‘I pulled my gun on him’: Video shows homeowner confronting burglar; suspect caught after manhunt

By Sheldon Fox, Samantha Sosa, Rubén Rosario, Alex Browning

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    MIAMI BEACH, Florida (WSVN) — A prowler who broke into a home in an exclusive Miami Beach neighborhood found himself facing a pistol-toting homeowner, triggering a massive manhunt that led to the burglar’s arrest, police said.

Speaking with 7News on Thursday, homeowner Babba Joshua Yesharim said he saw the perpetrator on his property on Pine Tree Drive near the 41st Street on surveillance video during the overnight hours.

Then he decided to confront the uninvited guest.

“The dog was barking. One of the alarms sounded. I checked the cameras. I saw him downstairs on the property. I got my gun, I gave my wife one of our guns,” he said.

In a bathrobe with a flashlight and handgun, Yesharim faced the home invading burglar.

“The only thing that was going through my mind at the time was to protect myself and my family at all costs,” he said.

The security footage captured the pistol-toting homeowner as he greeted the intruder.

“I saw him in my courtyard by my front door. I pulled my gun on him, I told him, ‘Freeze. I’ve got a gun. I will shoot you,’” said Yesharim. “He looked at me and he started running away from me. And it looked like he went toward my neighbor’s house and hopped the wall there.”

The prowler would run into more trouble.

“I also have a house manager on property that was armed as well. He had a shotgun on him,” said Yesharim.

After realizing he’d targeted the wrong house, the suspect fled, but his break-in fail was about to get worse.

The search to find the burglar led to a massive manhunt, one made up of everything from SWAT teams to K-9 units to a police chopper.

“The police were really quick to respond,” said Yesharim. “I was really impressed with that. They were at my house in maybe three minutes.”

More than a dozen Miami Beach Police units flooded the Mid-Beach block.

With help from a Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office helicopter, officers also put their police boat to work just east of the search mission.

But officers would find their man on land. K-9s and SWAT team officials grabbed him at a nearby vacant lot on Pine Tree.

The suspect, identified as Jose Santospena, was caught and cuffed and headed to jail.

Santospena is only accused of stealing from the victimized family’s fridge.

“He took a few of my kids’ yogurts, from all we can find. We can’t really find anything else,” said Yesharim. “He cold have taken, or tried to take, I should say, a lot more. I don’t know. I assume he wasn’t there for just yogurts.”

The homeowner said he is grateful no shots were fired.

“Thank God nobody was hurt, and they apprehended the guy,” he said.

Santospena was charged with occupied burglary. He remains behind bars at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in West Miami-Dade and is expected to appear on Friday.

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