Manhattan Beach homeowner and former mayor Suzanne Hadley experienced a break-in at her house on Friday night - and is sharing lessons learned from the incident. 

Intruders began casing Hadley's home, at the westernmost end of the Tree Section, at around 6:20 p.m. Hadley was home and noticed three suspicious men walking around the house. 

"When one reached up and disconnected one of the Ring cameras, I called 911," she said. "They then broke an upstairs window when I was on the phone with 911."

Hadley continued: "MBPD arrived quickly for which I'm very grateful. PD does not think the perps successfully entered the home. Nothing appears to be taken; our home was not ransacked. I'm grateful for these small wins."

She described the suspects as medium-build males with hoodie sweatshirts and caps, with one wearing a dark string backpack, but she could not tell age, race, facial hair or other details. She provided police with the Ring camera footage obtained from her home. 

Hadley expressed gratitude to the MBPD and Hawthorne PD whose teams arrived quickly, noting that the lights and sirens most likely scared away the intruders. She also praised MBPD's K-9 cops, whose dog searched the house to make sure no one was hiding. 

Hadley said that a home repair project at her house appeared to have made the house more vulnerable. The suspects were able to climb the scaffolding to get easier entry to the second floor, and some cameras and motion sensor lights had been covered or turned off, raising the risk to the house, she said. 

She also urged residents to install motion sensor cameras that store video. The police were able to clip the videos and save the evidence from this incident. Furthermore, she said, when she first got an alert from her Ring camera about people outside the house, it gave her valuable time to call the police. 

Hadley has been a Neighborhood Watch block captain for over 15 years. She told MB News that being aware of local crime reports, attending Neighborhood Watch training, knowing her neighbors, and attending the Community Policy Academy helped minimize the crime's impact on her home. 

Hadley's lessons also align with advice that Manhattan Beach police give regarding residential burglaries, namely: Lock doors and windows, install surveillance cameras, place lights on timers, don't advertise vacation plans on social media, install first and second floor glass break alarms, and call the police if you see any suspicious activity. 

Manhattan Beach experiences varying numbers of residential burglaries each month. According to MBPD's most recent monthly crime reports, there were five residential burglaries in October, 11 in November, and one in December.