Sheriff says would-be burglar arrested

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Volusia County deputies say a man was arrested for attempted burglary after he was caught on a home surveillance system peering through a window and trying to open the doors.

The video shows a truck pulling into the Daytona Beach driveway, a man walking up to the front door, where he knocks. 

“I got an alert on my phone that there was motion at my front door so I grabbed the phone - looked at it,” said Steve Ludwig, who owns the home but was out of town at the time on business. 

He watched what happened next Wednesday morning through his Ring doorbell. 

“Then the guy started walking around to the back of the house so I turned on the back camera,” Ludwig explained. 

You see the man peering through the window. Then, you hear Ludwig’s voice. 

“Hey dude, get the [expletive] out of my yard! The cops are on the way,” he tells the stranger through the surveillance system. 
 
“He just kind of looked up and you know - started walking away,” Ludwig said. 
 
Photographs of the man and his truck were sent to the police. 

“Deputy Green then blasted them out to all of the deputies in the area and our real time crime center,” said Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood. 

Not long after, Chitwood says deputies zeroed in on the guy. Investigators say 37-year-old Frank Johnson was dressed as an air conditioner repair man. They say he was arrested on several active warrants, and new charges of attempted burglary. 

“There’s one less scum bag committing daytime burglaries in Volusia County because of this,” Chitwood said. 

“We don’t need people like that on the streets,” Ludwig said. 

Ludwig says his home was broken into earlier this month so he had just installed the security system.