Suspects accused of stealing AC unit

CODEN, Ala. (WALA) - A Coden couple is in Metro Jail charged with burglary, but police said the crime didn't go as planned.

According to reports, Salvadore Morales was asleep when a pair of strangers came to his door early Tuesday morning. 

"They get to the house. They touch the door, maybe 10, 15 minutes. I'm sleepy, but I hear, I get out my bed, but I don't open the door.  You know, they are no good people.  What are they doing at 4 o'clock in the morning?"

Morales was certain the man and woman were up to no good.

Morales said it appeared police were already looking for the pair when they came to his door, because he said they were arrested right down the street minutes after leaving his doorstep.

Police said Tonia Isham and Eric Esfeeller tried to steal a widow air conditioning unit from a home on Rock Road,  but the crime didn't go as planned.

"We had a victim call in and said someone was trying to burglarize his house. He actually recognized one of the two suspects that were eventually arrested.  It looked like they were trying to steal a window unit from his residence, and got their vehicle stuck in a ditch right there at his house while they were trying to get away," Corporal Harold Windham said.

Isham and Esfeeller were on foot when police picked them up just a couple of blocks from the intended victims home.

Windhamsaid both suspects have a criminal history in the area.

No bond has been set for the suspects.