On a morning that has since turned into a spectacle, a man was apprehended following his failed burglary attempt at a Homestead storage facility. According to Local 10 News, the would-be thief's feet were spotted by onlookers, dangling from the ceiling as he tried to escape through the roof of SmartStop Self Storage, located on South Dixie Highway near Southwest 304th Street.
Video footage of the clumsy burglary attempt has since circulated on social media showing the man tumbling to his eventual arrest. Eye witnesses captured the man in the act of attempting to break into the storage units and could be heard expressing disbelief. "What an idiot," one spectator is heard saying in the footage obtained by Local 10 News. Provided with a transparent view of the mishap, bystanders watched until the man fell back inside the facility.
The incident, which took place on the morning of July 4, quickly escalated with police arriving on scene to detain the suspect who had previously, according to a video recorder and victim, stolen goods amounting to tens of thousands of dollars from the same storage warehouse. "According to the witness, the man had previously stolen 10′s of thousands of dollars worth of sneakers from his storage unit," Local 10 News reported.
The investigation that followed revealed that the same individual had been burglarizing the storage facility repeatedly. 7News reported a victim stating, "It was all my items taken out," explaining that almost $25,000 worth of his items was gone. The perpetrator's less-than-stealthy operation was described as him "jumping from unit to unit" through the ceiling by the same victim.
Homestead Police have been contacted for additional details on the suspect's identity and the extent of the crimes. The community is urged to contact the Homestead Police Department at 305-247-1535 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 with any information they may have. More than 30 police officers responded to the incident, which included the support of a SWAT team, highlighting the urgency and scale of the situation.
