Contractor walks in on burglary at Fort Myers home

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A burglar is accused of beating up a contractor and leaving several thousand dollars in damage behind.

The homeowner says police had every chance to catch him.

The suspect is accused of using a window to get inside. Originally, there was an A/C unit, but that’s now gone and the window is smashed in.

As the suspect was inside, a man working on the home got caught in the middle of his heist.

“I think I scared him just as much as he scared me,” said Billy Jack Monday.

Monday is remodeling the Jackson Street home, but when he went to check on it, he walked into a burglary in process.

“It was sitting just like that so I thought that was weird, why is it sitting there? And then when I poke my head around the corner he was crouched down on the ground over here,” Monday said.

The suspect allegedly carved appliances and copper pipes out of the walls, but before he could get away, Monday rushed to stop him.

“(He) had a piece of pipe or something in his hand and threw it at me, hit me in the knee and then he ran out the door,” Monday said.

Leaving the copper behind, and a trail of destruction.

“He had his little treasure trove over here … this is what all his hard work got him, hardly nothing,” Monday said.

Evan Graves owns the property and said there was approximately $10,000 worth of damage. He then called for help.

“That’s a whole lot of work. Replacing windows, copper tubing, it’s crazy,” Monday said.

While they’re upset about the damage, they say they’re more frustrated that police responded 30 minutes later and then immediately left.

“I’m very disappointed in the Fort Myers Police Department because hey this guy could’ve still been hiding in the bushes,” Graves said. “Why would you come and stay for 20 seconds and say, ‘Oh I got another call, I gotta go.'”

Another officer later showed up, but Graves said it gave the suspect almost an hour in total to get away.

The victims say the suspect took off on a bicycle.

WINK News reached out to the Fort Myers Police Department about the burglary, but they have yet to respond.

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