San Diego

A San Diego police SWAT team broke into a Pacific Beach home Wednesday morning looking for a burglar who had surprised a sleeping resident, but the thief got away.

Esther Wyman, 35, told police she was confronted in her bedroom before 8 a.m. by an unkempt man with dirty blond hair who pointed a handgun at her and demanded money. Wyman, who lives in the 2100 block of Reed Street, said the burglar took her purse and ran. The discarded purse was later found, with its contents strewn on the ground, near the house.

Wyman, who was not injured, told police she was awakened by the sound of breaking glass. She got up to check the front door and returned to her bedroom, thinking the noise had originated from some construction workers nearby. Upon returning to her bedroom, Wyman said, she found the burglar standing by her bed.

After the man fled with her purse, Wyman locked herself in her bedroom and called police. She told officers that the armed burglar was still in her house. When SWAT officers arrived, police used a ladder to evacuate the woman through the window of her second-story bedroom.

Police knocked down the front door of her house to get inside, only to find that the burglar had fled. However, investigators found blood near a broken downstairs window and believe it came from the burglar.

Police spokesman Bill Robinson said the thief fits the description of a robber who broke into another Pacific Beach home Tuesday on the 2100 block of Oliver Street, pointed a handgun at two men living in the house and took a wallet from one of them.

It was not known how much money was taken from Wyman’s purse.