When some Dorchester residents went into their kitchen on Christmas Eve, they found a stranger, tackling him before police arrived.
Some residents of Boston's Dorchester neighborhood went into their kitchen on Christmas Eve to find a stranger.
Ring doorbell video allegedly shows Olive Sampeur of Brooklyn, New York, stealing a Jeep belonging to Alec Donegan's girlfriend. He lives in Dorchester with four roommates. He came home on Dec. 22 to find the Jeep gone, so he went next door for the video.
"We saw this guy peeking around for a little bit in the morning, and then he left and came back an hour, 45 minutes later, and went out back and pulled away with the Jeep," Donegan said.
Two days later, on Christmas Eve, police say Sampeur came back, this time to rob the house. He allegedly went inside, where Zach Holland was sleeping upstairs.
"Little did I know there was a man inside the house rummaging through the rooms and going through the entire house," Holland said.
He says the thief even opened his door, shutting it when he saw Holland, who thought it was a roommate.
Sampeur allegedly spent more than an hour going through the house until two roommates came home.
"He was, like, right here, and he kind of had nowhere to go," Holland said. "They walked in, Nick confronted him … I think he actually had a beer in his hand."
Holland flew down the stairs and help wrestle the intruder to the floor.
"He tried to get away," he said. "We charged him. We tackled him to the ground and subdued him until the cops arrived."
While holding him down, Holland asked him what he was doing.
"I said, 'Are you the one who stole the vehicle?' He said, 'Yes.' I said, 'Where's that car? Where's that car?' And he said, 'It's in the driveway.' He backed it into the driveway," Holland recalled.
Sampeur drove the vehicle he allegedly stole two days earlier back to the place where it was taken. In a way, he was lucky.
"There's five of us who live here," Holland said. "Four of us are Marines."
The fifth roommate is a former boxer.
Sampeur was arraigned Wednesday. He has no previous record and was released from custody. He's due back in court in March.
