Somebody broke into my house

Question

Last night, someone broke in.

I came home and found the back door open, and a window smashed. I did I quick search of the house and, miraculously, found nothing had been stolen. The thief must have scarpered....

Anyway, as I checked upstairs, I found a piece of paper on my bed. It seemed like a riddle, but it also seemed like something else... Here it is:

I also transcribed it:

Camera runs out, my battery ends as our proof of error
Only thing as we unfurl really wonderful words for terror
Not me, my eye drops a tear, growing in size for the drops keep coming
Sometimes the ever clear irony now erases many reroutes, or ones forthcoming
Effort used any real time I run, as infinite stars rush ever past
Crying when times run out, for wry sorrow who came last
Unusual whirr roils inside, even last night may take a part
The even and odd mayhem yet mirror the turn roamed at heart
In the joyful spirit that is playing my number growing loyal
Very large end that gold, silver and myrrh rewards can’t foil
Every end has a hero rescuing someone as a rule or symbol
Any apparent silly rule broken may know what you did
Because rural cars ruined hirer will tell you what is forbid

What is the thief's message?

---HINTS---

Step 1:

The direction in which the first part is written, may clue to find ________ words which are in a line, and the line below

His answer
Is his solution
Now is correct
The time is now
Solve the puzzle

Answer 1

The first letters of each line spell

CONSECUTIVE A/B.

Combined with the hint, this tells us to

look at all the words that appear on two consecutive lines. (For instance, "as" appears on lines 1 and 2, "for" appears on lines 2 and 3...)

These words are unique for each pair of consecutive lines. Reading off their first letters gives "AFTER LETTER Y".

OPs Note:

This seemed to confuse people, and I apologise because I don't feel like I chose the right terminology. AB made people think of rhymes or alphabet. Maybe XY would have been better but then there would have problem the the next step. Consecutive also doesn't really describe this process, but this can be improved in future puzzles

This is a clear instruction to

look at the letters that appear after each Y. These spell out "BETWEEN RR IS THE FINAL REMARK" (with an extra OO at the end, necessary for making the Y in the previous step).

And this tells us to

look at letters occurring between Rs. (For example, "camera runs" has an A between two Rs.)

Doing that gives us the final message:

Apologies, wrong house.