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.
Nercy Toledo’s doorbell camera captured the attempted burglary in front of her Hialeah home on East 19th Street.
Video shows the thief pulling up in his car while landscapers were hard at work at 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.
The doorbell camera video shows one of the workers as he walks out, approaches his van, and locks it at first, not even realizing anything is out of the ordinary.
But then the subject 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.
Landscaper Matias Gonzalez told 7News he was hard at work when he clicked the lock button on his keys, a habit he sticks due to his van being burglarized before.
“I got scared because I didn’t know if he was armed,” said Gonzalez in Spanish.
Gonzalez out of fear for his safety immediately called police and kept the man captive until Hialeah Police officers arrived.
The doorbell camera video 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.
Gonzalez said he’s is just happy no one was hurt and his truck only suffered minor damages inside from the man’s attempt to escape.
As of Thursday morning, it’s still unclear who the suspect is or what charges he may face.
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