Man caught on camera breaking into North End apt

BOSTON (WHDH) -- A surveillance camera caught a man using a crowbar to break into a North End building in the middle of the day Friday.

The man was aware he was being videotaped. He looked right into the lens and appeared to grimace when he realized he was on camera. But, it didn’t stop him.

“I noticed that my door was completely smashed in,” said victim, Marisa Pandolfe.

The man spent all of three minutes inside Pandolfe's apartment. In that time, he stole thousands of dollars in jewelry and her laptop.

“They took all my jewelry, and it was all of my grandmother’s irreplaceable, you know, my mother’s earrings she wore on her wedding day. It's stuff I can't get back,” said Pandolfe.

Almost no one was home in this Salem Street building at the time. It was a little before 4 p.m. Friday, when most people are at work.

The suspect pried the door open with a crowbar he kept in his backpack. Then he broke into another apartment and tried to get into two others.

After 45 minutes in the building, he casually walked downstairs and out onto the street with two bags worth of stolen items.

He got away, but not scot-free, thanks to the motion-activated cameras on every floor.

“I had my camera guys install, my security system installed a few years back,” said building owner, Ralph Bova.

They've installed more than a dozen cameras between the apartment building and the building across the street to catch criminals and it has worked before.

“We had an incident inside the bakery. He walked right into the back and we have him directly on film and the cops apprehended him and put him in jail,” said Bova.

The video might help police, but for Pandolfe, watching it doesn't make her feel any more secure.

“Every time I see it I start shaking, I feel violated, for someone to go through my things,” said Pandolfe.