TICKER: Snooze, you lose: Alleged burglars caught after nap

Who needs Superman when you have the Sandman? In this case, a cup of coffee could have changed everything for two accused criminals.

Police found the suspected burglars after waking from a nap in their car outside the houses they admitted to robbing Thursday morning. The drowsy duo’s Chevy Camaro was packed with $30,000 of electronics from several houses and cars on Pine Meadow Drive in DeBary, Fla.

Matthew Swaggerty, 21, and Timothy Marrison, 20, are charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling, burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and grand theft auto, reported WFTV.

While driving away, the pair reportedly reached a dead end. Instead of pulling into a driveway to turn around or performing a proper K-turn, the driver — in a hurry – pulled onto witness Hans Kretchmer’s lawn to turn around. The driver ran over a sprinkler head, which burst open, spouted water and created a mud ditch.

The getaway vehicle got stuck, so Swaggerty and Marrison dedicated the rest of their night to prying the Chevy from its rut. They even asked an uncooperative Kretchmer to pull them off his lawn at about 3 a.m. He was unaware of any robberies at the time.

The pair reportedly tried to get the tire’s free from the mud with fence pickets. They also reportedly took Kretchmer’s shovel from his shed to dig the tires from the lawn, but they “couldn’t use it because it was a coal shovel. It wasn’t made for digging,” Kretchmer said.

Swaggerty and Marrison — apparently exhausted from their bungled escape attempt — drifted off to sleep in the vehicle, before waking up to give the escape part of the caper another try, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

One of the victims Eileen Simoneau could not find her iPhone when she woke up Thursday morning. Her husband checked to see if it was in the couple’s car, only to realize that his car keys were also missing. When they could not locate their pricey camera equipment, they called the police.

That is when they remembered that they have an iPhone tracker app. The alleged bandits did not turn the phone off so the app located Simoneau’s cell phone in their neighbor’s front yard.

A deputy found Swaggerty and Marrison around 6 a.m. with assistance from the iPhone app, but — given their proximity — he likely would have found them without it. They were taken to Volusia County Jail.

Authorities think the pair may be responsible for more break-ins in the area.

“I’m laughing now,” Simoneau said. “But the sense of violation, knowing that they were in our home, is terrifying.”

NY Daily News

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