Dolores Catania and Paul “Paulie” Connell’s New Jersey townhouse was recently broken into.
The “Real Housewives of New Jersey” star and her boyfriend detailed the terrifying ordeal on Monday’s “Jeff Lewis Live,” saying the home invasion occurred while they were up north filming some scenes for the first season of Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island.”
“Paul had his phone off, and he was performing in front of everyone there. He was drinking tequila, and my phone rang, and I knew it was his son. Even in the middle of filming, I always answer for the kids,” Catania, 54, recalled.
“He said, ‘Is your dad there? Our house just got broken into.’
Mr Connell admitted his girlfriend’s reaction was “terrifying and scary”. Because she gasped loudly, even though she usually wasn’t “surprised.”
But the Irish-born entrepreneur admitted the situation was “pretty bad”.
Catania explained that the intruder “came in with a torch,” which he used to heat the window and shatter the glass “without setting off any alarms.”
“What[the intruders]are doing is new,” Connell elaborated. “[I have]a glass break sensor that only activates when the pitch is high, but when heated it shatters without cracking, and then you just have to push it with your hand to get in.”
The couple noted that their home is equipped with an “insane” security system that is silent for the first 90 seconds but detects movement and immediately alerts law enforcement to the activity.
He then shouts “Intruder! Intruder!” So the intruder immediately left.
“It took 20 seconds for them to leave and for police to arrive,” Connell said, noting that the intruders “had been in the house for about a minute” after “approximately eight minutes trying to get in.”
The pair argued that the intruders couldn’t have stolen anything of note in any case because they didn’t keep any valuables in their home, so they had “no value.”
Catania told Lewis that responding officers could be seen on video walking around the house “with guns in hand.” Connell called the operation “no joke.”
Catania used the incident as a PSA to encourage other celebrities to keep their real-time whereabouts private.
“We all love to post when we’re out and about. Paul posted that we were in Rhode Island that day, and we got burglarized that night,” she revealed, prompting Connell to vow, “For the first and last time. It taught me a lesson.”
