Atlanta visitor targeted by ‘Spider-Man burglar’ minutes after checking into Miami Beach Hilton; police say suspect confessed – WSVN 7News | Miami News, Weather, Sports
MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) – A Georgia woman is speaking out and sharing her story months after, she said, she and her family were targeted by a man who broke into her hotel room and who, police said, was responsible for dozens of other burglaries in the area.
Denise Wiley spoke with 7News this week about the May 23 break-in at the Hilton Cabana Miami Beach on 62nd Street and Collins Avenue.
“I was in Miami Beach with my family, and a guy climbed the balcony while we were out at the pool,” she said.
The victim also provided 7News with cellphone video showing an open balcony door.
“We just got robbed,” Wiley is heard saying in the video.
The break-in got the se tourists’ trip off to a terrible start.
“Somebody got all our stuff,” said Wiley.
Wiley said she came down for a beachside weekend in paradise from the Atlanta area, only to have her hotel room burglarized within minutes of checking in.
“Door was unlocked. Door was closed. Guy came in and stole money, cards, jewelry, everything,” she said.
“We’re just checking into our room. We come over here to check the balcony out, and look how the door is,” Wiley is heard saying in the video.
Miami Beach Police said Wiley is one of dozens of victims to be hit by the so-called “Spider-Man burglars.”
7News on Thursday spoke with South Carolina visitor Dominick Coughlin, who said a man climbed onto their balcony and burglarized their room at the Eden Roc Hotel, July 31.
“He jumped off of the third story balcony,” he said. “He scaled a pillar to get down when I was chasing him with the wine bottle.”
Cellphone video provided by Coughlin showed the perpetrator after he crossed from one balcony to another.
“Where are you going, dawg? Where are you going, huh?” Coughlin is heard telling the suspect in the video.
“He’s going, he’s going in,” Hailey, Coughlin’s fiancée, is heard saying in cellphone video showing the suspect making it to the ground and walking into the ground floor of the Eden Roc.
In the case of the July break-in, police said they apprehended 37-year-old Patrick Bryant in the middle of a probation meeting.
In the case of the Hilton burglary, detectives had an idea of who they were after. There was already a wanted flier out for 27-year-old Christopher Celestin, who’d been suspected of doing this at the same hotel dozens of times before.
“The guy jumped the balcony from the back, and he locked the door so we couldn’t get in,” said Wiley.
A police report states Celestin gained “access [to] the room via a sliding glass door” and got to work grabbing valuables.
“[He took] my jewelry, my money, my ID, my credit cards,” said Wiley. “The Louis Vuitton pouch is also missing.”
Last week, the police report states, Celestin was caught and “gave a full confession to this burglary and multiple other burglaries in the same hotel.”
He remains locked up at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in West Miami-Dade charged with unoccupied burglary, grand theft, petty theft and several other offenses.
Copyright 2025 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
