LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A Centennial Hills family has a message for others after a burglar was caught on camera walking around their home while they were upstairs asleep.
WATCH | Take a look at this video showing how a person snuck into this home without a trace, and it could happen to you if you have a pet door.
"It was the last thing we thought happened," a resident said.
While the victim didn't want to share her identity, she told me this past Sunday morning her boyfriend's wallet was nowhere to be found in their home near Deer Springs and Durango.
"We started tearing apart the house, the car and that is when we resorted to video footage," she said.
So they checked a small hidden camera in the kitchen...
When you went through that footage what did you see?
"We saw someone was in our house, four minutes after we went upstairs someone crawled [through] our doggie door, and we see him snooping around the house for about five minutes and he leaves," she said.
Your reaction to seeing that?
"We were in shock, no doors pried open... we didn't expect to see someone was in there," she said.
You can also clearly see the man leaving through the dog door.
The camera caught a pretty good glimpse of the person with what appears to be an unusual face tattoo.
The resident took to social media and people nearby weighed in saying they too had seen a similar person in their yards.
She told me Monday night she got a call from the police.
"They were able to identify him from the photo," she said.
Metro police said 19-year-old Donjai Jones was arrested in connection to the burglary in the same area. And according to court records we found, he was also facing charges of drug possession.
I talked with another neighbor who told me he's heard about recent burglaries in the area.
"Knowing what happened... it makes me want to get a little more protection for my house better," he said.
The victim said her cats use the pet door, but she told me she's now taken it out of her sliding glass window.
If you have a dog door, another way to protect yourself and your home is to put a plastic slip in the door which keeps it from opening and could help stop intruders.
Another solution is to get an electronic dog door that will only open when a device — usually on the pup's collar — comes near it, allowing it to open.
The victim said she got the indoor camera after not one, but two of her purses went missing last year. She now wonders if they too got in through the dog door.
In your case it was a good investment?
"Yes absolutely. That was the best way to get a face shot," she said.
If you think you may be a victim of a burglary in the Centennial Hills area, LVMPD would like to hear from you. You can follow this link here for information on filing a report.
