Burglary Suspect Trapped in Houston Chimney for Two Hours on Easter

The dog started barking just before 1 a.m. on Easter Sunday. On the 9100 block of Tooley Drive, in the southwest Houston neighborhood where the Southwest Freeway meets Beltway 8, homeowner Joni Mitchell was downstairs when the barking gave way to something harder to explain: a male voice, coming from inside her chimney.

Edwin Leonel Salmeron Granados, 35, had climbed the fence behind the residence, scaled the roof, pried off the chimney cap, and attempted to lower himself into the home through the flue. He never made it. Houston Police Department officers who arrived found him wedged partway inside the stone chimney, yelling for help. The initial 911 call had come in as a report of someone jumping on the roof; officers quickly determined the situation was a burglary attempt.

The Houston Fire Department faced a blunt problem once on scene: extracting a man from solid stone. Firefighters told Mitchell they would have to break through the chimney to get him out. "I hope we don't have to pay for it because that looks really expensive," she said. The crew cut through the chimney and freed Salmeron Granados after roughly two hours. He was transported to a hospital with minor injuries and taken into custody.

The chimney cap removal is worth noting for southwest Houston homeowners: older or unsecured caps can often be lifted off without tools, leaving the flue accessible from the roof. Mitchell's dog performed as the neighborhood's real early-warning system, alerting her before any chimney noise was audible. HPD advises calling 911 immediately when an intruder is suspected on or in a residence; the department's Priority 1 response, covering active intrusions, averaged 6.1 minutes citywide as of mid-2025.

During the rescue, a Spanish-speaking firefighter relayed that Salmeron Granados claimed he had been chased and was trying to hide. Investigators have not confirmed that account. The Harris County District Attorney's Office charged him with burglary of a habitation regardless, a second-degree felony under Texas Penal Code §30.02 that carries 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Police have not said when he will appear before a judge.

The arrest came squarely in Houston's most active burglary corridor. A KPRC 2 investigation identified the Westheimer area inside the Sam Houston Tollway as the city's top residential burglary hotspot in 2024, with 184 reported break-ins since January 1 of that year. Harris County recorded more than 18,000 burglaries countywide that year, and Houston's property crime rate of roughly 4,582 per 100,000 residents runs about 134 percent above the national average.

The Tooley Drive chimney is not the first in Harris County to trap a burglar. In February 2016, crews spent roughly four hours dismantling a chimney in the 4400 block of Spring Stuebner in Spring to free 20-year-old Lauren Fox, who had dropped into a vacant home the same way. Fox was charged with criminal trespass of a habitation, a lesser offense than what Salmeron Granados now faces. The difference in charges tracks directly to one fact: Mitchell's home was occupied.