A Jessup man caught on camera trying to break into a house in Blakely where he thought his girlfriend was cheating on him faces prowling and loitering charges.
Mario Ortalano, 36, of 322 Second Ave., initially denied trying to enter the residence. When police told him he was on video, he changed his story, according to a criminal complaint.
He told police he had been tracking his girlfriend’s cellphone and believed she was at the residence.
According to the criminal complaint:
Blakely police responded to a house in the 400 block of Travis Alley at about 10:30 p.m. on Sunday. Two people who lived at the house told police they checked their cameras after their dogs began barking. They saw a man walking around their house and pulling on doors.
The footage they provided to police showed a man with a dark beard wearing a tank top and a hat first pulling on the basement door, then the front door, and walking around the property.
Police then responded to a convenience store near the residence, where witnesses reported a man attempting to abduct a 16-year-old girl. Witnesses said a man, later identified as Ortalano, had been there and was acting strangely.
Police went to Ortalano’s address and found him outside in the same clothing as the man in the surveillance footage.
Ortalano told officers he approached a young girl at the convenience store because he thought she was his girlfriend, who told him she was going there to get gas.
Officers asked him why he had been walking around the Travis Alley residence and pulling on the doors. When he denied going to the residence, officers told him he had been caught on camera.
Officers arrested Ortalano and noted he seemed to be under the influence of narcotics. They searched his vehicle and found a pen used as a snorting straw with white powdery residue inside. They also found two glass pipes with a burnt, white powdery residue and a small silver container with suspected methamphetamine.
Ortalano told police the meth was from months ago and he hadn’t used drugs for several months.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. on Aug. 6 before District Judge Laura Turlip.