FORT WORTH, Texas — A man caught on surveillance video stealing food, paperwork, and other items from a Fort Worth daycare is now in police custody.
One of the daycare's owners, Cliff Sparks, tracked down and caught the thief hours after the break-in. Fort Worth Police later arrested 33-year-old Samuel Whitesides and charged him with burglary of a building.
Sparks' wife, Alexandrea Jones-Sparks, owns and operates The Learning House Early Childcare Center. The couple has launched a GoFundMe page to restock the facility's refrigerators so they can feed the children they care for.
"I feel violated," Jones-Sparks said. "I have to regroup. I have to explain to the kids why things look out of whack."
Watch the full interviews with Cliff Sparks and Alexandrea Jones-Sparks here:
The facility's surveillance cameras start rolling at night, after the children leave. Around 1:30 a.m. Thursday, cameras caught the man break a thin, stained-glass window and squeeze inside The Learning House.
He knocked over and broke a memorial dedicated to the deceased child of a donor who gave the daycare its books. The 33-year-old then rifled through a desk and attempted to disconnect a computer. When he failed to unhook the monitor, he began stuffing daycare paperwork into a sack.
Sparks says the burglar also took a first-aid kit, a lamp, an essential oil diffuser, and an Amazon device the children used for music.
"We couldn't even do praise and worship today because we didn't have our music box for the children," he said.
Video recorded by another camera shows the man rummage through refrigerators inside the daycare's kitchen, stuffing mostly frozen food into a bag. Later, the 33-year-old poured soda from cans in a cooler into an empty milk jug he found in the play area.
"There could be more stuff missing that we don't even know about," Sparks said.
The 33-year-old spent more than 20 minutes inside the daycare, video shows. Sparks called the police after finding the broken window Thursday.
There was no time to cook breakfast for the children staying at The Learning House Thursday, Sparks said, so he went to pick up donuts. On his way, Sparks says he spotted a person who was not the burglar carrying one of the items stolen from the daycare.
He confronted the man, who shared the thief's location. Sparks found Whitesides and chased him.
"I tired him out," Sparks recalled. "He hit the sidewalk and started rolling. That's when I got on top of him and bear-hugged him. We tussled. We did that because - what you're not fixing to do is mess with my livelihood."
Sparks restrained the 33-year-old until the police arrived and detained him. Whitesides had been trying to sell the stolen items around the neighborhood, Sparks believes.
"It's a little heartbreaking to have to tell the kids, 'Hey, someone who was bad and not in their right mind came in and took some things from us - and, you know, we just have to forgive him and move on,'" Jones-Sparks said.
She says she hopes her clients understand the incident does not reflect the daycare’s quality of service. The couple had just moved their business to the building on East Berry Street in April.
The Sparks family is well-known in Fort Worth for hosting philanthropic events and donation drives.
"For someone to come and take from people who actually do good for the community - it doesn't feel right," Jones-Sparks said.