VIDEO: Man In Safety Vest Burglarizes Milpitas Home, Stealing Woman's Life Savings
MILPITAS (KPIX 5) -- Milpitas police were investigating a brazen home burglary that was caught on camera.
Home surveillance footage shows a suspect wearing a high-visibility yellow vest and a white cap while he cased the Shenandoah Avenue neighborhood.
A parked Tesla's security cameras also recorded the suspect who is shown breaking into a home on April 10th, while the family was attending Palm Sunday mass.
"If they were wearing a hoodie, they would look more suspicious than someone wearing a vest," said Taihei Ishikawa, whose home was burglarized. "They broke into the house from the front door and stole a bunch of things. The biggest thing was probably my mom's safe from her room."
The burglar didn't act alone, footage shows him speaking to his apparent accomplice and getaway driver in a parked black car while he put on a backpack before going into the house.
A camera across the street shows he first walked up to the porch and then inside the house. Ishikawa says they may have left the front door unlocked.
Minutes later, the two men emerge from inside, hauling out a heavy safe — which contained the family's life savings and precious heirlooms. They are seen stuffing the safe into the black car before driving it away.
"She had about 10-grand in cash in the safe and a couple of jewelries worth thousands of dollars," Ishikawa said. "There were other things like passports and most of us just became U.S. citizens and the safe had our certificates of U.S. citizenship as well."
The home does not have its own security cameras; all the footage was captured by neighbors who turned it over to police as evidence.
"We had some footage, and the Tesla was awesome, I had no idea that it could do that. But yeah, neighbors should be watching out for one another," said Michelle Murillo who lives across the street.
Neighbors say it's not the first time they've heard of burglars masquerading as service providers.
"They're going to fool you to get into your house and take whatever they want, which is exactly what happened," Murillo said.
Fortunately, the cameras also caught the suspect's car and license plate.
Milpitas police say they are actively investigating the crime and are working several leads, but so far they have not made any arrests.
"As of now, he's still running loose and he could be doing the same thing, harming other people or worst-case scenario, hurting somebody. So, that's my big concern. I really hope he gets caught soon," Ishikawa said.
