PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - When Claire Waters came home from work a few weeks ago, she knew something wasn’t right.
“I saw the cameras had been moved and knew someone was in here so I went back and reviewed and saw," she said from her Port St. Lucie home Tuesday.
What she saw was a man who got inside her home through her dog door.
“Then he puts on one of those skull caps and walks all the way around the edge of the room in here," said Waters.
The man tried to get out of view, by moving one of the cameras inside, but he was still visible.
Waters and other neighbors recognized the man as Curtis Brown.
Detectives say he stole a jar of coins and some rings.
“He had pawned some of the victim’s jewelry. We sent her a picture and she identified it," said Sergeant Frank Sabol with Port St. Lucie Police.
But what made Waters more upset was that Brown had reached out to her, and she tried to help.
“I helped him, the neighbors across the street helped him giving him money to do work. He even borrowed money from my sister.”
Police are still looking for Brown, who has a criminal record dating back two decades.
Waters says she’ll hide her jewelry better and get a safe deposit box if she has to.
“I don’t want to have to change my lifestyle because of someone like him.”
Waters says she now has a video doorbell that has a motion sensor so if there's any activity by the dog door, she sees it right away.
