GENESEE — Marlene Stecker huddled near her front window Sunday morning, doors locked tight like most of her neighbors’ along an back road near Lookout Mountain.
Phone cradled to her ear, Stecker told her husband about the reverse-911 calls authorities had been using since about 8 a.m. to alert the neighborhood to a suspected car thief on the lam in the area.
Then she screamed.
“God almighty! He’s walking right in front of the house!” Stecker remembers telling her husband, as a tall man in dark clothes emerged from the woods just yards away. She called the authorities.
Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies nabbed the man — partly with Stecker’s help — after he entered a home less than half a mile away. Authorities say he attacked a couple in the home, sending them to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
The unnamed couple’s tony subdivision of Riva Chase is the type of gated community where deer forage on lawns spread before palatial three-story homes — not where violent crimes take place, residents say.
Authorities say they think the man, whose name has not been released pending a photo lineup, entered the couple’s home through an open garage door, struck the woman over the head with a golf club and fought with the man.
The couple had just returned from a stay in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, last week, said neighbor Roy Roux.
“It’s really frightening. He very easily could have . . .” Roux said, his voice trailing off.
Authorities have recovered the Cadillac Escalade they said the man stole earlier Sunday and then ditched.
Deputies said that before he assaulted the couple, he had knocked on the door of a nearby house, but the owner didn’t recognize him and refused to open the door.
He then attacked the couple and fled on foot to Stecker’s property about half a mile away.
Using calls from other residents, deputies chased the man on foot and apprehended him on Stecker’s property.
He could face charges of attempted murder, first-degree burglary and aggravated motor vehicle theft, according to the authorities. The man also has a warrant in Florida for burglary.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
