Thursday, March 9th 2017, 1:49 pm
A home break-in was caught on camera this week, and Midwest City Police believe this was a targeted attack.
The owner of the house, former city councilman Turner Mann, died last week. The thief struck during his funeral, and police say it was no coincidence.
A neighbor's surveillance camera recorded the moment a white Dodge Durango pulled up to Mann's house on Monday around 10:45 a.m. A white man gets out and walks towards the house and out of view. He reappears 15 minutes later and drives away.
Mann's family left to attend his funeral less than an hour earlier, and they returned that afternoon to find the back door pried open.
“I was shocked at first, of course,” said Charlotte McCloud, “and as I went through the house I saw where personal belongings had been taken and things were thrown around.
As family members called police to report the break-in, shock quickly turned to anger.
McCloud said, “I couldn’t believe it because we had just left the funeral, and everyone was really grieving. It had been a hard week.”
Investigators were able to get fingerprints from the door, and hope to find a match. They think whoever it was saw Mann's obituary and carefully planned the attack.
“Unfortunately, there are predators out there that scan that information, and once they get a name it’s easy to find an address,” said Major Robert Cornelison of the Midwest City police department.
The thief attacked the house despite having a working alarm system and neighbors who keep a lookout. Although they say this is not a common type of break-in, Midwest City police advise you to have someone stay home during funerals, weddings or other special events.
“It’s unfortunate that maybe everybody can’t attend the funeral,” said Cornelison, “but if you leave somebody home to house-sit, maybe that will help.”
McCloud hopes to alert other families to prevent new attacks.
“It’s devastating in the first place, something like this happening,” said McCloud, “and I would just learn from our loss.”
If you have any information about the man or the vehicle in the video, call Detective Archer at (405)739-1317 and reference case # 17-01672.
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