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Staten Island Car Break-Ins Caught On Surveillance Camera

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A noise outside his home is all it took for the Staten Island man to know something wasn't right.

As CBS2's Raegan Medgie reported, the man followed his gut – and found his surveillance camera had picked up video of suspects breaking into cars.

The surveillance video from the home in Westerleigh, Staten Island showed two people sneaking around cars parked in a driveway in the middle of a snowstorm.

"It's not the crime of the century, but like I said before, what happens next?" said Mike Valloney. "And if it's allowed to continue, things tend to get worse."

It all happened early Sunday morning. Valloney was inside his house watching TV when all the sudden he heard a weird noise -- like something fell.

Valloney left his house, walked down a ramp and bumped into police officers, who told him they were looking for someone who was breaking into cars. At that point, Valloney thought he had best look at his surveillance video.

"I went and looked at the cameras. I saw him, as it was happening, hop over the fence, and then I went out and told the police, 'He's over there, he's over there!' This police officer was right behind him I mean, literally within seconds -- very frustrating," he said. "I thought they'd be apprehended that night. They were very, very lucky."

But Valloney knew his surveillance cameras caught more – and carefully reviewed the video. It started with two unidentified people walking around his car and trying to open it, but it was locked.

The suspects then moved on to the neighbor's car and went inside.

"You'll see very quickly the police are onto them. You see one of them crouch over here and they try to hide," Valloney said. "When they see the police car make the U-turn, they ran."

Police were not too far behind. As officers circled the area, the suspects were seen running back and forth in the backyard.

Video showed one suspect emptying their pockets, which Valloney found out later were full of a lot of loose change from his neighbor's car. Meanwhile, a second person broke a fence while climbing over.

"In the process of jumping the fence, he drops his backpack," Valloney said. "The backpack was found right here. I believe his ID was in there."

It appeared that the same person at the shed jumped a smaller fence and dropped a bag of rosary beads. The NYPD was seconds behind.

"I hope it doesn't happen to one of my cars," said Carol Walters of Staten Island, "and I see the person, then I'll be arrested."

"I'm not surprised," said Eileen Manning of Staten Island. "It's been happening in this neighborhood for the past two years in this neighborhood, and they can't seem to catch these guys. Whether it's the same guys, we don't know, but it's been going on and on."

And until the people are caught, Valloney's cameras will be rolling.

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