Wanted Man Found Hiding In Guthrie Family's Garage

A Guthrie woman was shocked when she returned home and found a man hiding inside her garage. The man was allegedly trying to hide from deputies.

The woman thinks the man on the run was only inside her husband's Jeep for a few minutes before she came home and closed the garage door behind her. Only to find him run out moments later.

Sweetwater Springs is a quiet, gated neighborhood in Guthrie. A place for the past two years Stephanie Sanders and her growing family felt safe enough to leave their doors unlocked and garage door open.

But their sense of security provided the perfect hiding place for Mario Cardoza-Valenzula.

“We had no idea what was going on. Who they were looking for,” Sanders said.

Sanders was met Wednesday night by a K-9 and law enforcement searching her neighborhood.

Logan Counties authorities were looking for Cardoza-Valenzula who ran from a nearby gas station when a deputy spotted him arguing with a woman and he couldn't provide ID. The deputy reported he noticed large bulges in his front pockets and suspected it to be something illegal.

“Pulling into my garage at night you don't expect there's an intruder hiding in there. I had no idea I was less than a foot away from him,” said Sanders.

Investigators asked the Sanders' to search their garage. Just as the door opened, out came Cardoza-Valenzula once again on the run.

“My husband was out here shining his cell phone trying to kind of help them and he told me that he gave the guy six warnings to get on the ground and stop running,” said Sanders.

A Logan County K-9 took down the fleeing suspect.

Inside the Sanders' Jeep, investigators found about a pound of meth and a pipe stashed inside.

Cardoza-Valenzula appeared in court on Tuesday by video. His bond set at $6,000.

Deputies say he was also wanted out of Colorado.