Police: Suspect sought after burglarizing home while homeowners were asleep

EAST OAK LANE (FOX 29) - Philadelphia police are seeking the public's help identifying a man caught on a couple's home surveillance video before and after their home was burglarized.

The couple has since blasted the suspect's picture all over Facebook and on printed flyers they hung up throughout the neighborhood, warning people about break-ins.

"How can you do that and not think that you're going to get caught?" says Barbara Johnson.

It happened on Sunday around 8:00 p.m. on North 7th Street. Ray Johnston says he was asleep and heard a noise in his kitchen, but assumed it was his wife, Barbara, because he was expecting her home.

He woke up about a half hour later and realized she had not come upstairs.

When he went downstairs to look for her, he noticed some items ransacked, a rip in their kitchen window's screen, money and sets of keys missing, as well as his pickup truck.

Their home surveillance video shows a man wandering all over their property for more than 20 minutes, eventually making his way into the backyard where they believe he broke in the window.

"He got a lot of nerve, a lot of guts, just really brazen to do something like that," says Barbara.

Philadelphia police say they are seeing more and more "community policing" from victims and others with home surveillance, especially on social media, not only to try to identify potential suspects in crimes but also to make others aware of what is going on.

In the Johnston's case, Captain Sekou Kinebrew says that can only help.

"If we're doing it that's great, if the community is doing it that's great, if both are doing it, that's the most optimal set of circumstances," he says.