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Alarm Scares off Burglar, Surveillance Video Reveals he was Armed

A Crown Heights family feels lucky that they were not harmed in a home invasion burglary, which surveillance video later revealed that the intruder was armed with a handgun. It was an alarm system and smart thinking by the homeowner that scared the gun toting burglar off.

The incident began on Sunday night at around 3:40am on Lincoln Place near Albany Avenue. Homeowner and security expert Chaim Mitnizki awoke to the sound of his alarm system going off.

“At first I thought it was a false alarm, but that did not make any sense since I never have false alarms” he told CrownHeights.info, “it was bugging me, so I checked my surveillance monitor to ‘verify’ the alarm and quickly discovered that there was in fact a burglar on the first floor.”

Not wasting any time Chaim got up and grabbed a knife from the kitchen, and while making as much noise as possible he began making his way to the floor below hoping to keep the burglar from coming up to the second floor where his family was asleep.

Spooked by the noise the burglar made a quick last sweep of an office on the first floor, grabbed two checkbooks, and fled.

After checking that the burglar had in fact left, Chaim returned to his surveillance monitor and upon closer inspection he discovered that the burglar appeared to be armed with a handgun. He quickly notified the police and Shomrim.

Officers and detectives arrived on scene within minutes and a quick investigation revealed that the burglar gained access to the house through an unsecured apartment building on S. Johns Place which lead to the Mitnizki’s backyard. From there he quietly broke open a rear door and tripped the alarm.

Chaim told CrownHeights.info that he feels that his alarm system saved his and quite possibly his family’s lives. “Without the alarm system I am sure he would have continued searching for valuables and made his way up to the second floor and I may have confronted him then, with my family around, and only g-d knows what kind of harm could have come to my family,” he said.

Chaim added that it was a new technology that helped him keep his family safe. “It’s called alarm verification, which notifies you where the alarm occurred and with the aid of a surveillance camera it shows you a live picture which allowed me to quickly see that it was not a false alarm,” he explained.

The following morning a more thorough review of surveillance video from around his home revealed that the burglar had ‘cased’ his home hours before breaking in. “Apparently the burglar thought my house was empty since my car was not in my driveway, but once he realized someone was home he quickly ran away.”

Police have indicated that there have been a number of similar style burglaries in nearby homes and that they are taking these incidents seriously. Police forensics units will be sweeping the area in hopes of finding fingerprints or other clues as to the identity of the burglar.

Chaim said he is also offering a reward of $5,000 through his security company SafeZone24 for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the burglar.

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22 Comments

  • Locked and Loaded Lubavitcher

    I want to offer my thanks to the RBS”O for bestowing his bountiful mercy on Chaim and his family and letting this incident come to a (B”H!) favorable conclusion. Let me also say that this should be great advertising for the sofer who wrote his Mezuzos and the Tzedakah for the Mosdos whom he supports.

    That said, we know the how important the “Inyan” of not relying on miracles is, and what the Torah specifically says about what happens when a thief breaks into your house (Parshas Mishpatim; Eim B’amachteres Yimatzei Ha’Gannav…. Kol Ha’Bah L’ha’arog Hashkeim L’Horrgo…..for those who need a reminder).
    So, if I may be so bold as to offer some “Real World” advice – advice based on what generally, ACTUALLY happens in the REAL WORLD, outside of the unfortunately, mostly insular bubble of the Frum communities at large.

    1. Not to sound too Hollywood cliched – “NEVER BRING A KNIFE TO A GUNFIGHT”!!

    2. Alarms are nice, but as we see from the video, the alarm didn’t exactly “reach out and magically apprehend or incapacitate” the perpetrator. Quite the contrary in fact, he kept on going through the house – alarm not withstanding!
    The only sounds that these animals definitively respond to is; 1.The very distinctive sound of the slide being racked on one of my automatics, or 2. The sound of the pump being primed with a 3″ magnum shell of 00 buckshot. 3. The elongated “click” of the hammer being cocked back. And of course; 4. The BOOOOM! that should immediately follow the “click” of the trigger being pulled.

    3. I’ll put it very straight to everyone reading this:
    THE ONLY THING THAT IS GOING TO STOP A BAD GUY WITH A GUN, IS A GOOD GUY WITH A GUN!! (Al Pei Derech Ha’Teva of course).

    Chaim was extremely lucky in this case, and he no doubt had a Malach watching over him – as it could have Chvs”l ended very differently………May the memory of the Tzadekes Pesha Leah Lapine, H”yd, and all of the rest of the Kedoshim of Klal Yisroel forever serve as a reminder to us.

    It is incumbent Al Pei Torah upon every Jew to learn how to defend ourselves and our families and to procure and learn to use the implements that will help us do so……And this does NOT just mean cameras and alarm systems!!!!!!! WHEN SECONDS COUNT THE POLICE ARE ONLY MINUTES AWAY!! (get it??!!??)

    Moshiach Now!!!!

    • Bad idea.

      Before I moved to NYC (and became a Ba’al Teshuva), I lived in Dallas and owned a 9mm S&W for protection, which I kept in a lockbox in my night table. I would go just about every two weeks to the range and had plenty of training.

      One night during the early AM hours, I heard slow footsteps near my bedroom. Because it was dark, and because I was startled and assumed the worst, (and because of several recent break-ins in the neighborhood) I went for my gun and had it drawn at the door, when my 6-year-old daughter entered the room… If not for my wife shrieking at me to put it down, I hate to even write this, but I would have G-D forbid shot her.

      The next day I sold my gun and ammo to a dealer. My wife and I decided that if we ever had a break-in, we would call the police, and if it came to it, we would give the burgler all our jewelry and money and pray for the best, but I would NEVER have a firearm in my home again.

      Before hurrying to get a firearm, consider this: when was the last time there was a break-in in CH where the intruder used a gun to shoot a household member? The wise thing to do is to have an alarm system like the fellow in the above article, and alert the police and Shomrim. Until Shomrim arrives, keep your family safe and don’t try to be a macho man.

  • Uncle Mendel

    Racial profiling.
    If he had a dog in the house, this idiot would never even have tried.

  • hmmm

    coincidence this happened to someone who installs security cameras and alarms for a living?

  • Chaim H

    Just finished printing the gun permit application, all 17 pages. It will be long long process, but must be done.

  • non-gender

    B”H, h was indeed lucky. #5 Not only do you need a gun but you have to have training on its use and to know how to react to situations in the best possible manner; I. e. see http://www.fronsight.com which will provide valuable information on gun usage and how to defuse a situation without use of deadly force. In this case he scared the perp away, but you have to have still a last resort plan to protect you and your family, Heaven Forfend, if it comes to that because you never know what motivates these people and what they might do.
    #7 Well said, especially under the current regime in city hall.

  • Alex

    To #3 good for you,you are obviously unable to safely operate a firearm in an Emergency,or even range setting. If you have kids or pets or anybody else in your household : any noise should be assumed to be “friendly” ! You open ur safe or even retrieve ur gun,but never point it at anybody or into noise,always keep ur finger off the trigger. Only shoot if you positively identify a person as a THREAT . If u walk around the house with a gun,u point it into a safe direction (usually the floor). Yes if u hear a noise in the darkness and start blasting away,thats not a guns fault,thats u being an idiot !

  • Alex

    On another hand its very strange for a guy to break into a house to steal thing and have a gun in a hand. Usually u want to keep both hands free so u can grab stuff.Also the guy didnt expect for anybody to be inside,thats why he went in. Just doesn’t add up

  • To # 3 "Bad Idea"

    To make a blanket generalization that personal gun ownership is a “Bad Idea”, as you do so in your response to #2, is as reckless and outright dangerous as it is wrong!
    I cannot begin to enumerate how many people would have given “their right arm” to have had a firearm and the know-how to use it at their disposal in their darkest hour. The Daveners at the morning Minyan in Har Nof, the coffee drinkers at the Lindt Chocolate coffee shop in Sydney, Dr. William Petit – who had to watch the sicko’s who broke into his house “have their way” with his wife and two teenage daughters while he stood their powerless because HE DIDN”T HAVE A GUN TO STOP THEM!!!!! (Remember, for these sub-humans it’s not always all about the money…….).

    I’m all for freedom of choice, and if you don’t feel both competent as well as confident in your ability to own and handle a firearm, then that is a personal choice which I respect.
    Being a BT myself who can essentially “shoot a perfect 300, offhand, with one eye tied behind my back”, I can say with a pretty high level of certainty that demonizing personal gun ownership because of your own shortcomings is, as you put it, nothing less than a “Bad Idea”!

    I wish you well.

  • non-gender

    #3 Too bad that when you lived in Dallas you did not go to Frontsight because what you described would not have occurred. They are one of the best defensive e gun training institutions in the states and they specialize on how to react in situations you described and how to defuse possible incidents so that deadly force s not used unless there is no other option.

  • 77th is slow as snails

    Thank you for sharing your story. I’m also in Crown Heights and a couple neighbors called 911 after prowlers were on the building roof and one climbed down 2 flights of the fire escape. Took the 77th forty minutes to show up, even though they have a security tower stationed half a block away. Homeowners and tenants need to have their own safeguards. Unfortunately that’s the state of the police.