Crime & Safety

Man Arrested After Bellevue Woman Sees Burglary on Phone App

A man was arrested after TV stations aired footage of a burglary captured by a home's Dropcam camera system. The homeowner stopped the burglary while on vacation when she saw it in real time on her smart phone.

A smart phone app led to the arrest of a man accused of burglary after a vacationing homeowner watched the break-in over her smart phone, according to the Bellevue Police Department.

The woman, named by KING5-TV as Melissa Halsey, said that she and her husband installed the Dropcam app in their home so they could keep an eye on their dogs. The app allows people to install cameras that they can watch in real time over their phone or over the web, according to the company's website.

She wanted to check up on the dogs while she was on vacation out of state earlier this month, when she saw a masked man rifling through the garage, the TV station reported.

The woman had a neighbor call Bellevue police, who showed up and apparently scared the burglar away, causing him to drop the items he had collected from the home, according to the Bellevue Police Department.

After the TV news reports, which featured the footage captured on the camera app, someone who recognized the man called Bellevue Police, who arrested a 33-year-old Bellevue man on Monday, July 22. According to Bellevue police, he admitted to at least five burglaries of unlocked garages and admitted to 25 to 30 prowls of unlocked cars in the last year in the Surrey Downs neighborhood.

Two others were recently arrested in unrelated cases:

  • A 27-year-old Tacoma man was arrested in Tacoma on suspicion of residential burglary in the Entai neighborhood. According to Bellevue Police, the man told investigators that he has burglarized at least five homes in Bellevue over the past six months. Very little property has been recovered because the suspect immediately sells/trades it following the burglary, according to the Bellevue Police Department.
  • Bellevue police recently arrested another man in Woodinville on suspicion of burglary after Washington’s Most Wanted featured a story.


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