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Thief breaks into Fitchburg home, leaves with fishing pole to blend in

FITCHBURG, Mass. — A brazen home break-in was captured on surveillance video as a thief spent 15 minutes ransacking a Fitchburg house.

The sound is jarring. You can hear as the thief busts out a window to rob the home.

"What was kind of crazy is he actually punched through a security symbol on the glass," the homeowner, Sam Codyer, said.

Codyer returned home from work Tuesday evening to find his home had been broken into around 3 p.m. that afternoon. The surveillance video even shows the thief tip-toeing into the house.

"I think that’s the real disturbing thing to me, is that not only did he forcibly enter but then he was still thinking someone was inside," he said.

Codyer shares the home with his fiancee, but neither was home. The thief swiped electronics and anything else that would fit into his backpack.

"He was wearing gloves when he entered, he’d walked around the premises looking in windows. So it looked like he had done this thing before. This wasn’t his first time," Codyer said.

The Fitchburg police chief says no arrests have been made and this is likely an isolated robbery. But the thief was seen leaving the house carrying a backpack and fishing pole, likely trying to blend into the neighborhood.

"Someone carrying a fishing pole near a pond, it wouldn’t jump out at you so it is somewhat concerning," Chief Ernest Martineau said.

He says the home surveillance video is crucial to their investigation and hopes it will help them crack the case.

"With the availability of cameras, that’s a force multiplier. It gives our officers an opportunity to review real-time footage it helps us tremendously," Chief Martineau said.

The thief got away with several hundred dollars worth of valuables but sam Codyer says feeling safe at home is priceless.

"It’s terrifying thinking he was in my bedroom, he was in my living room and this is a neighborhood you wouldn’t imagine this happen," Codyer said.