"You better watch out" should perhaps be directed toward Santa himself this year.

The A.P. reports that a man was in the middle of an attempted burglary of a home in rural Fresno County when things went awry. Apparently, the suspect had been attempting to enter the Huron, CA home through the chimney, a la serial intruder Kris Kringle himself. Which, as you might be able to deduce from the headline, is an inherently perilous plan.

According to Brandon Pursell of the Fresno County Sheriff's Dept., the homeowner had lit a fire in the fireplace on Saturday afternoon, when he heard a yell come from inside the chimney, and called the police. In the meantime, the homeowner attempted to put out the fire himself, as the house filled with smoke.

When firefighters arrived on the scene, they used jackhammers to smash open the chimney, made of brick, and found the suspected burglar trapped inside, unresponsive, and already dead. Police said that investigators will be conducting an autopsy on Sunday to determine the official cause of death, and the identity of the man.