VIDEO: Ring Video & Teamwork Lead To Arrest Of NSB Package-Theft Suspect

Date Added: August 15, 2019 11:45 am

Andrew Gant
Office of Public Affairs & Media Relations

RING VIDEO & TEAMWORK LEAD TO ARREST OF NSB PACKAGE-THEFT SUSPECT

Footage from a Ring security camera led to the arrest of a New Smyrna Beach package thief after an analyst in the Volusia County Crime Center saw the video in the Ring Neighborhood Portal and recognized the suspect from an earlier New Smyrna Beach Police Department bulletin.

It wasn’t long before NSB police arrested the suspect, 27-year-old Thomas Coleman, at Walmart in New Smyrna Beach. That’s where they found his vehicle parked shortly after the Wednesday afternoon package theft at a house in the Coastal Woods subdivision.

The package theft wasn’t reported to police, but the Crime Center got an email notification from Ring when the victim posted a crime alert to the Neighborhood Portal with video of the package being stolen. Several similar cases had been reported in recent days, and NSBPD already had a bulletin out with a suspect and vehicle description in those cases. Looking at the video post, Crime Center analysts realized the suspect in the video matched the description in the other recent cases, notified NSBPD and entered a call for service in the neighborhood. An analyst also posted in the Neighborhood Portal asking the victim to call in to dispatch, and the victim called in a few minutes later.

NSBPD officers saturated the subdivision in search of the suspect, but ultimately found his vehicle at the Walmart on S.R. 44. In plain view on the front passenger seat were the victim’s stolen packages, with her name and address visible. Coleman was later spotted leaving a restroom inside the store, and arrested without incident. He was charged with burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and transported to the Volusia County Branch Jail, where he was being held Thursday on $5,000 bond.