A California man who was on vacation with his family was jolted from his sleep at 2:30 a.m. on Christmas Day after he received an alert on his cell phone from his doorbell camera. He opened the app and looked on in shock as a thief walked up to his porch.
The suspect ignored the two packages sitting on the ground and instead went straight for the doorbell camera. He had no trouble removing the camera and walked back to his white sedan, which was parked on the street. The thief returned and stole a second camera the family had installed. He was unable to reach a third camera, which did not capture the crime.
The man immediately called 911 and sent the recorded footage to the police. The family cut their vacation short and returned home. Luckily, nothing else was stolen and the thief did not try to break into their home.
Authorities said they were surprised the suspect didn't steal the packages and suggested he may have been preparing the home for a future burglary.
“The point of having a camera is to prevent or deter this kind of crime,” Lt. Matt McMullen of the Alameda Police Department said. “We want to create a safe environment, and we encourage people to have surveillance cameras. The last thing we want is for them to be stolen.”