Man arrested after breaking into older residents' apartments in Coral Gables: Police

A man accused of committing multiple burglaries at apartments owned by seniors in Coral Gables has been arrested, police said.

Jermaine McClain, 27, is facing several charges, including three counts of burglary of an occupied dwelling, and two counts of third-degree grand theft auto, Coral Gables Police officials said Wednesday.

During his court appearance on Thursday,

According to Coral Gables Police, on Jan. 9, they arrived at The Grand Living assisted-living facility, where they were told a man burglarized three apartments and then fled the scene.

Miami-Dade Corrections

Miami-Dade Corrections

The arrest report said the facility's director told officers that a suspect entered an apartment that belonged to an elderly woman.

When officers interviewed the woman, she said she returned to her locked apartment after having something to eat and found everything inside was normal. She then used her restroom and left her apartment to go for her daily walk.

She said she assured officers that she locked her door before she went on her walk.

When she returned to her apartment, she told officers her door wouldn't open after she inserted her key. The arrest report states that she "felt the door pull inward as if someone inside had opened it."

Once she was able to open the door, she saw McClain inside who told her he was a maintenance worker and was fixing her apartment's lights.

The arrest report said McClain then left her apartment.

According to the woman, she noticed that her Rolex was missing from her nightstand. She then notified her caregivers about the incident.

Multiple other tenants also spoke out about McClain attempting to get inside their apartments.

When he was confronted by one of the tenants, he ignored them and was seen entering the passenger side of a vehicle.

“Fortunately, this time, the victim was with some nurses, so he walked out the apartment as she walked in pretending to walk on the phone and he just walked  down the hallway into a service elevator, and they were trying to get his attention," Coral Gables Police Sgt. Michelle Christensen said. "One of the nurses was able to take a picture of the vehicle that he fled in.”

Officers were also provided exterior surveillance video of the McClain leaving the building.

As detectives continued their investigation, they ran a records check on the vehicle's tag and found out it belonged to an Uber driver.

During an interview with the Uber driver, he told detectives that McClain requested the ride.

In the surveillance video, police said McClain was seen getting into the Uber.

When McClain got inside his vehicle, the driver said he showed him envelopes full of money and wanted him to be his driver for the day.

According to one of the victims, five white envelopes with money were taken from their nightstand.

After refusing McClain's request, the Uber driver dropped him off at the YVE Hotel, located at 146 Biscayne Boulevard.

On Jan. 10, officers arrived at the hotel, spoke with the manager and the hotel's maintenance manager, and reviewed surveillance video that showed McClain being dropped off by the Uber.

McClain was seen entering the hotel, going up the elevators and using his room card to get into his room.

In surveillance video of McClain checking into the hotel a day before, he was wearing the same clothes that he wore when he was at the assisted-living facility.

After conducting a records check and obtaining McClain's social security number, driver's license and FBI number, an arrest warrant was issued.