Young girls help police catch two alleged burglars

Collier County sheriff’s deputies arrested two men after receiving information about a burglary from two Naples girls.

Twelve-year-old Sonia Pierre and her sister, Doylene Pierre, of 5339 Dixie Drive, were home alone for about an hour Tuesday morning when a man in an orange shirt knocked on the front door, a Sheriff’s Office report said.

Doylene, 10, said she looked out the window and didn’t recognize the man. Moments later the girls heard a door at the rear of the house slide open and a heavy cabinet that blocked the door being moved, the report said.

“I was scared,” Doylene said. “(Sonia) took the telephone and both of us went (into) the bathroom.”

The girls called their father, Doy Pierre, who told them to call 911, Doylene said.

When deputies arrived, they discovered the sliding door open and the heavy cabinet blocking the doorway. They also found two “very frightened” girls in the bathroom.

The girls told the deputies they heard Spanish being spoken by two men, possibly coming from their mother’s room. Doylene also gave the deputies a description of the man she’d seen outside the front door.

Deputies walked through the neighborhood and asked residents if they’d seen a man in an orange shirt with another man. A neighbor, Briana Otero, told deputies that at about noon she’d seen the men cross her backyard on foot, the report said.

Deputies found Lorenzo Martinez-Alvarez, 24, and Fernando Rodriguez-Lozano, 32, both of 5204 Texas Ave., walking nearby. Doylene identified Martinez-Alvarez as the man at her door. Both men were arrested and charged with burglary.

The girl’s mother, Salane Pierre, 35, said the girls are not usually home by themselves. She said the girls are scheduled to start attending a summer program soon, but until then they will be going to work with their father, who is a broker at New Vision Mortgage.

Salane Pierre said her daughters did exactly what they’d been taught to do in a situation like this.

“They are heroes because they knew what to do,” she said.