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CBS2 Exclusive: Bronx Building Owner Steps Out Of Shower, Catches Thief In The Act

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Bronx man wasn't fooled by a would-be thief posing as a building worker.

Surveillance cameras showed the would-be thief breaking into a Bronx building and pretending to be an employee. What he didn't know is that he was talking to the building's owner who was ready to fight back.

The thief was on a mission Tuesday morning. After trying and failing to break into a home on Guerlain Street, he hopped a fence and broke into another one -- heading straight for the basement door.

He came out with a plumbing snake and tool boxes worth nearly $1,000 and weighing more than 70-lbs. He didn't come up quietly.

"Then I look through this, and I see someone wearing a hoodie," building owner Muhammad Rahman said speaking exclusively with CBS2's Ali Bauman.

Rahman walked out in a towel and watched the man carry all of his tools up the stairs. He confronted the stranger who said he was doing maintenance -- the thief lied to the wrong resident.

"I know who's coming to work or not and he doesn't know I'm the owner," Rahman said.

Rahman threw on a sweatshirt and tried to stop him.

"He put the stuff down and said let me go. I said, sir you're not going anywhere," he recalled.

A struggle ensued -- it was caught on the corner of a camera -- the thief dropped his loot and slipped out the front door, back over the fence, being chased by Rahman with a broom in his hands.

Rahman said he knows what he did was dangerous, but he was trying to protect his wife. After all, the newlyweds had just come back from their honeymoon the day before.

"It's definitely a brave thing to do, but at the same time it's definitely a risk. Anything can happen," Sabrina Chowdhury said.

The building owner believes the burglar broke in using something as simple as a Metro Card to swipe through the lock. On Thursday, with the thief still out there he installed a guard to keep it from happening again.

The suspect has been described as 40-years-old, bald, and was last seen in a blue jacket.

Anyone with information in regards to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website or by texting their tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIP577. All calls are strictly confidential.

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