A South Bay neighborhood is on alert after a thief spotted by cameras breaking into cars left potentially incriminating -- and definitely disgusting -- evidence behind.
The thief was spotted trying to break in to several cars Overnight Monday on Wolfs Hill Road and San Sebastian Avenue in Otay Ranch. To put it politely, the suspect left behind fecal matter in one car and is suspected of urinating in another.
Surveillance video caught the crook with some kind of light in hand rummaging through Tammy Ledonne's Honda parked outside her home.
“It just kind of shatters your world a little bit to know someone is doing this,” she said.
Besides stealing her sense of safety, the suspect also stole more than $2,000 in electronics, including a laptop and camera with precious mementos that can't be replaced.
“My grandmother past away last year and I had all her photos on there and was going to do big blow ups, and we're from another country so we don’t have many photos of my family,” Ledonne said.
After the suspect left Ledonne's car, video shows him walk to her neighbor's house across the street on Wolfs Hill Road and possibly attempt to break into another car.
That attempt was unsuccessful, but he had better luck getting inside a nearby resident's SUV on San Sebastian Avenue. He didn't steal anything, but left his DNA behind the owner's daughter and husband to find.
“My daughter said there was dog poop on her sweater. So when he went to reach in and remove it he said it is not dog poop. We realized it was human,” the SUV owner said.
Since the Monday morning crimes, Ledonne's been playing detective.
“It's like the most exciting thing of my day,” she said. She says she found her stolen camera and computer on the online selling site, OfferUp.
She knows it’s hers because she saw her husband's name on the lock screen.
“It's quite incriminating, so it makes the detective’s work a little easier,” she said.
While doing her detective work, she also noticed the Canon camera had been sold. She and her husband plan to offer a $200 reward for their stolen property.
Though police haven't said how many break-ins the suspect is responsible for, at least three people in the neighborhood have filed police reports.