Bra Bandit Caught On Camera

WEST MIAMI (CBS4) - West Miami's police chief has asked for the public's help in finding a man who they call a brazen bra burglar.

CBS4 has obtained surveillance tape of the suspect who is seen jogging quickly from the women's clothing store while cradling brassieres, swim suits and underwear.

"I can see someone breaking into a cell phone store where the money value of what they're after is high. But what are they going to get for these undergarments and brassieres and bathing suits? They can sell them at a flea market for five bucks apiece and risk being caught in doing this," West Miami Police Chief Nelson Andreu told CBS4's Peter D'Oench in an exclusive interview.

"I don't understand this," Andreu told D'Oench. "This is pretty brazen. It happened just half a block away from our police station. In fact 20 minutes before this happened an officer was parked in front of the store at 6260 Southwest 8th Street writing a traffic citation."

The surveillance video shows a man on bike 'casing' the Fajas Colombian store on Tuesday, July 9th before breaking in.

"He is first seen riding up on a bicycle," said Andreu. "You can tell he is staking the place out. He circles around on his cell phone and he returns with a pry bar to break open the window. He flees with the items and he even returns to pick some of them up. We'd like to get this individual off the street. These businesses in Miami-Dade County are struggling right now and to take a loss like that is not right. Some of these businesses do not have insurance."

Marta Arango has owned Fajas Colombian for the past six years and said she has never been burglarized before.

"It is very strange because West Miami is very secure," she said. "Nothing like this has ever happened here before."

Arango said the burglar took between 10 and 15 Leonisa swim suits, 13 Luz Deluna panties and 18 Leonisa brassieres. In total, $1,700 in merchandize was taken.

"I think it's someone who is probably a drug addict and who was looking for a way to finance his drug habit," said Arango. "It's not normal for something like this to happen. If somebody recognizes him, it would be good to call the authorities so he won't be doing this type of damage and that he can find treatment."

"We're speculating that because he pulls up on a bicycle and then returns a few moments later on foot that he lives not very far away," said Andreu. "This is an individual that we are all looking for and would like to get off the street. I think if someone knows this individual and sees him on the video, then he'll be able to say that is so and so and that's who you are looking for."

"It would be good if this person was caught because it would be good for the businesses and him too if he was caught," said Andreu.

Arango said about $1700 worth of items were stolen.

"I would say this person is in his mid 20s to the early 30s at most and he has a full beard," said Andreu. "He is average height and weigh, about 5 feet 8 inches tall to 5 foot 10. He doesn't look very fat. He's an average looking individual."

Andreu says he may have also burglarized other businesses in the area.

Anyone who can help people identify the man is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477).