An Edmonton couple had a bit of a scare last month when footage from their doorbell camera showed what seemed to be two young men trying to break into their Mill Woods home.

Larry Pregizer was away from his house on March 31 when his cellphone rang. Pregizer has a home security system with a video camera attached to his front doorbell. When someone rings the bell, he can see on his cellphone who's there. That day, he saw two young men.

He put his phone away and thought nothing of it until he was at home that evening and his wife, Colleen Johnston, told him to check the footage.

"We played back the whole 30-second video, then we seen [sic] what he did," Pregizer said. "It was like, holy crap! So we got ahold of the cops."

Video footage went viral

The black-and-white video shows two young men approaching the home's doorstep.

One is wearing a dark-coloured hoodie, the other is wearing a light-coloured hoodie and baseball hat.

The young man in the light-coloured hoodie rings the doorbell before trying to stab the doorbell camera with what appears to be a pen. The camera remains intact, capturing the whole thing on video.

Pregizer and Johnston work for ACN Home Security, the company that sells the doorbell cameras. Pregizer posted the 30 seconds of footage on Facebook earlier this month, where it gathered roughly 85,000 views and more than 600 shares.

The attention the video attracted resulted in the young men being identified. Because they are youth, Pregizer took the video down.

Pregizer said his home wasn't the only one targeted by the youths.

"He was going around asking people for donations for a basketball trip they were doing down to Washington. At the end of the day, there was no basketball trip to Washington. He was just doing this to collect money for himself," he said.

"Turns out there were a few people that when they did open the door, they said it was kind of suspicious because as they were talking to him, it's like him and his buddy were scoping out the house, looking what's all inside the house."

Johnston said she couldn't sleep that first night because she was worried the youths were going to return.

'We forgave him, because he is still so young'

Shortly after being identified, the young man who tried to break the camera confessed.

The couple said they won't press charges against him, but it would be a different story had he successfully broken into the home, Johnston said.

The Edmonton Police Service confirmed an investigation occurred, but no charges were laid.

However, the couple did speak with the youth over the phone.

"He has confessed, he took ownership of what happened and he was very sorry. So we forgave him, because he is still so young," Johnston said.

"He was very sad. He knew what he did was wrong. I think he was actually crying a bit. And we spoke with his dad too, and he said the same thing, it was a good lesson for him, a wake-up call for him."

The couple said they were surprised at how much attention the video got online, and simply hope it serves as a warning to any other troublemakers.

"If a person uses social media in a positive way like that, I guess crimes can be solved," Pregizer said. "Maybe it will deter more people from trying to commit crimes."