No second helping for apartment burglar

"The night between July 12 and 13 on Sherbrooke Street near Metcalfe, a suspect in his late 40s entered into an apartment building with the help of a screwdriver," said Station 12 Constable Alain Diallo. "He headed towards the elevator and rode down to the basement. Then he entered one of the apartments and stole a 42-inch flat-screen TV."

Despite his earlier haul, the suspect came back for more.

Around 2:40 a.m. on Aug. 3, he again used a screwdriver to enter the building's front door and took the elevator down to the garage. But this time, he was spotted by a resident. Suspicions raised by a stranger who was acting in a bizarre manner, the resident hopped into his car, drove out of the garage and parked in front of the building's main entrance. He then called the manager, who showed up moments later.

Together, they re-entered the building and confronted the suspect, who made excuses for being in the garage and asked them not to call the police.

They ignored him.

Station 12 officers arrived two minutes later and the manager fingered the suspect as the same man who'd stolen the TV only weeks before. He recognized him from security camera images of the July heist.

The suspect was arrested and charged with breaking-and-entering, possession of burglary tools, theft and handling of stolen goods.

Diallo says that the resident was smart to check up on a suspicious stranger, but would have been better off calling police right away. "It's better to call 911 when you see someone out of the ordinary," he said. "Even if they only asked (the suspect) what he was doing there and didn't confront him physically."