Is the slippery burglar, who has hit the same houses multiple times around Key West Cemetery, actually a woman?
These are one of the theories victims are considering as the two-year series of burglaries remains unsolved. Residents on Olivia Street, Galveston Lane, and other streets around the cemetery have been victimized–some repeatedly–by the same burglar since late 2011.
A video image captured by homeowner John Martini shows the burglar outside his house in the early morning hours. The perpetrator is seen from the back, wearing what looks like a cyclist’s riding shirt, the type with the rear pouch for gloves and other cycling apparel.
In the nighttime shot, the person wears a baseball cap that appears to have hair stuffed under it. The burglar’s neck appears feminine, with no bulge to indicate a man’s Adam’s apple. The neck is also long and tapered like a woman’s.
“Some people have been saying that it might be a woman,” said Martini, whose residential compound on Galveston Lane has been hit several times by the perpetrator in the image. Another homeowner who caught a glimpse of an intruder in his home, however, recognized the figure in Martini’s video image and told Martini it’s most certainly a man.
Whoever it is, the burglar has shown a fearlessness–breaking into homes while residents are asleep–that has residents and police concerned. In a couple of cases, including at the Galveston compound where Martini set up surveillance camera, residents have almost bumped into the thief after they awoke.
Though another video image of a perpetrator’s face, this time taken in a Key West convenience store, clearly shows the man’s features, residents and police still have no idea who he is.
“It’s of such great quality, it’s a great picture to identify someone by,” Key West Police Chief Donie Lee told KonkLife Friday. “We posted it online and distributed it to the media and still no one knows who he is.”
The burglary victims have posted videos, as well as descriptions of their encounters with the thief on Facebook. They’ve exchanged comments in emails, too.
“This is so damn frustrating!” wrote one resident of Olivia Street. “It is unbelievable that this person keeps getting away with it. Someone posted a surveillance photo on FB of a guy who was using a credit card taken in one of these burglaries and someone took it down … I will personally plaster the area with photos of this guy if it will help get him out of our neighborhood.”
Martini described what his security camera picked up inside the wall of his Galveston Lane compound as the burglar prepared to enter his house. There compound has more than one house.
“He looks around, crouches down and puts on a pair gloves. He then pulls out one of those infrared, laser flashlights and looks outside the house [pointing with the laser]. When he steps in the house, he raises his leg real high in case there’s a laser alarm trip, where if you break the beam, it sets off the alarm. Then [another homeowner in the compound] walks out of her bedroom and sees him. She rushes back into her bedroom and shuts the doors and he proceeds to run out of the back of the house.”
The burglar’s brashness alarms Lee.
“I am extremely concerned by the fact that he is in homes where people are encountering him,” Lee said. “Burglars might use violence in an attempt to escape and homeowners could be forced to defend themselves and their homes using force.”
Martini agrees. “Either someone’s going to see him in their house and shots will be exchanged,” Martini said.
It’s difficult to catch a cautious burglar after the fact, Lee said. Though detectives dust for prints after a burglary, that doesn’t mean police can solve the case quickly.
“It’s not like CSI on TV,” Lee said. “First there has to be fingerprints. The perpetrator in these cases wears gloves. But even if he didn’t, not all surfaces are conducive to fingerprints. If they are on a surface in the house, the surface might not be conducive to allow viable prints to be lifted. If a detective gets viable fingerprints, you have to have a minimum number of points of comparison. Retrieving viable prints does not happen automatically.”
If workable prints are obtained, Lee said, the prints are first compared with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office database and then on to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which submits them to the FBI’s national fingerprint database. Local law enforcement also can submit prints to the FBI.
Detectives also compared the store video image of the alleged perpetrator to mug shots in its files and those of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. The image also has been made available to FDLE.
Lee said police have set up surveillance and extra foot patrols in the stricken neighborhoods and detectives have been “examining pawn activity” in case the burglar tries to sell stolen goods there.
Police spokeswoman Alyson Crean said burglaries for 2013 are down significantly over 2012. Police do arrest burglary suspects, she said.
“We have had 34 arrests so far this year for burglaries of dwellings and structures, both occupied and unoccupied,” she said.
They plan to catch this one, too, Lee said.
“We want to catch him as badly as the victims do,” Lee said.
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I would like to see this crystal clear image they have of the thief from the convenience store.
Questions for the cops: This guy has stolen a considerable amount of euros as well as cash and electronics. Somebody is buying the euros and iPads, laptops, etc. all the banks in KW require IDs to exchange $$$. Have the police checked the banks? Ricks Bar also accepts euros without IDs. Who is buying the used electronics? How much can you get for a first generation iPad anyway?