Darian Trotter WGNO News

January 24, 2012
MANDEVILLE—
Mandeville Police are seeking help from the public to identify a pair of thieves caught on tape.

They're accused of breaking into a home in The Sanctuary Subdivision.

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"I just get the vibe that they're going to come back," burglary victim Mimi Manuel exclaimed.

Manuel and her family have gone through a living hell.

They've had little sleep and little to eat since someone broke into their home.

"It's just very unnerving," Manuel said.

Mandeville Police were called to the sanctuary subdivision Monday at high noon.

Just moments after Manuel's daughter returned home on Purple Martin Lane and discovered their place had been ransacked.

"We're just traumatized because this has never happened before," Manuel said. "I mean you just feel like you've been violated all of your stuff has been rummaged through and it's just creepy."

Security cameras mounted on the home captured two young people, calmly walk up, and knock on the front door.

"Once they insured no one was home then they relocated to the back of the residence," Mandeville Police Lt. Gerald Sticker said.

And it was there that rear mounted cameras recorded what happened next.

The female kept watch as the male tried once, twice, and a third time unsuccessfully to kick in the rear glass door.

Moments later, he uses a shiny object as his lookout covers her ears.

Lt. Gerald Sticker says he first had difficulty, but eventually managed to break through the double-pane glass.

It took 20 minutes inside to chip away at the families since of security.

"You just feel like you've been violated."

"The video shows once he left out the door he had a back pack on."

A back pack full of small electronics.

You can see the pair of accused thieves walking out as calmly as they walked in.

"So we just want to find those two and anybody else involved so that they can't do it again."