TOBYHANNA TOWNSHIP -- A man is facing a slew of theft charges after police say he broke into vehicles at a popular resort in the Poconos, right in the middle of the busy tourist season.
Pocono Mountain Regional Police say the suspect was found in the parking lot of Kalahari last week.
David Cela, 32, of New York, is facing a slew of theft charges, including felony offenses such as theft by taking and receiving stolen property.
Police say Cela was caught last week in the parking lot of Kalahari Resort after a person called police saying they saw a man trying to break into vehicles around 2:40 a.m.
When officers arrived, they found Cela and a search found he had items totaling more than $2,000 in his possession.
Cela arrested after the person who called police identified him.
For guests of the resort, this is a bit unsettling.
“That is nerve racking because if I'm inside with my kids, I wouldn't expect to think that I have to think about my car, like, wow, had no idea,” said Crystal Brown from New York.
The public relations firm representing Kalahari says it wasn't aware of the incident and could not comment.
Guests say they noticed there are several security cameras mounted on light poles throughout the parking lot and that does make them feel secure.
“They have surveillance cameras on each of these poles, so they know who's who, what's going on,” said Shirlena Thorton.
Still they don’t leave anything in their cars that could tempt a thief.
“What we try to do is make sure our car is empty so you don’t give somebody a reason to want to break into your car,” said Felicia Fridie from Washington, D.C. “So that’s what we always do, make sure the car is empty because you don’t want to tempt nobody to break your window to go into your car.”
“You don’t want to leave anything good inside your car. You want to bring it inside the room, so we have a room,” said Joe Moran from Montgomery County. “But other than that, you wouldn’t expect to come here but nowadays they break into everything.”
“This is a great place. Anyone who wants to come, come visit, but take everything out of your car because you never know,” said Thorton, laughing.
Cela is out free on $50,000 bail.
He has a preliminary hearing scheduled for August 3.