If a picture is worth a thousand words, one burglar may have helped Alexandria police hit the jackpot.
A burglar went on an after-hours shopping spree at the Monroe Avenue Giant store in Alexandria but didn't realize big brother was watching, detectives said. He walked right into the view of a surveillance camera.
The man entered the Giant just before 10 p.m. Sunday and hid.
"There's evidence on more video footage of them closing the store for the night and everyone leaving and then all of a sudden, you see a male subject wandering the hallways with an empty backpack," Detective Julie Goble said.
The man in the video wandered past the beer and wine cases with the backpack. Minutes earlier, he took a stroll by the sandwich meat. In every video grab, police said, the bag got fuller.
But the money shot of the burglar came in a rear storage area, police said.
"There's a point where he's in a back storage area where there's a camera focused directly on the door,” Goble said. “He walks toward the door, decides he doesn't want to leave that way, comes back toward the camera, and as he passes toward the camera, there's an excellent face shot."
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An alarm did go off, but the monitoring company never called police, Goble said. After three hours, the burglar simply walked out with his goods.
"They're not sure what items were taken just yet,” Goble said. “They're going to go through inventory and try to determine what items were taken."
In the meantime, if the right person sees what the store cameras picked up and chooses to do the right thing, this case could quickly be in the bag, Goble said.
"Anyone that knows this person should be able to identify them," Goble said.
If and when he's caught, he'll likely face larceny charges.
Anyone with information should contact Alexandria police.
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