the top of my lungs to get out of my house, get out. That’s really it,” Cormier said.

Cormier said she didn’t really have a lot going through her head as it happened.

“It was just kind of adrenaline,” she said.

The suspect then fled and Cormier called 911. She also managed to record a video of him driving away.

It’s the video that police said cracked the case.

“She had the wherewithal in the moment of extreme stress and scary event to be able to think on her feet,” Middleborough Police Chief Joseph Perkins said.

And now 58-year-old Joseph Ridge is behind bars. Police said he has a long criminal record.

“She’s a straight-A student. She’s like, she’s just, she’s ... I don’t know, I’m blessed to have a daughter like her,” Cormier’s mother, who did not provide her name, said.

Cormier is relieved there was no violence, and in hindsight thinks she should have first called 911.

“Call the police before you do anything,” she said. “Don’t just grab knives and go chase after him. Might not work out.”

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