'He was freaking out' | Houston Homeowners Recount Shocking Discovery of Burglary Suspect Stuck in Chimney

HOUSTON, Texas — An Easter Sunday turned bizarre for a southwest Houston couple who discovered a man trapped inside their chimney after being awakened by their barking dog in the middle of the night.

Joni and Curt Mitchell, the homeowners of the residence on Tooley Drive, were asleep when their dog began barking persistently at the fireplace around 1:00 a.m. on April 5, 2026. Initially thinking a wild animal might have nested in the flue, Curt went to investigate. Upon opening the metal damper, he heard a human voice crying out for help, realizing that a man was wedged inside the tight brick passage.

"He was freaking out," Joni Mitchell recalled in an interview. The intruder was stuck in a section of the chimney measuring only about two square feet, unable to move up or down. Realizing the severity of the situation and the impossibility of pulling him out safely, the couple contacted emergency services.

The Houston Fire Department's technical rescue team arrived shortly thereafter, embarking on a meticulous two-hour operation. To free the individual, rescuers had to carefully remove bricks and breach the stone chimney structure from the exterior. Once extracted, the suspect, a man in his 30s, was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries before being booked into jail on charges of burglary of a habitation.