ST. LOUIS — Finding a man captured in surveillance photos was a top priority for St. Louis police for the past four days.
He was wanted for allegedly snatching a 6-year-old boy, experiencing high-functioning special needs, off his bike Sunday, luring the child inside a vacant house and sexually assaulting him.
"It was chilling to the bone. When the child's mother called me shortly after the incident to ask for help in checking for security camera video clips, I just dropped what I was doing," Tom Scheifler, chairperson of the St. Louis Hills Neighborhood Association's Safety Committee, said.
"We are utilizing every resource that we have to kind of get boots on the ground in that area and try do whatever we can to get the information that we need to ultimately find this individual," St. Louis Police Sergeant Charles Wall said.
Moments after 5 On Your Side's Christine Byers interviewed Wall, the break detectives desperately wanted happened.
Investigators say more than 100 tips from the public helped detectives catch the suspect.
They have not said exactly where they arrested him.
"That's fantastic news. It's of course what the neighborhood and everybody was hoping for," Scheifler said.
Scheifler said he is convinced a new security initiative he started in the South City neighborhood four months ago also helped police track the man down.
The suspect has not been charged as of Thursday evening.
"It has to have narrowed down who it was and how they were moving about in the neighborhood," Scheifler said.
The St. Louis Hills neighborhood security initiative allows homeowners to buy a security camera for $200, mount it on their house, and then the small camera records everything that moves around their property. The cameras are rolling 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If the cameras catch a crook in action, alerts are automatically sent to a central system.
"Our private duty officers are armed police officers. The officers can arrest, but they cannot transport suspects," Scheifler said. "They will call in for fellow officers to do that. They have said the alerts give them actionable intelligence, so instead of just randomly patrolling, which they do, they're also reviewing the alerts from cameras throughout the neighborhood."
Scheifler said without a doubt their new camera system is paying off and helping police track criminals in their St. Louis Hills neighborhood. He now hopes the crime-catching cameras will spread to other neighborhoods.
"So far, 135 homeowners in our area have invested in the cameras. It's a traditional neighborhood watch," Scheifler added.
Now, with a cool, high-tech camera twist.
The suspect remains in jail as of Thursday evening as prosecutors are expected to charge him on Friday.
For more information on the St. Louis Hills Neighborhood Association's Security Initiative click here.