SAN CARLOS PARK, Fla. — A thief is on the loose in San Carlos Park after a homeowner said they broke into his home while he was away.
Bill Hogan said a man broke through his lanai and found a way inside his locked sliding glass door.
The man cut his way through the lanai and somehow broke the lock on the sliding door to get inside. Then he used a flashlight to look around.
“This happened at like 6:20 in the morning or something,” Hogan said. “I’m just lucky I was able to get that before he went to the side disabled to the camera. I felt invaded literally and figuratively.”
It’s the last thing Bill Hogan expected while away from his San Carlos Park home.
“I had never given it a second thought before; when I am in that house, I never thought somebody would try to enter — and case the backyard,” Hogan said.
He said at first, he thought the motion notification on his phone was a car driving by. But when he opened the ring camera app, that is when he was greeted by someone who was not welcome inside.
“It was petrifying, really, and the thing was, I don’t know whether I got a little complacent, but most notifications are like a cat walking in the driveway.”
Hogan said that this break-in made him realize something that happened a week before.
“The ring camera has caught him one time there before,” he said.
He said this was not this man’s first visit to the Hogan house.
“I just wish the neighbors would have seen something,” he said. “And now I wish that someone recognizes him.”
In the video, you can see the man is tall, has tattoos on his legs, and has what looks to be a goatee.
“Well, he was wearing flip-flops. At first, I thought he was barefoot, but it looks more like he was wearing flip-flops,” he said. “That says to me that maybe he was not prepared to run if somebody found him.”
Lee County deputies are investigating. But so far, no luck.
“I believe that they had difficulty getting fingerprints and thought that maybe he had a sweatshirt for one of his garments to touch things,” Hogan said.
So, for now, he is still out there.
“People in San Carlos Park take precautions because if this happened to me, it could happen to them,” he said.
Bill said he wanted to share his story to warn others and hopefully, someone would recognize him. If you do, call the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.