Home surveillance video captured a burglar breaking into a Seminole Heights home in broad daylight the day after Christmas. Tampa police are now asking for the public’s help in identifying the suspect.
Investigators say the suspect got away with more than $1,000 in stolen items, but the family he stole from calls the items exponentially more valuable to them.
Aimee Merchant says the burglar stole two laptops that contained countless family photos including most of her children’s baby pictures. The suspect also took a jewelry box and her son’s piggy bank.
“I can’t put a price on family pictures, you know?” Merchant told News Channel 8 on Friday.
Merchant suspects the burglar cased out their home and waited for them to leave Wednesday. Sometime between 1 p.m. and 1:40 p.m., someone smashed a side window and made their way into the family’s home on North 15th St. He did not wear a mask or attempt to hide his face, allowing for the Merchant’s home surveillance system to capture his face very clearly.
Merchant says her family arrived home from spending the holiday with family to find clothes and other things strewn throughout the home. She immediately called police and went back to check the surveillance video.
“It’s kind of violating, to see someone walking through your home,” she said.
The video shows the suspect casually strolling through the house and rifling through their belongings. Merchant says he even ripped open some Christmas gifts under the tree. She says he eventually grabbed the laptops, piggy bank, and jewelry, threw it all in a suitcase, and let himself out the front door.
Merchant calls losing the photos “devastating,” a far bigger blow than losing the laptops themselves.
“I mean I don’t have anything backed up,” she said. “Any of the kids pictures.”
“We’re not only working with the community to identify and arrest the suspect, but to hopefully provide this victim back with that laptop that contains these priceless photos,” said Janelle McGregor, spokesperson for TPD.
TPD says it’s investigated 1,046 residential break-ins in 2018. McGregor says that’s trending down compared to 2017. She credits a number of factors to that, including an uptick in residents investing in home security systems and increased quality in many of those systems.
Anyone who recognizes the suspect seen breaking into the Merchant’s home is asked to contact Crime Stoppers of Tampa Bay at 1-800-873-TIPS.
