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Hawk visits Davidson home, helps foil burglary
Feathered houseguest inspires watchfulness
MARK WASHBURN
Staff Writer

DAVIDSON - A hawk swooped into this small town this week and indirectly helped finger -- er, talon -- a burglary suspect.

The bird flew into a glass patio door, interrupting the dinner of Davidson College classics professor Peter Krentz and his family. The Krentzes called Mark Stanback, an ornithologist and associate professor at Davidson College, who arrived to find the bird addled, head tucked under wing.

Fearing that a cat or other predator might attack it on the ground, Stanback took the 2-pound Cooper's hawk home in a box and put it in the laundry room. He planned to let the bird recover overnight and then set it free.

The professor's sleep was interrupted about 5 a.m. Tuesday by a commotion in the laundry room. Thinking the hawk had regained its senses and was making a ruckus to return to the wild, he opened the laundry room door.

Instead of a hawk run amok, there stood a stranger.

"At first I thought it was my reflection, then I realized it was a man," Stanback said.

The man bolted out the back. Stanback pursued, pounced and forced the suspect to the ground.

"He had the guy down in his driveway," said Davidson Police Chief J.J. Kearin. "We don't get that lucky all the time."

Matthew Kauffman, 18, of Davidson, is now a jailbird being held in the Mecklenburg County Jail awaiting trial. He was charged with burglary and is being held in lieu of $11,000 bond.

Police are investigating whether he might be connected to a string of break-ins on Pine Road in Davidson.

The hawk, none the worse for its night of excitement, was taken from the box the next morning, stretched its wings and took flight. It was last seen on a tree branch, watching over the Stanback home.