A South Carolina couple asleep at a resort on Miami Beach got a rude awakening from an unwanted guest who, they said, broke into their hotel room from the balcony, leading police to make an arrest following reports of dozens of similar burglaries.
A dream getaway hit a sour note for 27-year-old Dominick Coughlin and his fiancée Hailey when, he said, the perpetrator found his way to an elevated portion of the Eden Roc Hotel, climbed onto their balcony and burglarized their room, July 31.
“Where are you going, dawg? Where are you going, huh?” Coughlin is heard saying in cellphone video showing the suspect near his balcont at the hotel, located at 4525 Collins Ave.
Luckily, the terrace-hopping prowler was scared off after encountering Coughlin, who, according to a police report, “grabbed a bottle of wine in self-defense.”
Speaking exclusively with 7News on Thursday, Coughlin said the burglar then hopped over to another balcony.
“He jumped off of the third story balcony,” he said. “He scaled a pillar to get down when I was chasing him with the wine bottle.”
“Oh, he’s running. He’s going, he’s going in,” Hailey is heard saying in cellphone video showing the suspect making it to the ground and walking into the ground floor of the Eden Roc.
Coughlin described the frightening moment when he realized he and Hailey were not alone.
“I saw two hands come from the outside of our curtain and start moving it back,” he said.
Coughlin said he and Hailey were in bed when he heard and saw the man make entry.
“At that point, I knew someone is in our room, someone is walking in,” he said.
After getting the burglar to run off, the couple began to gather footage.
Hotel security and police were called.
A spokesperson for Miami Beach Police acknowledged dealing with “dozens of [recent] burglaries” at hotels like the Eden Roc and others with the same m.o.
Coughlin recorded himself in bumper-to-bumper traffic as he headed to the police station.
“So we are currently in traffic on our vacation, going to the … police station, in order to try to pick this man out of a lineup,” he said.
Investigators shifted their focus toward 37-year-old Patrick Bryant, as an internal wanted flyer shows.
On Monday, more than a month after the Eden Roc crime, officers apprehended Bryant.
The arrest report states the suspect “has been arrested multiple times throughout the years for the same exact crime (balcony room burglaries).”
“He could have very well had a firearm or anything, and it could have been an even worse situation,” said Coughlin.
It turned an idyllic vacation into a bad trip for the visiting couple.
“We had the expectations that we were going to be safe and secure,” said Coughlin. “When coming to Florida, we probably will not stay in Miami.”
Arrested while in the middle a probation meeting, Bryant has been charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling and has pending similar cases.