For weeks, 21-year-old Donato Garcia Jr. was allegedly terrorising communities throughout Mesa, Arizona. Dubbed the “Doggy Door Burglar,” Garcia is accused of crawling through dog doors to break into and burglarise homes.
With a lack of adequate evidence to apprehend the “Doggy Door Burglar,” Mesa residents began to feel helpless, but thanks to a neighbour’s Ring Video Doorbell, Garcia is now behind bars.
One night, at around three o’clock in the morning, Dale Viers’ Ring Video Doorbell recorded footage of a stranger creeping around his porch. Dale filed a police report a few days later, but since the stranger didn’t commit any crimes, police weren’t interested in the video.
A few weeks later, Dale saw an ABC15 news report on a “Doggy Door Burglar” who broke into three homes in his neighbourhood, and he immediately recognised the suspect as the stranger captured by his Ring Video Doorbell. Dale contacted the news station and told them that he had video of the suspect, and ABC15 took the footage and ran a story on it.
Dale quickly learned that, just minutes after his Ring Video Doorbell recorded Garcia lurking on his porch, the “Doggy Door Burglar” targeted three other homes on his block, breaking into a shed, ransacking a car, and stealing a bike and power tools.
Witnesses of previous break-ins confirmed that the stranger in Dale’s video was the “Doggy Door Burglar,” and with the corroborated evidence, police suddenly had a case against the suspect.
The very next day, Garcia was arrested:
It’s no question that Ring Video Doorbells help to keep your home secure and your family safe. But one of the most powerful aspects of Ring is its effect on communities as a whole.
We’ve already highlighted a number of stories about neighbourhoods rallying around videos recorded by Ring, including communities in Columbus, Kansas City and Olympia that combined Ring with social media to put crooks behind bars. And the arrest of the “Doggy Door Burglar” is just another testament to the effect that Ring can have on proactive communities.
Ring helps create a neighbourhood watch for the digital age. Instead of sketchy descriptions of local criminals and weekly watch meetings, neighbours can now arm themselves with HD video from Ring, and instantly spread the word and mobilise via social media and apps like Nextdoor. When homes are protected by Ring, and neighbours are connected thanks to social media, communities can extend a Ring of Security around their entire neighbourhood.