VINELAND – A burglar offered the excuse that he had broken into the wrong house when a Vineland woman found him lurking in her kitchen on Monday.

Shortly after 12 p.m. a woman from the 1000 block of New Pear Street called police to report a burglary in progress. When an officer arrived the woman said a thing white man with facial hair, wearing a dark cap, dark shirt, dark jeans, and sporting a black backpack had just fled through her back yard.

The officer was not able to find the man.

The woman said she had been in the bedroom of her son who has cerebral palsy when the doorbell rang. She looked out of the window and saw the white man with a BMX-style bicycle at his side standing at her front door. Neither recognizing the man nor knowing his intentions she decided not to answer.

A few minutes later she heard a thump in the kitchen and upon investigating found the same man who had been at the door.

"What are you doing inside my house?" she asked.

"I was just looking for a guy named Greg," claimed the man.

She informed him that no Greg lived at the address, to which he replied, "Is this 1021?"

She said it was not and told him the address.

"I'm so sorry. I mean to break into 1021," he said.

The woman said that though she was upset and frightened she asked the man to leave nicely and escorted him out of the back door. Before leaving, the man made an offer to fix the screen window he had cut to get into the house, which she declined.

She last saw the man running through her yard and to Virginia Avenue.

She further described him as about 5 feet 7 or 9 inches tall, with blue eyes, three white stripes on his jeans, black and tan sneakers, shabby facial hair, and with a tattoo across the knuckles of his left hand.

The officer saw the man had placed some green plastic beach chairs underneath of the kitchen window and cut the screen out with a sharp object. He also found a BMX bicycle just behind a nearby house but the woman was not sure if it was the same one she had seen.

A neighbor said the same man had come to her door only a few minutes beforehand and asked for a glass of water. Suspecting something was afoot the woman told him to leave or she would call the police. The man heeded her warning and left.

There were no other witnesses to the incident and police are continuing their investigation.