Stolen Cop's Car Shines Light On String Of Neighborhood Theft
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Miami-Dade Police are searching for a cop car that was stolen overnight from the home of one of their officers.
The thief or thieves also broke in to that officer's Honda Accord and Jeep Cherokee before stealing his unmarked, rental vehicle that had police equipment inside it.
It happened at the home in the area of Miller Drive and S.W. 162nd Ave. CBS4 is not releasing the exact address in order to protect the officer, who works undercover, and his family. His vehicle was last seen at 10 p.m. Thursday night and was gone by 8 a.m. Friday.
Police told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that the stolen vehicle is a 4-door, gray, 2015 Dodge Charger that has a Florida tag: 409 XCY. It's not known if the officer's home was intentionally targetted or if this was a random crime.
Police have not said what equipment was inside the car and the officer told D'Oench he was not allowed to say anything on camera.
It's not known if a next door neighbor's surveillance camera captured the criminal or criminals or the stolen car being driven away. That homeowner said he would show his tape to Miami-Dade Police.
Two of the officer's neighbor's said that coincidentally, their vehicles had also been burglarized in the past year.
Christine Nicolas said, "I'm actually shocked. This isn't the first time this has happened. My car was broken into Christmas Day and it was caught on camera by a neighbor's camera. They actually caught the two people who broke into the car. So I am shocked people are still coming into this neighborhood and trying to do these things. We do have a large police presence here so this is very brazen."
She also expressed concern about the items that were in the stolen car.
"I wouldn't want criminals to get their hands on those type of things," she said. "This is very worrisome."
Next-door neighbor Noelle Drevyn said her car had also been broken into in the past year and said, "I guess this is not as surprising because there have been a number of robberies already and it's just really unfortunate. I don't know why it's been happening so often and lately too."
"That's really scary in terms of what was in the officer's car," she said. "I hope everything gets settled and they find out if somebody is running around with potential weapons. That's crazy."
Neighbors told CBS4 that Miami-Dade Police had been searching for surveillance tape.
If you have any information that can help, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS.