Last October, burglars stole thousands of dollars in jewelry and rare coins from Jeanne Thomas's home in Boynton Beach, Florida. Then, other things began to disappear: a crock pot and the ice cream maker.
So, Thomas bought a video surveillance system to monitor her home while at work using a live video feed over the Internet. Her husband, Tony, thought she was nuts for spending $250 on the system, telling her she would never catch anyone.
Initially he was right. Mrs. Thomas would come home from work and watch hours of uneventful footage (though she did catch her dogs jumping on the sofa). She stopped watching for a while.
But on Wednesday morning, she logged onto the system from her office in Fort Lauderdale. "It was the strangest feeling," she said. "I had a feeling something wasn't right. When I went on, I saw a person standing in my house."
She quickly called 911.
Two men had broken into her home through a doggy door for her Golden Retriever. Thomas watched as the men wandered around her home and took her flat screen television, safe and a gaming machine. She described what she saw to the 911 dispatcher. "The cat is freaking out. The dogs are hiding."
One of the burglars took a bag of shredded cheese from the refrigerator and could be seen on the video stuffing cheese in his mouth.
None of them noticed the small camera that resembles an air freshener. "They walked right up to it and didn't know what it was," said Thomas.
The men kept walking in and out of her bedroom and could be seen taking her son's Wii system and other items from her home.
Thomas kept begging the dispatcher to send police. Within a few minutes, 18 officers from the Boynton Beach Police Department arrived and surrounded the house.
"You could see them on the video freaking out," said Thomas. "They darted around the house trying to figure out how to get out."
One of the men could be seen throwing down a bag that Thomas said was filled with jewelry and other valuables before fleeing the house. They were arrested as soon as they left the home.
According to Boynton Beach police, the men, Curtis Williams and Steven Morales, told police that two other men who were in a house down the street were also involved in the burglary. One of men in the house, Scott George, said he was waiting for the other men to finish the burglary and was going to help load the stolen items into his truck and drive away. He told police exactly what items they were looking to steal.
The fourth burglar was identified as Jonathan Cruz, a neighbor. Thomas said she has known Cruz since he was 8 years old and remembers him helping with neigborhood Easter egg hunts. Her husband would often give him rides to school when he was younger. As an adult, he would wave hello. Thomas never suspected he was involved with the first burglary.
All four men confessed to the burglary. They were charged with burglary and attempted grand theft and taken to jail.
The system now seems like the best investment Thomas made and hopes this will be a lesson for burglars. "You never know who is watching you," she said. (info from Palm Beach Post)
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