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Woman's doorbell camera stops porch intruders outside house

By Taryn Asher
Published  December 5, 2017 10:35pm EST
News
FOX 2 Detroit

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DETROIT (WJBK) - Was it an awkward mistake - or something more sinister? A Detroit woman may have opened her front door just in time to stop a crime of opportunity.

"I heard my doorbell go off," said Tasha. "I looked in the camera and I see the guys come up." 

Thanks to doorbell surveillance video, Tasha Washington saw what unfolded outside her front door at her Detroit home on Patton Street Monday night.

When she saw the strangers start to fiddle with keys in her door, she called for her son.

"We watched these guys try to open the door with the keys," she said. "I swung the door open like what are you guys doing?

"They said they were looking for somebody and they said oh I got the wrong house and they just left." 

They watched two men go door to door down the street - and try their keys on those houses as well.

"They went to the next door's house and tried to use some keys," said Vince Edwards. "And they got in the car and moved to the next driveway and did the same thing. They didn't have any lights on and went to the next house across the street."

The question is were the men legitimately lost and accidentally trying to get into the wrong house, or was this just a ploy to see if the people were home at the time.

There is also a possibility the pair was trying to use a "bump key" to get into Tasha's house or several others down the street. A bump key is used for lock picking.

Detroit police responded telling Tasha they probably didn't pick her house by mistake.
 
"I don't know if they were trying to see if we were not home so they could break in," she said. "It is Christmas time so I was kind of nervous."

The officers said they were going to patrol the area looking for the gray Monte Carlo they drove, hoping to stop them, before they possibly tried to break into somebody else's home.

"Not to trust what they are saying that's why I called police and called you guys to be aware what is going on," she said. "There are people out here trying to get into people's homes."