Residents help cops catch car robbery suspects

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The Orange County Sheriff's Office is giving praise to some Avalon Park residents who were alert and quickly reported suspicious activity Friday morning. Their tip lead deputies to arrest two people suspected of breaking into a car.

"It was around 6:30, I got up this morning and noticed right in front of my vehicle there was a gentleman walking," said Eric Reed. "He had a backpack on and a couple paces behind him was another gentleman a little bit younger than him. They were within a stone throw of my vehicle and so they started to walk down the alley and as I pulled out I noticed one of them dart back in another neighbors backyard."

Reed called 911 to report what he saw and another neighbor took several photos (below) of the two young men wearing hats and backpacks. Orange County deputies surrounded the neighborhood and also searched from the air with the helicopter. Investigators eventually located the two men and arrested them.

One woman found her vehicle's window was broken out.

"Those guys were pretty brazen. It was daylight out, they were in the alley, they were in the street, they seemed to not really care. (In) one of the pictures the guy was even throwing the purse down the sewer drain," said Reed.

The Sheriff's Office posted a note of appreciation for the residents' help on their twitter and Facebook pages. Several people commented on Facebook saying they recognized the young men and someone claimed to have seen them looking into cars in the area before.

"It's kind of unsettling but luckily there's a tight group of people here, a good watch group as well that kind of stepped up and did the right thing," said Reed.

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