KELOLAND Girl Helps Catch A Thief

Ally Gage is only 12-years-old but she says it was her eye for detail and love of detective shows that helped her assist police in catching a burglar this weekend.

The Gage family lives in a fairly quiet neighborhood. And this past weekend started out like any other.

"Our house is always very loud and it was nice so the older kids wanted to go outside and play," Amy Gage said.

Ally was walking across the yard, when something at the neighbor's house caught her eye.

"I was putting our dogs away and I remember that because I saw a guy come off on a bike. And our neighbors usually have a lot of guests there, so I thought he was just visiting," Ally said.

When police cars started to arrive, the Gages found out their neighbor had discovered a thief in his home. So they sent Ally over to lend a hand.

"Ally had said that she thought she saw someone go through the corridor, there's like the garage and then the house. So she thought she'd seen somebody go in and thought they were visiting. So we thought, you know maybe we should have you talk to the police officer," Amy said.

"He asked me what he was wearing. And I said I think like a brown jacket or the bike was brown and he was wearing a hat," Ally said.

That's all police needed. Officers made an arrest that same day.

"When she had seen the gentleman that was coming to the house, she had noticed he was on a bicycle. So the police officers knew that they weren't going to find him very close to our neighborhood. So they could look further out. And that was what helped them catch him. So that was really exciting," Amy said.

Ally says there are two things she'd like to be when she grows up. But thanks to the experience, she may be leaning more toward one over the other.

"Right now I want to be a detective or an artist," said Ally.

Ally's school resource officer told her if she did something cool this year, he would buy her a pizza. She says this will probably earn her the reward.