HOUSTON — We've all heard it -- an unsuspecting knock on the door.
But, the one on Dec. 19 changed Keli Rabon's life.
"The knock came quickly, boom boom boom," Rabon said.
The man at her door wanted to trim trees on behalf of a neighbor. Her nanny let him in to take a look in the backyard.
"He had us standing us right here," Rabon said.
Nothing seemed odd.
"He was a fast talker, he kept us occupied," Rabon said. "It was only five minutes. Just five minutes."
While she was outside, she heard a loud bang.
"I heard the door slam, his eyes got big, and he said gotta go, ran through the house and out the front door," Rabon said.
Rabon looked at her cameras and saw the painful reality. While she was in the backyard, another man had walked right into her home. Minutes later, he was seen walking out with something large wrapped in her blanket.
"In those few seconds my stomach was sinking, my heart was dropping and my pulse was racing," Rabon said. "I knew where that blanket had come from."
She raced upstairs and found her closet was a mess and her safe was gone. Inside it was more than $120,000 in cash, jewelry and priceless personal items.
"I probably will never get anything back that I lost that day, but what I can do is fight back," Rabon said.
She took to social media to share the raw truth about what happened to her. Her post went viral.
"You have to listen to your gut," Rabon said. "My gut said this was much bigger than myself."
And turns out, she was right.
"The tips and comments started flowing almost faster than I could keep up with," Rabon said.
All of a sudden, her inbox flooded with stories from other victims -- there were 15 to 18 in Texas alone and surveillance videos showed the same guy pulling the same old tree-trimming ruse while another man broke into the houses. In one video, the suspect was just feet away from an unsuspecting homeowner.
"These guys were so smooth, so slick, the operation was so well oiled, there was no way I was the only victim," Rabon said.
The influencer-turned-sleuth started connecting the dots for police.
"I created a spreadsheet full of victims, case numbers, contact information and what was stolen," Rabon said.
A month after the knock on her door, there was a major break in the case. Not in Houston, but 1,300 miles away outside Pittsburgh in Penn Township, Pennsylvania.
Police Chief John Otto showed us where an alarm was triggered at Hamill Manufacturing. A truck was spotted leaving the scene with $120,000 worth of stolen military-grade metal.
Officer Doug Lewis pulled them over.
"They were very nervous," Lewis said.
Then, in the middle of that police encounter. A 911 call came in.
- DISPATCH: 911, what's the address of the emergency?
- CALLER: Speedway, there's a guy with a gun.
- DISPATCH: You said the Speedway?
- CALLER: Yes, sir, a guy with a gun and he has it out, and he's threatening that he was going to shoot the gun.
"That 911 was call was being made by the suspects," Otto said. "The point of the 911 call was intended to divert resources away from the metal theft and divert them to a fictitious crime three miles down the road."
The ruse didn't work.
"That officer wasn't buying what they were selling," Otto said.
Fingerprints later helped ID the men in the car as Bobby Lucci, Anthony Miguel and Marcello Miguel.
"The criminal history was very lengthy in nature," Otto said. "At that point, the guys looked at each other and said this is a big case. We're going to solve some things tonight."
But it was Lucci who had law enforcement across the country, including the Houston Police Department, calling Penn Township. Sources told KHOU 11 News that Lucci was the same man seen breaking into Rabon's home.
"As soon as I saw his face, I knew that's him, no doubt," Rabon said.
Police showed KHOU 11 News exclusive evidence recovered during the arrest in Pennsylvania including work gloves, vests, hats, tools, a two-way radio and even stolen women's jewelry.
"Three guys with women's jewelry in the car, the red flags kept popping up," Lewis said.
All of it linked Lucci and his associates to distraction-style burglaries in Southeast Texas and across the United States.
"Bobby Lucci is the No. 1 ring leader operationally. Who he reports to, we don't know, yet," Otto said.
What's clear is the crime ring moved around. Lucci was tied to crimes in New Jersey, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, California, Kansas and just last year he was arrested in West Virginia for metal theft but disappeared after he was released on bond.
"My biggest fear right now is he's granted bond and he just bounces just like he has before," Rabon said.
That's why Penn Township didn't take any chances. Lucci was deemed a flight risk and has been sitting at the Westmoreland County Prison for weeks facing multiple charges.
"We did our part to tie up these things and get three very bad people off the street," Otto said.
Back home in Houston, Rabon said there's still more work to do. The man who knocked on her door and started it all is still out there.
"I just say we're coming for you," Rabon said. "We're not going to stop until we have you locked up for good."
Early Tuesday morning, Lucci had another hearing before a judge in Pennsylvania and again he was denied bond. That came as a huge relief for Rabon.
Jewelry found in the truck in Pennsylvania has been traced back to a case in Connecticut but it's still a very active investigation.
Multiple agencies, including HPD, filed warrants hoping to get their hands on Lucci, but he's involved in crimes in so many states, that it could end up being a federal case.