The man, whom police identified as 33-year-old Roberto Arroyo, was seen on security footage licking and rubbing his face on the doorbell in the town of Salinas around 5 a.m., the local KION news channel reported .
The footage also showed the man "appearing to relieve himself in the front yard," police told KION.
The couple living in the house were out of town, but they said their children were asleep inside. It's not clear how old the children are.
Police are still looking for Arroyo, and say he could face two misdemeanor charges for petty theft and prowling, according to KION.
The homeowner, Sylvia Dungan, described her reaction when her home security software, made by Ring, alerted her to the unusual early-morning activity by her front door. Ring's security system sends live camera footage from outside the user's house to their smartphone.
I thought, boy there's a lot of traffic," Dungan told KION. "I go, 5:00 in the morning? My son doesn't get home till 6 a.m. Well then, who the heck is that?"
She tweeted a photo of the man on Friday, with the hashtag #doorbelllicker and the caption:"We had just installed our Ring doorbell just less than a month ago. It paid off."
Miguel Cabrera, an officer at the Salinas Police Department told KION: "We were pleasantly surprised the image was so clear, it didnt take us long to identify the individual."
He added that the force knew who the perpetrator was because he had a history of misdemeanor offenses including public intoxication, resisting arrest, and being under the influence of narcotics, according to the New York Post .
