A holiday weekend in Coral Gables ended in a bizarre arrest Sunday after police say a 26-year-old Miami man slipped into two unlocked apartments in the early hours of July 5, following a night of Fourth of July drinking. According to authorities, the man was pantless when he entered the units, spent hours lounging on one resident's couch, and, in footage later reviewed by the homeowner, was seen drinking the resident's Fireball whiskey and touching himself.
What police say happened
According to arrest reports obtained by Local 10, the first break-in unfolded just before 2 a.m., when Noah Alec Dutzer, 26, allegedly walked into a woman's apartment while she was out. The reports state that he went through the living room and bedroom, then settled in and slept on the couch. Security footage cited in the reports shows him eventually noticing the in-home camera and turning it away, before leaving the apartment shortly before 7:30 a.m.
Another unit and the arrest
Police say Dutzer did not stop at one apartment. Around 2:30 a.m., according to the arrest reports, he entered a separate unit where a tenant woke up to the sight of a pantless man shining his phone's flashlight toward the bathroom door. When the tenant told him to leave, Dutzer reportedly replied, "My fault, my fault," and walked out. Officers arrested him as he was leaving the building after a 911 call, the reports state, according to Local 10.
Charges and custody
Dutzer was booked on charges of burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and burglary of an occupied dwelling, and online records listed his bond as "to be set." He was being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, which the county's Miami-Dade County inmate-search portal lists as the primary detention facility for Miami-Dade County.
What the law says
Florida law defines burglary as entering or remaining in a dwelling, structure, or conveyance with the intent to commit an offense, and the penalties change depending on whether someone was present or a weapon was involved. Under the Florida Senate, burglary can be charged at varying felony levels, from third degree for certain unoccupied structures to higher degrees where a person is present or the offender is armed, so any sentence will depend on how prosecutors classify the case and on Dutzer's record.
The address of the building was redacted from the publicly released arrest reports, and police did not immediately provide additional details. Coral Gables residents say the case is a pointed reminder to lock doors and double-check in-home cameras after holiday gatherings.
