A personal drone helped police arrest a teenager accused of stealing $30,000 from a San Francisco Bay Area home, authorities say

By Michelle Watson, CNN

(CNN) — A man flying his personal drone helped authorities arrest a teenager accused of stealing about $30,000 from a home in the San Francisco Bay Area, police said.

Police in Hercules, California, were called Sunday just before 6:30 a.m. local time to a home that a suspect had broken into by shattering a glass back door, the city’s police department said in a Facebook post.

“The victim fled the residence through the front door and ran to his neighbor’s home,” police said. Surveillance video showed the suspect, wearing a blue jacket, black sweatpants and gray shirt around his face, entering the home.

After the suspect fled the scene, investigators surveyed the home and the victim informed them about $30,000 cash was missing, along with some property, police said.

Around 9:48 a.m., a neighbor about a half a mile away told authorities he had “located a subject hiding” while flying his personal drone, police said.

While police were on the way, the person managed to flee in what appeared to be an Uber ride, the Facebook post said.

“Officers located a Gray Honda Accord with Uber logos in the window at the corner of Meadowlark and Tanager Way,” police said in the post. “A high-risk stop was conducted and a subject matching the exact description of the suspect in the surveillance video exited the rear passenger seat of the Honda.”

The officers found more than $30,000 of the victim’s property on the floorboard of the vehicle where the suspect had been, according to police, and the teenager was arrested.

The city of Hercules is about 26 miles north of San Francisco.

CNN has reached out to Uber for comment.

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