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Police identify this intruder as Amy Buchanan, a middle school assistant principal. (Arlo Smart Home Security video images)
Here's a startling head-scratcher from Troy: Why is this middle school administrator inside a Troy home that's not her own? And why does a security video show her riffling through a purse there?
Those questions are prompted by the arrest of Amy Buchanan, assistant principal at Smith Middle School in Troy. The Clawson resident was arraigned Saturday at 52nd District Court on a second-degree home invasion charge, a felony.
Home security footage evidence.
Fox 2 sets the scene:
Police were called to Booth [Road] in Troy for a possible home invasion around 4:30 p.m. Friday. The homeowner received an alert from their security company that motion was detected in the home.
After looking at this security video footage of a woman riffling through a purse at a counter between the kitchen and living room, detectives picked up Buchanan. The home where she was taped is less than a mile and a half north of her school at East Square Lake and Livernois roads.
The homeowner recognized the assistant principal on the video, police say.
Jessica Dupnack of the news station adds:
The video showed Buchanan looking through a purse and drawers, and also walking through the house. The homeowner reported that $40 was taken from the home.
Police learned that Buchanan may have been familiar with the home because she drove a student there earlier in the day. She also let officers know that she was looking for prescription pills in the home.
Now you really scare us. (Facebook photo, 2016)
The educator won't greet pupils in grades six through eightTuesday when her school reopens because she's placed on administrative leave. She's free on $500 bond.
A Troy School District biography says Buchanan has been assistant principal at Smith for 10 years. Her teaching career began at Academy of the Sacred Heart in Bloomfield Hills, where she taught physical education, was middle school athletic director and coached middle school lacrosse, volleyball, basketball and field hockey.
Her next move was to Athens High School, where she spent nine years as a health and physical education teacher along with coaching the varsity girls lacrosse team, the freshman volleyball team and was faculty manager. Ms. Buchanan was promoted to assistant principal of activities at Athens in the fall of 2005.
She was born and raised in Troy and attended Costello, Larson and Athens. She continued her education at Adrian College and received her master's degree in administration from Saginaw Valley State University.
Thge accused intruder graduated from Adrian in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in education and is enshrined in the college's Athletic Hall of Fame as "the first superstar in the sport of women’s soccer at Adrian College."
Buchanan, who has two dogs (Lucy and Henry), is an active volunteer at the Animal Welfare Society of Southeastern Michigan, a Madison Heights nonprofit that operates a no-kill shelter.
