HIALEAH, FLA. (WSVN) – A thief’s opportunity to grab pricey lawn care gear from inside a van went wrong when he found himself stuck in the back of the vehicle and ended up behind bars.
A homeowner’s doorbell camera captured the attempted burglary in front of her Hialeah home on East 19th Street.
Video shows the thief pull up in his car while landscapers were hard at work at Nercy Toledo’s home. The thief sneaks into the back of the landscaper’s van in broad daylight to commit his crime.
“Car pulls up, in the middle of the street, gets into his truck, tries to steal his stuff, but unfortunately, the gentleman got locked in,” said Toledo.
But the would-be burglary was not the plan of a criminal mastermind, as during his attempt to swipe some of the equipment, he found himself as secure as the goods.
One of the workers walks out, approaches his van, and locks it at first, not even realizing anything is abnormal.
But then the man begins kicking and hitting the truck’s doors as he tries to free himself.
“Help me!” the man yells.
And that’s when the landscaper helping Toledo realizes it wasn’t his equipment screaming for help from the back of his van.
“So he could not get out,” said Toledo.
The landscaper kept the man captive long enough for Hialeah Police officers to arrive.
The doorbell camera shows a large police presence surrounding the van and ordering the man to get out.
“The Hialeah Police Department was really happy cause this is incredible. This is the best arrest they’ve ever made, they told me, the easiest too. So they were like really happy.”
The unlucky burglar went from being locked up in the back of the van to the actual lockup.
Toledo said this latest incident will have her thinking twice about keeping her doors unlocked.
“It’s kind of scary cause i live here, and then the door could be left open, anybody could just walk in, it’s an avenue, it’s very dangerous, so we have to keep our doors locked more often,” she said.
Whether by mistake or not, the landscaper was able to put a stop to the crime through luck, after an attempted theft that was over before it even began.
“They locked him. They left him in there!” said Toledo.
As of Wednesday evening, it’s still unclear who the suspect is or what charges he may face.
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