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Hundreds of miles away, Utah couple watches live as burglar and police enter their home

Posted at 9:43 PM, Apr 22, 2019
and last updated 2019-04-23 08:44:31-04

DRAPER, Utah — A Draper couple is sharing videos they watched in horror as someone broke into their home while they were on vacation.

Janette Butner and her husband were in Moab for the Easter Jeep Safari when an alert popped up on their phones.

Thinking it was their cat Luna walking by the camera, Janette decided to tune in and say hi to their kitty.

My wife pulls up the phone, thinking she's going to talk to the cat," husband Robert Butner said. "And, we see somebody in our home."

That watched as the Internet-connected surveillance camera picked up a suspected thief.

The footage shows a man walking around their living room, carrying a flashlight. In the video, the couple could hear him opening and closing doors, and walking down the stairs.

"I was like, 'Oh my gosh. This is really scary,'" Janette said.

After watching the burglar for a few moments in real time, they called police-- who wasted no time arriving with a K-9.

"Who is in the house?" A female Draper City Police officer yells. The K-9 barks and runs around. Eventually, they realize the suspected thief is downstairs.

"Police K9, put your hands up!" The K-9 officer is heard yelling in the footage. "Put your hands up, and come upstairs right now!"

Although they were hundreds of miles away, the Butners were able to watch the burglary and the police response live.

"It was kind of surreal watching all this go down from 500 miles away in Moab, in my living room with the police and the police dog," Janette said.

Finally, the burglar listens and obeys orders. He walks up the stairs and the officers put him in cuffs.

Butner said the man luckily was captured before stealing too much-- police found the couple's collector pennies and a set of keys on him that they said the man stole after breaking into a vehicle in their driveway. He went to jail for burglary and drug-related charges.

It turns out the burglar was someone the Butners knew.

"He ended up being somebody that we've known for about 15 years," Janette said.

Apparently, the burglar found out the Butners were planning to be out of town and tried to take advantage of the situation. The Butners told FOX 13 the burglar actually called them from jail to apologize.