A 26-year-old Gardnerville Ranchos woman reported Tuesday she stepped out of the shower at 10:40 a.m. to find a stranger fleeing down the hallway of her home in the 1300 block of Langley.
The woman told Douglas County sheriff's investigators she was in the shower when she observed a shadow at the bathroom door. She believed it was her 3-year-old son whom she left sleeping on the living room couch.
She said the door opened slightly, but her son never appeared.
She put on a towel and stepped into the hall where she saw a person running toward the living room and out the front door.
She described the intruder as large and was unable to say whether it was a man or woman because she saw the suspect from the back.
She closed and locked the front door and saw that her son was asleep on the couch.
Investigators said the woman's front door had been pried open with an unknown tool.
Officers followed shoe impressions in the snow from the victim's home for nearly a mile through side streets and greenbelts before losing the trail near Scarselli Elementary School.
"The incident has been classified as a home invasion," said Sgt. Tom Mezzetta. "The intruder's intent upon breaking into the home is unknown. The possibilities range from an act of theft to something much more sinister."
Mezzetta said suspicious activity was reported in the area Feb. 26 about 11 a.m. A woman on Kimmerling reported a man knocked on her door and asked if he could come inside to retrieve photographs he left in the residence when a friend lived in the home. The subject was denied entry and left without incident.
Just before midnight Wednesday, a Manhattan Way resident called 911 because she thought someone was trying to break in her back door. She also thought she heard someone throw an object at her house.
Deputies were unable to find any footprints or evidence, but provided extra patrol in the neighborhood.
Mezzetta asked anyone with information in the two cases, or anyone who has experienced a similar incident to contact the sheriff's office at 782-9911.
