Police search for thief believed to have targeted multiple Denver homes
Police are investigating several home break-ins and attempted burglaries that have occurred over recent weeks. After comparing surveillance video, victims in different neighborhoods believe they were all targeted by the same man.
David Bacon was in the mountains when a man tried to enter his home in Denver's Belcaro neighborhood. He received a call from his alarm company before the vacation went south.
"We were on a chairlift and we started looking at the videos. It was a helpless feeling," said Bacon. "We think that our alarm spooked him. When the cops came, they came quickly."
Home surveillance video shows a man with a crowbar attempting to open Bacon's window. The man didn't make it inside, but Bacon says his family is still shaken.
"It's a creepy feeling knowing that someone tried to enter your house, the house where we raise our kids. It felt like we were violated," said Bacon. "We were the lucky ones. In the other homes he entered, he took some very valuable things that meant a lot to those families."
After Bacon shared the experience on the Nextdoor app, he learned that man tried his luck at several other homes. Other people began contacting him, sharing their videos of what appears to be the same person wearing the same clothes on the same day.
"From Crestmoor to Hilltop to Belcaro to Cory-Merrill down to Cherry Hills. Who knows where in between or since," said Bacon. "The scary thing is this this guy showed up in the morning, where he can be so easily seen and caught. It's aggressive."
The day Bacon was targeted, Cherry Hills Village Police told neighbors to shelter in place while they searched for a male suspect. The photo shared by police shows the man seen in Bacon's backyard. He is described as a white male, wearing a blue jacket, black hoodie, black gloves, dark baseball hat, black facial covering, light-colored blue jeans and brown shoes.
"It certainly gives us a fair amount of anxiety that he could come back. But he better not come back when we're here," said Bacon.
A couple in Denver's Hilltop neighborhood believe they were targeted by that same suspect twice. This time, the thief stole valuable items from the home of Aaron and Tyler.
"We got home from work and our window had been crowbarred open. He actually left his crowbar at our house. It was really unsettling," said Tyler.
Following the break-in, the couple stepped up their home security and put more cameras outside. Those cameras captured the man trying to break in again a week later.
"I got a notification that somebody was at our house. When I looked at the video, he was climbing over the gate. We were watching this all go down from Chicago," said Aaron. "Tyler started screaming at him through the camera. That spooked him and he hopped the fence and took off down the street."
According to neighbors on Nextdoor, he went on to target more homes in other areas.
Since then, Tyler has passed out flyers to war neighbors about a burglar on a spree.
"I'm sleeping with one eye open thinking that at any minute this man could come back and be in our house. It's terrifying and we want to make sure we protect the kids. It's really unsettling," said Aaron. "We're just hoping that this man can be caught quickly."
Cherry Hills Village Police located the suspect's vehicle, but he is still at large. Police are asking anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
