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Quincy Teen Hides In Bedroom Closet, Calls Police During Burglary

QUINCY (CBS) – Police are crediting a brave 15-year-old girl for helping them nab two burglars. The Quincy teen was home alone when she heard the two men break in. She hid in her closet and made a desperate 911 call.

Those harrowing minutes hiding in her bedroom closet keep replaying in her mind.

"I was just waiting for him to look at me or see me or something," said Shayna Boyle. "I backed up as much as I could."

Shayna was home alone on Brook Road, just back from school and cleaning her room like her mom requested. She heard voices on the back deck and thought it was her friends, or her grandfather. But when she looked outside, she saw two strange men trying to break into a kitchen window.

Shayna dialed 911 from her cell phone as the burglars kicked in the basement door.

"As it was ringing, I heard the door crack open," says Shayna. "I could hear them coming upstairs."

Keenly aware she had only seconds to talk undetected; she whispered her address and situation to the dispatcher -- and then this exchange happened:

Shayna: "I need you, I need you, I need you."

Dispatcher: "Yup I have several cars coming up there right now OK?"

Shayna: "Please hurry!"

Dispatcher: "Yup, don't say anything!"

"And then one came into my room," she told WBZ-TV, "and because I was cleaning, the door wouldn't shut all the way so it was cracked open about an inch and a half."

For three minutes that seemed like three hours, the frightened teen watched a burglar rummage through her stuff, and pocket her jewelry, but never spotted her.

"And then the guy in the other room yelled 'The cops are here!'" said Shayna, "and the guy in my room said 'what?' and the other guy said 'You heard me the cops are here let's go!'"

Police arrested the pair sliding out the back deck door as officers and family marveled at Shayna's composure.

"Absolutely amazing," said her mom Lisa. "How she held it together like that is still mind boggling to me."

But the things she saw peering out from that closet are hard to forget.

"I still see them in my head," she says.

So for now, Shayna is sleeping elsewhere.

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