About 2 and a half years ago, well-known photographer Jeremy Spooner, opened his cafe, named Spoonaz Photo Cafe and Bar on North Front Street. He installed a security system, and, that came in very useful when his business was burglarized last week Tuesday.
Not only did Spooner catch the thief on camera, but he also went a step further, did his own investigation, and with the help of his Facebook friends, he caught the man, and handed him over to police, bow tie and all.
Today, he told us how and why he felt the need to get so involved in getting his own justice, but we start first tonight with the incident itself. He provided us with surveillance footage of the entire crime in progress, and Daniel Ortiz narrates the crime as it unfolds:
Surveillance footage captured on the Spoonaz Cafe security system shows this man turning into a blindspot of the camera. He went there to find a suitable spot to jump the fence.
Here in this shot he’s already in the compound, trespassing on private property, and so he's already committed a crime. Take Look at the time stamp and it says 2:08 a.m., definitely not opening hours. He's circling around the compound surveilling the place, pretty much the same thing the cameras are doing to him.
He plops himself down on a bench, appearing to be deciding what his next move should be. That lasts for less than a minute, and it appears that he has come up with a plan on how to break in to the Bar area of Spoonaz Cafe. In this frame, you see him walking out the frame to other side of the compound, where picks up a piece of iron rebar, and walks back into the frame. He jams it into the locking mechanism of the door trying to pry it open. He takes a quick peek behind, making sure that he isn't seen. It appears that he either hears something, or is temporarily spooked, because he walks out of the frame again, most likely to hide.
About a minute later, he returns, jams the rebar into the door and manages to pry it open on the second attempt. The second it opens, he disappears inside.
The other hidden camera inside the bar captures the top of his head, as he scurries around looking for valuables he can steal. He immediately sets out to find the most expensive liquors he can take. A few minutes later, he grabs a bag and fills it with top-shelf alcohol.
Deciding he's taken enough that he can escape with, he’s back out some 6 minutes later. He closes the door behind him, trying to hide the evidence of the burglary, and walks away. The other cameras catch him walking off with his bag of stolen alcohol, and the piece of iron he used to pry open the door.
At around 2:30 a.m., the front cameras capture him walking out the front, strolling off down North Front Street, stolen loot in hand, and his trusty door opener in hand. Little does he know, though, that he's been caught on camera, the footage of which will lead to his arrest less than a week and a half later.
So, with the entire crime caught on camera, Spooner then decided try to identify the thief so that police could arrest him. He did his own personal investigation – which meant turning to his Facebook friends who identified him in a flash. It appears that this very same burglar targeted another business place, and once again, he was caught on camera, seen here in this surveillance footage. That victim reached out to Spooner and handed over his footage, which he then posted on Facebook, and with the additional footage, the social media mob started arriving at an identity.
Here's Spooner explaining how he led police to capture the thief:
Jeremy Spooner - Owner, Spoonaz Photo Café
"First of all we discovered he took liquor; Black Label he's an expensive burglar, Jose Cuervo, some amaretto about 400 dollars’ worth of liquor. Then we discovered after we made the report to the police that he had also gone with my pellet gun; we have a pellet gun here that if we see an occasional rat around the place we shoot it, target practice. Its sentimental value and it got some value its about 500 dollars for the pellet gun so I do want that that back."
"CIB came and they viewed the footage that I had, they asked us to burn some for them so that I did. I then decided from my past experience with the police that they drag their feet a little bit so I decided on my own initiative that I would start posting these videos on Facebook; social media and appealing to the public. I didn't post it to just friends; I posted it to the public to see if anybody would recognize this person. I got a few calls nothing great but then another business got burglarised. His video because it was in proper lighting, mines was mostly infrared in the dark; you could see more clearly but you could see he was the same person that came to my place. The gentleman gave me that footage and then I posted it along with my other footage and immediately started getting in phone calls and messages on Facebook identifying the person and also what his street name was. His street name was Ceric, don't know how you spell it but when we caught him he did give that name to the police also Ceric but I'm not going to give his real title because he's arrested, they haven't told me what his name is yet."
Daniel Ortiz
"It appears that if it weren't for the initiative you took it probably could have been sometime. Is that the same idea you come to?"
Jeremy Spooner - Owner, Spoonaz Photo Café
"Yes it is I have to say I've been out here 25 years and my experience with the Queen Street Police Station has not been a good one. I have handed them evidence on guess you call it a gold platter or silver and the person always gets off. Not dealing with this particular situation but a previous one where a crack head in the area was vandalizing my place, breaking up things, stealing things and I went in to put in a report and it was quite a funny thing; I won't go into it with great depth but the funny part of it was when I was given the report my son called me up to tell me that the culprit was walking down North Front street at this minute while I was doing the report. I told the officer taking my statement he's out there on North Front street, please go and arrest him right away, well they say we can't because we don't have a mobile right now but no worry we will catch ah later."
The suspect has been arrested and charged for 2 counts of burglary and possibly other crimes of dishonesty. He was taken to court, but taken back for processing.
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