Man catches suspects breaking into Upper East Side apartment on app

UPPER EAST SIDE (WABC) -- A man watched two thieves break into his Upper East Side apartment on his cell phone and quickly got surveillance video to police thanks to an app.

The NYPD released the surveillance video hoping someone can identify the crooks that they say may be involved with other burglaries in the area.

"That's him coming through the kitchen window," said Danny Wheeler, the break-in victim.

Danny Wheeler was at work when an app on his phone called "Canary" alerted him that there was someone in his apartment.

When he opened the app up, he saw a man roaming around, first going into his bedroom, and then moments later, walking over to a living room window, moving aside plants and knickknacks to eventually let a second man in.

Sitting at work, watching it all, Wheeler was furious.

"I'm just really, really, angry; I just can't believe this is happening in my apartment right now. I'm not there and someone is trying to break in to my place and steal my stuff. It just makes my blood boil over," Wheeler said.

Wheeler called 911, but the real hero of this story is Seamus McDaid.

"I came up this ladder here and I saw the guy going through this window," McDaid said.

McDaid was in the back of the building and spotted the second guy going through the window, and called out to him.

"And I shout, 'Hey what are you doing?' And he continues through the window, and I shout, 'Hey,' again," McDaid said.

And that scared the men enough to run. On the surveillance video you can see the first guy head to the front door and the second goes right back through the same window he came in.

In the meantime, Wheeler has sent screen grabs to the police.

"By the time I got here, there were helicopters and 30 cops looking around the area," Wheeler said.

Police say the two men have been involved in other burglaries in the neighborhood, and they'd like any help they can get identifying them.

Mr. Wheeler said he had never used that app before; he never had any reason to. The two men didn't get very much because Mr. McDaid scared them away. All they got was a J. Crew silver bracelet from the bedroom dresser worth about $80.