Things went from bad to worse last week when Trent Young came home to find his apartment had been burglarized. He said the crooks took his DVD player, a television and cash.

When an officer came by to dust his home for fingerprints, Young said the unthinkable happened. He said a man drove up in a car and confessed to the officer that he was one of four men who committed the burglary. Young said he even had the pawn shop slips from the stolen items.

“So, I told the guy hold on. I brought the officer out here and she questioned him and took down his phone number and walked around the building,” said Young.

But Young said the officer let the man go.

Young says the guy was driving a car with plates that read, “State Judge.” Now whether that had something to do with his release is not clear. But activist Quanell X does believe race was an issue here. He claims if the roles were reversed…

Catching burglary thieves is supposed to be paramount in Houston because burglaries are up more than nine percent from a year ago.

A total of 49,872 burglaries were reported from January 1 through May of this year. That is up from 48,008 from the same time period in 2006.

So why did HPD let this suspect go?

Late Monday, 11 News talked with HPD's Burglary and Theft division and they had a very different story. They denied that the suspect confessed to the burglary.