CAPE CORAL, Fla. — The Cape Coral Police Department arrested an alleged burglar who was caught breaking into a van on Christmas Eve.
Watch Fox 4's Alex Orenczuk report on CCPD's arrest of a Christmas Eve burglar:
According to CCPD, officers responded to a home near SE 46th Street around 5:13 a.m. after getting a report from a homeowner. He said a man was breaking into his van, parked in his driveway.
CCPD said the homeowner was walking out of his front door to go to work when he spotted the alleged burglar.
Minutes later, officers found a man in the area matching the description of the burglar. That description paired with a next door neighbor's security camera footage of the ordeal led to the arrest of 19-year-old Jaden Donovan.
Mike Beach, the man whose camera caught the burglar in the act, spoke with Fox 4.
“Well, I saw a guy clear as day, breaking into the neighbor’s van,” said Beach. “It followed him up, zoomed right into him, it’s got full color night vision 1080p all for $35 on Amazon.”
According to CCPD, security footage from the public can be invaluable when investigating a crime.
“This video footage is perfect with an investigation because it's evidentiary,” said Officer Mercedes Simonds. “We can immediately take that with what the reporting party said and we have probable cause to make an arrest on this guy.”
While the alleged burglar spent Christmas in jail, Beach said he’s happy his camera could possibly prevent this from happening to his other neighbors.
“It was one of those Christmas Day things that feels so great,” said Beach. “I’m not happy it happened but I'm happy for all the people coming up and down the street that are worried about their cars being broken into, it was nice to put everybody’s mind at ease at Christmas.”
Donovan faces one count of burglary of an unoccupied conveyance, and one count of loitering and prowling.
