Homeowner catches burglar on video and solves multiple cases

Two Austin homeowners happened to catch what appears to be the same burglar on video. And now it seems he has connections to crimes in San Antonio.

On Monday afternoon, a burglar pried open the back door of a home in the Wooten Neighborhood of Central Austin.  He was captured on camera walking from room to room speeding up as the alarm system kicks on. He's out in less than a minute.

Homeowner "Alison," who asked that we withhold her real identity, watched the video after being summoned home by her alarm company.

"Your immediate thought is he's in our children’s rooms, he's in our bedroom, he's going through my personal things. It's a horrible feeling,” said Alison.

Alison says the man ignored the big ticket electronic items and instead targeted two of her most precious belongings.

"He stole some jewelry that was sentimental which we saw on video later him putting it down his pants. The second thing that he did was he went through everything on the top of every surface one of them was the urn with our dog's ashes because we recently had a dog with cancer put down,” said Alison.

Alison and her husband put the video on neighborhood social media sites. By morning, those posts somehow connected her to a woman whose home was broken into near Braker and North Lamar. Photos that woman posted on Reddit showed the exact same man in the same shirt.

Then, Alison became aware of this video from the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. It shows what again appears to be the same man, this time with an accomplice, breaking into a home in May.

As Austin police went looking for the man they realized he was taken into custody on an unrelated charge Tuesday morning.
               
While they file warrants here locally, they are also assisting Bexar County on that agency's case.
               
Such swift action all made possible because of a camera that was initially meant for family bonding.

"My husband travels some for work and he likes to watch the kids having breakfast in the morning, so that was the initial reason for family connection purposes. But it absolutely served a purpose otherwise,” said Alison.

Alison says she will be investing in two other cameras.

As far as the burglar is concerned, police say he is a suspect in a couple other cases here in Austin. They are searching his property and say they have located a gun.

Bexar County authorities say he's a suspect in multiple cases there as well as in the City of San Antonio.