Local

Homeowner says break-in suspect was ‘sitting there casually at my dining room table’

CHARLOTTE — New video shows an accused burglary suspect breaking into someone’s home in south Charlotte.

Channel 9 first reported about the situation on Thursday. Neighbors in the Scaleybark Road area posted flyers warning about that same suspect.

A single mom who lives just up the street was emotional when she spoke to Channel 9’s Evan Donovan on Thursday. She described the fear she and her son felt when they came home from a four-day trip to find their house ransacked and their things stolen.

Another single mom said she and her daughter came home while a man was in their house and he started to scream at them as they took off in terror. That was only the first time he went to their house.

Doorbell camera video shows the man who police identified as Dennis Campos-Quintanilla approaching a home on Scaleybark Road. This was the Friday before Labor Day weekend.

“We get in, and it’s like 10:42 at night,” the woman said.

“And [my daughter] comes and runs to me and says, ‘Mom, somebody’s inside.’”

The homeowner went on to put up flyers in the area warning neighbors about the suspect.

“I said, ‘Jump in the car and let’s call 911,’ and I start backing out,” she said, adding, “And then he’s going through the house. And we can see him at every window, following us, and then finally goes out the front door and is trying to wave us down again and trying to get our attention.”

The doorbell camera video showed him asking the homeowner if she needed her key.

“It’ll be here on the steps if you ever come back,” he said.

“He had actually taken a shower and put his wet clothes in my washing machine,” the woman told Donovan.

“You could tell he was sitting there casually at my dining room table,” she said. “Had found a shot glass. Was taking shots of the bourbon.”

Both victims who spoke with Donovan on Thursday described the same M.O. They said the burglar broke in through the back window, took down security system cameras, and ransacked the home. They said he took video games and systems and tried to pawn them, ate and drank their stuff, and wore their clothes.

They said perhaps the scariest part of it all was that he came back after the first break-in.

“So I had this low peace that he’s in jail ‘til Tuesday,” the woman said.

She hoped that with it being a holiday weekend and his second arrest in less than two weeks, Campos-Quintanilla would stay behind bars. But he bonded out of jail at 2 a.m. on Labor Day.

Three hours later, on her doorbell camera, she saw him return to her home.

“And come to find out, the next time when they do arrest him, on Wednesday morning, he’s wearing my son’s shirt,” she said. “I mean, I hadn’t even noticed that that was missing.”

Donovan learned Campos-Quintanilla had his first court appearance. He is still in jail.

(WATCH BELOW: 3 men linked to South American theft groups arrested for series of break-ins, CMPD says)


Evan Donovan

Evan Donovan, wsoctv.com

Evan is an anchor and reporter for Channel 9.

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