An Old Brooklyn homeowner’s surveillance cameras captured a man and a woman suspected of stealing packages off their front porch Tuesday afternoon.
Neighbors believe the duo also targeted dozens of other homes in the neighborhood under the guise of a snow clearing service. The suspects were caught on camera scouting and stealing from several homes in the area of Spring Road and Valley Road east of Broadview Road Tuesday afternoon.
Dawn Greve said she was notified by a neighbor who had seen the two people loitering on her porch. When Greve and her husband rushed home to check their security cameras, they saw two packages that had been delivered earlier in the day were gone.
“I was shocked because you don’t think it’s going to happen until it really does happen to you,” Greve said. “My heart just sank. It wasn’t about how much the package was worth or anything. It was the fact that we bought it for my granddaughter for Easter.”
Greve’s surveillance video shows the woman walking to the front door and tugging on the screen door. After looking around the street for a few seconds, the woman places the padded envelope in her coat. A few minutes later, the woman comes back. This time, however, a man wielding a snow shovel joined her.The duo remained on the porch for a few seconds and can be seen laughing as they tried to figure out who would eventually swipe the package and who would hold the shovel. Eventually, the woman picks up the large box while the man follows behind with the shovel, plowing away their footprints in the snow.
“I feel violated, because someone came onto our property and just took it. We’re fighting until the end until this guy and girl get put in jail,” Greve said.
Greve posted some still photos from the surveillance video onto the Old Brooklyn Crime Watch Facebook page. Within minutes, dozens of her neighbors reported seeing the couple in their part of the neighborhood. Neighbors reported seeing or coming into contact with the couple who reportedly offered to shovel their driveway or sidewalk. Greve and other neighbors believe the couple had no interest in actually removing some snow. It was all a guise to determine if anyone was home, Greve said.
“I would say between 10 and 20 people identified him,” Greve said. “I want to get these people out of the neighborhood, because nobody can trust them.”
Neighbors believe the suspects live in the neighborhood.
Greve has submitted the video to both Cleveland police and the county prosecutor’s office. Greve said law enforcement needs more people to come forward in order to help build a case and secure an arrest warrant.
“If two more people went to the police station and said, ‘yes, that’s him,’ or they had their own situation, that’s all we’d need to start the case,” Greve said.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call CPD’s Second District.
