Doorbell Camera Used to Catch Hiding Suspect

In a video posted by online, a police officer can be seen approaching a woman’s home. He stands on her front porch, their entire interaction captured by a Ring doorbell video camera.

The officer introduces himself and asks if there’s anybody home, a woman answers and he tells her what he’s doing on her doorstep: he just chased a “subject” around her house and he wanted to see whether or not she knew the man was there or attempting to hide in the area.

She tells him that she hasn’t seen anyone and that it’s just her and her husband at the house. The cop looks like he’s about to leave before asking her if her camera has “picked up any motion” in the vicinity.

“We’re looking for a subject in a red t-shirt,” he says. She complies and tells the officer that she’s going to check the back of her home if there’s anyone around.

The clip then transitions to a point later in the conversation when the officers are standing in her front yard. She gets on the doorbell camera loudspeaker to inform them that she did indeed spot the suspect.

“He’s in my trash can,” she tells the cops. “He’s in my dumpster, he’s in my trash can by my garage.” The officers, upon hearing the new development, high tail it off camera.

The clip then cuts to the back of the woman’s house where the police officers are seen running up to the trash can she was referring to. “Open that lid,” they say, before he jumps out and is eventually captured.

There have been several reported instances of doorbell cameras catching criminals in the act. In May of 2023 in Pittsburgh, Penn., thieves were recorded walking to vehicles parked in homes on a neighborhood street.