An intruder allegedly tried to rob a home in Santa Fe on
Monday afternoon and wound up cornered by its 20-year-old occupant and
two neighbors armed with handguns.

Carl Gallegos, 20, helped his two neighbors apprehend the
intruder after finding him in his family’s home in the Bellamah
subdivision, Gallegos said Tuesday.

Samuel John Fernandez, 29, of Santa Fe, was charged with
burglary after his arrest Monday, Santa Fe Police Department spokesman
Capt. Rick Smith said Tuesday.

Fernandez was unarmed when police arrested him, Smith added.

Gallegos said he heard his dogs barking about 4:30 p.m. and
went to the living room to investigate. He found an intruder, who’d
walked in through an unlocked door, standing there.

“I was frightened,” Gallegos said. “I was, I think, more
shocked than anything.”

Gallegos went to a back room to grab a baseball bat, he said.
When he returned, the intruder went in another direction inside the home
and Gallegos left for a neighbor’s house.

Gallegos said he and the neighbor returned to the house. The
neighbor brought a handgun with him, he said.

The intruder ran out the back door, jumped a fence and
attempted to hide behind a storage shed at the home of the neighbor who
was following him with the gun, Gallegos said.

The neighbor’s father then went into his own back yard, armed
with a phone and a handgun, told the intruder to “get on the floor,” and
called police, Gallegos said.

Gallegos said the man appeared to be under the influence of
alcohol or drugs.

“He was bigger than me,” Gallegos said of the man who walked
into his home. “I didn’t run into (Shaquille O’Neal) or anything, but he
was bigger than I was.”

On Tuesday, Fernandez had been released from the Santa Fe
County jail on bail, according to a jail spokeswoman. The amount wasn’t
available due to computer problems, she said.

Gallegos’ father, Albert Gallegos, said Tuesday that the
neighborhood is usually quiet.
Smith said police generally recommend that if a suspect enters
a home, an occupant should leave.

“Get out and don’t go back,” Smith said.

The neighbor who went back into Gallegos’ home with a gun
“took a risk,” Smith added.