KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Video from a home security camera captured a car break-in in the Cedar Bluff area. It shows the burglar opening a car door, doing a quick search and then taking off.
For the last 40 years, the Wells family has called the Cedar Bluff neighborhood home. But over the past months, Paul Wells said there's been a car burglar on the loose.
"I noticed that he was breaking into one of the cars in the driveway," Paul Wells said. "He opened the door to the car and I was just shocked that he was in there."
It was 5 a.m. Friday when the sensor from his mother's driveway camera was triggered.
"[At] that time in the morning, that's usually a bunny rabbit or a raccoon walking by the cars in the driveway," he said. "But today, I was really shocked to see that was a person in the driveway."
Three hours later, Wells woke up to find the video of a stranger opening up his family car. And within minutes, the person walked away.
"[The] glovebox was open, the items were scattered all over the seat, the center console was opened up and those items were just scattered all over the car," Wells said. "The video shows him leaving less stuff in his hands. But we were not quite sure what it is yet."
Wells said he is now one of many cars in the neighborhood that were broken into recently. He said people's cars across the Cedar Bluff and George Williams neighborhoods have all been victims of this type of break-in.
"There are some apartments and townhouses behind our houses and those have had several break-ins as well," he said.
The neighbor said law enforcement had been notified.
10News has reached out to Knox County Sheriff's Office asking how many car break-ins that neighborhood has seen.