TEXAS man watched a burglary occur at his own home while he was on vacation in Connecticut 2414km away, using a simple iPhone app, ABC News reports.

Vince Hunter said the $4.99 ($5.60) iPhone app, called iCam, notified him and his wife via text message that the motion detectors had been activated in his house.

"I check the footage, and see in real time guys in this area, and they're kind of hunched over. They'd just broken the glass. I said 'holy cow, I gotta call 911,'" he said. 

Mr Hunter's wife also notified the security company.

"I go back to the footage, sure enough, they're in the backyard checking things out. They're throwing bricks ... at the tempered glass and they can't break it three times," he said.

"Finally, it appears they wind up and kind of go back in that area, and they just hurl this brick through the glass and ... this brick ends up in our living room."

Police arrived a few minutes later, with guns drawn, but the bandits had already been spooked by the home's alarm system.

"You know, it was surreal. It really was. The first thing I couldn't believe is that we could do this on our cell phone. Really? A cell phone?" Mr Hunter said. 

Mr Hunter said police were reviewing the footage captured by his iPhone in an attempt to catch the attempted burglars, who are suspected of robbing his neighbour's home moments earlier.