Local

Family's security camera captures men breaking into home

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Paris Hopkins watched live from her cellphone as a security camera captured two men breaking into her family's home Wednesday morning on Norris Avenue.

She’s now hoping that the surveillance video from her family’s security camera will help identify the men.

Officers responded to the break-in. Hopkins was on the road, a half hour away from the home security system sent her a warning.

Hopkins watched while she said two young men walked up on her porch. She cringed when she heard what they were saying.

“Y'all  going in?  We're gonna knock on the door first,” the men said on the security video.

“That's being said right there,” Hopkins said. “I hear it all. At this point, I'm shaking.”

Moments later, the men went around to the back door, and Hopkins received another alert.

“They just kicked (the door) and it busted open,” Hopkins said.

Olmand Hopkins, Paris Hopkins' husband, called the police.

As a second security camera inside switched on, Paris Hopkins watched live as the two suspects started looking for things to steal.

“She called me at work and said, ‘They're breaking into our house right now,’” Olmand Hopkins said.

“I'm looking, like, these people are in my house,” Paris Hopkins said. “They're rambling through my stuff.  There's no words to describe how you're feeling at that moment.”

Police arrived at the home quickly, but the two men escaped through the back door and jumped the fence.

“You kind of feel like (it's) an invasion of privacy,” Olmand Hopkins said.

“I'm shaking. I'm scared,” Paris Hopkins said.  “I don't know what to say. That feeling, I don't want to feel it ever again, ever again.”