Caught On Video: Dressed-Up Intruder Steals Prius From Garage, Returns For Motorcycle

RANCHO CUCAMONGA (CBSLA) — A well-dressed intruder was captured on surveillance video trying to steal a car from a Rancho Cucamonga home.

Police named the man the "Button-Down Bandit" after he was caught on video wandering around inside a garage, looking for the keys to the parked Toyota Prius or the nearby motorcycle. He even went inside, where a family slept upstairs.

"That's where, you know, I skipped a heartbeat," homeowner Prag Sood said.

The man was wearing light-colored dress pants and a blue button-down shirt, as if he just got home from work. The home security video showed him going from the Prius to the locked-up motorcycle and back again.

"Stranger wandering around the garage, scanning what to steal," Sood said.

A neighbor told Sood he had seen the man, but in his nice-looking clothes, nothing looked amiss.

All the neighbors, however, realized something was wrong when the thief rammed the community's security gate with the Prius, leaving streaks of white paint on the solid black bars.

The thief later returned, seeking out the motorcycle and even taking a seat to roll it outside. But he was unable to unlock the steering column.

Sood said he had accidentally left the garage door open that night because he hit the button to close it twice.

"If he came in, came upstairs, I don't know what I would have done," Sood said.

The Prius was found, with major damage possibly caused by ramming the gate, a few days later at a gas station in Jurupa Valley.