Couple Catches Burglar While They're 2K Miles Away

They were watching home surveillance video at the right moment
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 9, 2015 12:50 PM CDT
Couple Catches Burglar 2K Miles Away, via Webcam
Thomas Hinton   (Lee County Sheriff's Office)

A couple who has one home in Ontario, Canada, and one in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, was at the Canada home when they noticed someone breaking in ... to the Florida home, 2,300 miles away. They were checking out the home via webcam Saturday night and saw a strange man inside on the surveillance video, the News-Press reports. They contacted Florida authorities, describing the guy and reporting that they watched him enter the home twice—once to take some personal items including their daughter's purse, and again an hour or so later to remove the TV, NBC 2 reports.

"He rang the door bell six times, he tried to break in the front door, couldn't get in the front door so he went around to the back door to the sliding glass door and pried it open," says the owner of a home-watch company who had checked on the house just hours earlier. The man was gone by the time deputies arrived, but they found pry marks on two doors. The following day, a deputy pulled over a man who failed to stop at an intersection and recognized him from the copy of the surveillance video the couple provided to authorities. Thomas Hinton, 45, was arrested and charged with burglary and grand theft; he's also suspected in a number of other local burglaries. (More weird crimes stories.)

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