Family’s Ring doorbell catches suspected criminal

OKLAHOMA CITY ( KFOR ) — An Oklahoma City woman says her own doorbell camera caught a man accused of using a spare set of keys to get inside of her home, before stealing her SUV.

The incident happened in a Southwest Oklahoma City neighborhood September 6, according to an affidavit.

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Documents say, police arrested Francisco Mejia after getting a call in the early hours of the morning that he had entered the victim's home, taken multiple keys from inside and drove off with her 1995 Chevy Tahoe.

News 4 spoke with victim Kaitlyn Cassell Thursday who says she made the call.

"We were asleep," said Cassell. "We have a ring camera so it goes off, and so I heard it go off. I knew it was like some time in the middle of the night, and it freaked me out because I was like who's at our house this early in the night?"

The doorbell video Cassell shared with News 4 shows Mejia going up to her front door with a set of keys, unlocking the door, going inside and then coming out with more keys after a few minutes. Mejia walks towards Cassell's driveway and out of view of the doorbell camera for a few minutes, before walking back towards the house. The camera picks up Mejia saying "my bad" before he goes inside again, comes out with more keys and disappears out of frame once again.

"I don't know what made him think, oh, I'm just going to steal keys only and just take the car," said Cassell.

News 4 employees asked Cassell how Mejia was able to get his hands on a set of keys to her house in the first place, since Cassell said neither she or her boyfriend knew who he was.

Cassell admitted that her boyfriend had accidentally left a spare house key inside of his unlocked tow truck that she believes Mejia was able to get ahold of.

She said that neither she or her boyfriend heard Mejia come into the house, and if a movement alert on her phone hadn't woken her up, he likely could have come and gone.

"I'm glad he didn't go anywhere in the house," said Cassell. "Because if he did, if he went in our room, it would have been bad. It would have been bad."

Cassell said she placed a call to Oklahoma City Police after she realized Mejia had stolen her SUV.

An affidavit says officers were able to find him and the vehicle quickly, and took him into custody.

Mejia is facing charges for burglary and larceny of an automobile. He's currently being held in the Oklahoma County Jail on a $20,000 bond.

Cassell said she's thankful she had the camera to catch him in the act.

"I've had it for a hot minute," said Cassell. "It just took me forever to get it put in since we moved here, and I'm glad I did."