SUFFOLK, Va. — Police have identified a Virginia teenager captured on a Suffolk family's Ring doorbell camera.
In the video recorded early Sunday, July 10, the teenager can be seen walking up to the door of a home on Everets Road in Suffolk. He stops right before he gets to the porch and turns around, but then seems to change his mind and he continues up the steps.
In his hand, he’s holding a knife.
“The part that bothered me is to see this individual coming onto my property with a weapon,” the homeowner, who asked his name not be published, told WTKR. “After seeing that, it put me into high alert mode, which is kind of not safe. I didn’t sleep upstairs last night. I slept down here in preparation to protect my house.”
The video was recorded at 3 a.m. and the couple who lives in the home, their toddler, and a grandparent were inside and asleep.
“I was scared. I was scared,” the homeowner, who asked her name not be published, told WTKR. "I’m a tough girl from New York. I’ve seen a lot of things, but to be living in an area I presume to be safe for my family with my child and my mother and my husband and to see that, I was scared.”
The family believes the teen was trying to break into their home.
“We can only assume what they really were thinking, but the fact that you even had a knife meant that you guys were plotting and planning something that’s not smart,” she said.
Once at their doorstep, the video showed the teen grabbing the Ring camera and pulling it off the home’s siding.
Seconds later, as the camera dangles pointing at the ground, you can hear a car squealing off. The teen never made it inside the home.
“I can only say that we’re thankful that they decided to run,” she said. “We’re just concerned, not just for our safety but everybody’s safety. It was our home this time, but it could’ve been anybody’s [home].”
Police said surveillance cameras can be a deterrent for would-be criminals and added that having that video does help them solve crimes.
No additional information about the teenager suspect has been released in this case.
