Once police identified her, she turned herself in to a the Harris County Sheriff's Office. And detectives say the crime was solved because of a neighbor who called in a tip.
It's surveillance video of a front porch thief that went viral. It shows the suspect opening packages at a Kingwood home. She even tried on shoes that didn't fit, then stole skin care packaged products. Thanks to a neighbor, though, police later identified her as Linda Tatosian.
"Sometimes, that's half our battle. We have great video, but we don't know who the person is, and then we will get one of our great citizens to call in and positively identify the person in the video," said Lt. Jeff Stauber with the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
So using the address on the court charging document, we showed up on Tatosian front porch to get her side of the story. But the 50-year-old wasn't talking.
And she might never had been caught, had the neighbor who recognized her on the surveillance video not called authorities.
The detective was then able to pull up Tatosian's driver's license, match that picture to the surveillance video and the shot of her waving to the guard of the gated community. Tatosian allegedly took off with moisturizer, skin softener and a facial cleaner worth $250.
"The help it gives law enforcement, I just can't emphasize enough, how many cases we are making because citizens are calling in and identifying people in these videos," Stauber said.
Tatosian was arrested and charged with theft. Her next court appearance is August 12.
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