Guardian angel saves Tampa woman's Christmas gifts

TAMPA - Shonda Mitchell started her Christmas shopping early. She has a lot of nieces and nephews to surprise, including three-year old Serenity.

"I shop for all of them because I'm the Auntie they expect to get everything for them.  I'm that Auntie," she said smiling.

Mitchell says she was almost finished with her list.  All she needed was a tree.

"I was trying to position it to see where I was going to put the Christmas tree so I put it by the window.  They were all piled-up by the window," she explained.  

Mitchell went to church and left the gifts inside her Tampa apartment.

And then she got the phone call.

"They were like, 'Your stuff got stolen.  Your house got broken into.'  I said, 'Yeah right,' you know," she said.

It turns out while three juveniles were breaking into Shonda Mitchell's apartment, a guardian angel was keeping watch. Police say a neighbor saw everything out of her window and called 911.

"This was definitely a crucial call that she made, and without that call that family may not have been able to enjoy Christmas this year," said Janelle McGregor with the Tampa Police Department.

We reached out to the guardian angel, who wants to remain anonymous.  She's not one for attention.

Shonda Mitchell wanted us to give her a message.  "I thank her. She's such a blessing,” she said.

She also added her to her Christmas list.

"She protected me so,” she said while holding a Christmas angel decoration.

"She doesn't know about it but I'm going to take it to her."