Residents of Northeast D.C. helped police catch a man suspected of breaking into several homes, a business and a school over the past few days, police said.
โIn our neighborhood, a lot of people have doorbell cameras, garage door cameras, and theyโre really quick to make everyone aware,โ a resident said.
Earlier this week, a man broke into Annieโs Ace Hardware on 8th Street NE. Inside the store, he broke down a cage door to get to power tools before stuffing a black trash bag with other items.
The owner of the store said the burglar got away with $500 worth of tools and caused $2,000 in damage to one of his doors.
Surveillance cameras recorded the burglary.
The business was one of multiple Northeast locations 35-year-old Christopher Flood allegedly broke into, including a few homes and Paulist Evangelization Ministries, an all-male seminary school, police said.
He was strategic about the places he burglarized and destroyed property, police said.
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โHe was really kind of targeting places that were a little bit out of the way, not maybe lit as well as they could be,โ said District Cmdr. Sylvan Altieri said.
โHe had a pry bar, but the way the handle was shaped, the color, was, like, super distinctive,โ Altieri said.
Neighbors and their security camera video helped police narrow in on the suspect, providing certain clues to what he was wearing.
โWe were able to not just put together a good description of the suspect, but there were certain things that were really key identifiers for this,โ Altieri said.
โWe were not only able to determine the houses that he got into, but, like, his flight path,โ he said.
Officers caught Flood Thursday night breaking into a home on Hamlin Street, police said.
โAnything that we can do to help the police do their job and to try to push back on some of the increase that weโre seeing in the crime these days,โ the resident said.
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