Brittney Heinzman says a 55-inch TV, Dior bags, and Chanel bags were taken from her apartment.
A California woman came home from a trip out of town to find her expensive bags and television set gone. The woman found the alleged thief hiding in her closet but the crime hit especially close to home. The alleged thief was her neighbor.
Brittney Heinzman tells Inside Edition she nearly fainted when she confronted the woman in the closet.
“She had a pizza cutter, she had a spatula, she had a cutting board,” Heinzman says. “I just screamed. I said 'get out, get out, get out.'”
The intruder pushed past her and fled the apartment.
Another neighbor’s doorbell camera caught the suspect running down the hallway and then doubling back as if in a state of panic over what to do next.
Heinzman called police and they tracked down the suspect. They say the woman not only lives in the same apartment building, but she lives on the same floor.
When Heinzman looked around her apartment she was shocked by what was stolen from her. She says a 55-inch TV, Dior bags, and Chanel bags were taken.
Police say when they went to arrest the suspect, they found her hiding in her own closet. She was identified as Wendy Wilkinson.
“Based on the items that were stolen and recovered, it appears she made multiple trips to come back and forth from the victim’s apartment to her own apartment to steal the goods,” Sgt. Karie Davies of Irvine Police says.
Heinzman says she got her property back. She tells Inside Edition she decided it was time to move to another place.
“I can’t stay here. I gotta go,” she says.
Wilkinson has pleaded not guilty to burglary.
