Washington DC

Serial burglar nabbed with help of neighbors in Northeast DC, police say

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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.

โ€œIn our neighborhood, a lot of people have doorbell cameras, garage door cameras, and theyโ€™re really quick to make everyone aware,โ€ a resident said.

Earlier this week, a man broke into Annieโ€™s 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.

โ€œHe 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.

โ€œHe 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.

โ€œWe 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.

โ€œWe 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.

โ€œAnything that we can do to help the police do their job and to try to push back on some of the increase that weโ€™re seeing in the crime these days,โ€ the resident said.

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