An alert neighbor called 911 and foiled the burglary of a local business.

The neighbor notified the Hoquiam Police Department after hearing suspicious noises and seeing someone crawl under a fence at Harbor Saw and Supply Thursday night. It took less than a minute after dispatched for police to arrive at the business where they found and arrested the suspect.

Officer Jarrod Figg spotted a man in the equipment yard and ordered him to the ground, but the suspect fled and tried to hide behind a storage container. Sgt. Jeff Salstrom found a hole in the fence on the east side of the property and a pair of bolt cutters lying nearby. He then spotted the suspect and ordered him to surrender, but the man refused.

Both Sgt. Salstrom and Officer Blundred entered the yard through the hole in the fence, while an employee who had heard the call on a scanner let Officer Figg in through a gate. The suspect was quickly surrounded and gave up without further incident.

“Kudos to the neighbor who called it in,” said Hoquiam Police Chief Jeff Myers.

The suspect is a 40-year-old man from Del Rio, Calif. An investigation found he was on probation from California for drug offenses and had a felony warrant for burglary from Eureka.

It’s fortunate he was apprehended, because according to Myers, crimes committed by people from out of state are tougher to solve.

“If he had gotten away it would have been a lot harder to solve because we usually can’t use our local informants and sources,” he said. “So we are really fortunate somebody called in. People should always call in when they see something suspicious.”

The suspect was booked into the Grays Harbor County Jail for second degree burglary. After completion of legal proceedings here, he may face extradition to California.