MIDWEST CITY, OK -- A bizarre burglary is a first for a metro police department. It wasn't the way the thieves got into the apartment, but how they were caught doing it. No one was home, but someone was watching from thousands of miles away.
Jim Chounard and his wife Maribel have a special kind of relationship. They'll be married a year in December. Jim is stationed in Oklahoma and works at Tinker Air Force Base. That's where he was when he got an unexpected call from his wife.
"I was out on duty Saturday afternoon, and she called me around four, and said she saw people, heard a noise and opened her eyes and saw people coming through the window," Chounard said.
She was asleep, not in the apartment, but in another country. Their long distance relationship is held together in part by a webcam. It's the couple's main source of communication, and it stays on 24-7.
"She can hear right off the bat when I get up, and I get up extra early to spend a little time with her before I go to work," Chounard said.
That's why her frantic call caught him off guard. It was in the middle of the night "her time" and she was now watching thieves break into her husband's apartment through the webcam.
"It's really an amazing story when you consider that our calling party actually originates from the Philippines, which is halfway around the world," Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said.
Maribel called her husband and he called 9-11. It's an unusual crime solved from Oklahoma to the Philippines and back.
Two of the juvenile suspects were still inside the apartment when police arrived on scene. Chounard's wife was able to identify them after police E-mailed pictures to her. A third teen was also taken into custody the same day.
Jim Chounard and his wife Maribel have a special kind of relationship. They'll be married a year in December. Jim is stationed in Oklahoma and works at Tinker Air Force Base. That's where he was when he got an unexpected call from his wife.
"I was out on duty Saturday afternoon, and she called me around four, and said she saw people, heard a noise and opened her eyes and saw people coming through the window," Chounard said.
She was asleep, not in the apartment, but in another country. Their long distance relationship is held together in part by a webcam. It's the couple's main source of communication, and it stays on 24-7.
"She can hear right off the bat when I get up, and I get up extra early to spend a little time with her before I go to work," Chounard said.
That's why her frantic call caught him off guard. It was in the middle of the night "her time" and she was now watching thieves break into her husband's apartment through the webcam.
"It's really an amazing story when you consider that our calling party actually originates from the Philippines, which is halfway around the world," Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said.
Maribel called her husband and he called 9-11. It's an unusual crime solved from Oklahoma to the Philippines and back.
Two of the juvenile suspects were still inside the apartment when police arrived on scene. Chounard's wife was able to identify them after police E-mailed pictures to her. A third teen was also taken into custody the same day.
