Categories: News, Schenectady County

Here’s a public service announcement for would-be burglars: Skip Jason Adams’ house.

The 30-year-old Schenectady High School teacher and baseball coach this week caught a stranger in the act of tossing his Niskayuna home in search of valuables, and in return, tossed him down the stairs.

On Tuesday, Adams returned to his house on Eastern Parkway just after 4 p.m. from a long day of teaching math and an eye doctor’s appointment. He was hoping to unwind by playing fetch with his dog, a Labrador-boxer mix named Bailey.

After backing his car into the driveway, Adams started to head for the front door when something unusual caught his eye: a twisting set of mountain bike tracks on the driveway.

“It’s fresh snow. There should be nothing in here,” Adams recalled thinking as he retraced the still-visible tire marks Wednesday.

He noticed footprints leading to the back door of his home, which was hanging open.

“I screamed, ‘I know you’re here,’ ” Adams said. “I don’t know why, but I did.”

He found Bailey, a rescue dog with a sweet temperament, cowering in the corner. That made him mad.

Up a short flight of stairs, he saw a basket of letters tossed all over the living room floor. That made him madder.

But there was still no sign of the burglar.

Adams charged up one more flight of stairs to the house’s top level, where, after a few seconds of furious searching, Adams found the suspect behind the door of the bedroom he and his wife, Erin, share.

Adams shoved the door, slamming it into the burglar’s face. The man, identified by police as 54-year-old career criminal Mark Snare, returned the shove and tried to run out of the house. But Adams, who ran track in high school and keeps in shape as a coach, caught him.

“I jump on him, and I go headfirst down the stairs. So does he,” Adams recalled.

The two fought vigorously, shattering the back side of Adams’ cellphone camera and the couple’s 20-gallon fish tank. Adams sustained a cut to his head, which later required four stitches.

Adams got in his licks, as well. Snare’s mug shot showed a scraped and bloodied face, injuries police confirmed were inflicted by Adams.

Adams said the intruder soon stood up and fled, abandoning a bag of valuables he’d gathered before being interrupted.

“I really wanted him to get what he deserved,” Adams said. So, head gushing blood, he chased Snare about half a mile through parking lots and across busy Union Street to the Raizada Mart gas station on Van Antwerp Road, where, according to Adams, the burglar tried to enter a woman’s car before being apprehended by Niskayuna police.

Authorities Wednesday noted that, while the incident ended with Adams not seriously injured and the suspect in custody, he put himself at considerable risk.

“You never recommend that people attempt to do these things on their own,” prosecutor William Sanderson of the Schenectady County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday. “This was certainly a brave act on his part, but I wouldn’t recommend that you do that. Things can go wrong.”

Niskayuna police Lt. Michael Stevens echoed that. In this case, the victim was able to defend himself and call police to make the arrest. But that isn’t always the case.

“Our advice to people is, if you have some information someone is in your house, call us,” Stevens said.

Sanderson also pointed out that Adams was injured for his efforts and noted what the suspect allegedly said during the struggle with Adams.

“It was clear that he did not want to be caught,” Sanderson said. “He did not want to face criminal proceedings in this case. He was very desperate to get away.”

Police noted Snare was already wanted on an arrest warrant related to an alleged violation of his parole. State records indicate he was paroled early last year from a Schenectady County-based attempted burglary sentence of 12 years to life. That case appeared to be related to a 2002 attempted break-in at a residence on Broadway in Schenectady.





Records indicate he was sent to prison at least twice before, also on Schenectady County-based burglary cases.

In Tuesday’s incident, Snare faces charges of first-degree burglary and second-degree robbery, felonies, along with third-degree assault, petty larceny, possession of burglar’s tools, fourth-degree criminal mischief and resisting arrest, all misdemeanors. He is being held without bail.

No charges have been filed against Snare for allegedly trying to get into the woman’s car, but Sanderson said that is still possible.

Adams said he was shaken after the chase and still is. He took the day off from teaching Wednesday to have his injuries checked out and get a new pair of glasses, since his were broken in the scuffle.

The incident made a mess of his home, too. Even after a valiant cleaning effort, there’s still some blood in the teal carpet where the fish tank once stood.

Though he seems satisfied with the outcome of the afternoon’s wild altercation, which left the career burglar on a stretcher, Adams still says he wishes he’d paused for a moment before running into the house to confront Snare.

“I had trouble sleeping last night,” he said. “Every time I closed my eyes I was replaying the entire situation again, how I should’ve called 911 first and let the cops do their job.”