HIALEAH, Fla. (WSVN) – A would-be thief’s golden ticket to pricey lawn care gear from inside a landscaper’s van turned into a ticket to jail when he found himself locked inside.
Nercy Toledo’s doorbell camera captured the attempted burglary in front of her Hialeah, Florida, home while landscapers were hard at work Wednesday afternoon. The suspect, later identified as 26-year-old Dean Young, snuck into the back of a landscaper’s van.
“Car pulls up in the middle of the street, gets into his truck, tries to steal his stuff,” Toledo said.
Without realizing anything was amiss, the landscaper locked his van, leaving Young stuck inside.
“The owner of the truck went to lock his vehicle, but that lock locks all the doors, even in the back. So, what happened is he locked him in,” Toledo said.
The suspect began kicking and hitting the van’s doors as he tried to free himself.
“Help me!” he yelled.
But the landscaper kept Young locked up until Hialeah Police officers arrived and arrested the would-be thief.
“The Hialeah Police Department was really happy ‘cause this is incredible. This is the best arrest they’ve ever made, they told me,” Toledo said.
The landscaper says he was hard at work when he clicked the lock button on his keys, a habit due to his van having been burglarized in the past. He says he’s just happy no one was hurt in the incident, and his truck only suffered minor damages.
Young is charged with attempted burglary and criminal mischief and remains behind bars without bond.
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