SANDY, Utah — A Sandy man confronted a car burglar as he was in the act of going through his car, and he caught the encounter on camera.
Nick Cramer says his neighborhood off of 1000 East isn’t a place where you would normally find any trouble.
“Got home pretty late last night and I'm still outside and notice that there was a truck driving around coming out of this Cul De Sac down here,” Cramer said. “Then I started to kind of watch him because I have a snowmobile outside”
Cramer thought something looked suspicious and said eventually the vehicle parked right behind his car.
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“I looked up again from over behind that gate, and he was in my car in the driver's seat with a flashlight,” Cramer explained.
Having experienced vehicle break-ins before and not having evidence to help him after the incidents, he began filming what he was seeing on his phone.
“I guess in a bit of adrenaline, I decided to get out my video camera throw on the flash, and scare him,” he said.
The would-be thief quickly took off but not before Cramer noticed a shop towel draped over the front license plate of the suspect's car.
“I was able to lift up a little towel that he'd thrown over the top to make sure that nobody could see it,” he said.
Cramer doesn’t think anything was taken and was able to stop him quickly. He has turned the video and license plate number over to the police.
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He says this type of incident is turning into more of a regular occurrence, as multiple cars for him and his family have been broken into lately.
“It seems like probably since the pandemic started there's been a major uptick,” he said. Cramer explained that his brother “had his catalytic converter cut off last summer.”
Statistics show that thefts from motor vehicles peaked in 2020 and remained high last year. The majority of the over 80,000 over the last five years statewide have happened in Salt Lake County.
Sandy City has the exact same trend with over 4,200 thefts from cars in the last five years.
“It's not good. It's not a good feeling," Cramer said. “It's kind of you feel like your space has been violated.”
The hope is police can catch this man before he strikes again and if you recognize the car or the man you should call law enforcement.
“If you don't find the person it's never quite right," Cramer said. “If you see something, say something and do only good every day.”
