Another hidden camera aimed at a home, this time in Garden Grove, has residents on edge, with many homeowners wondering if the unsettling surveillance has anything to do with burglary tourism rings that have been making headlines in Southern California.
The camera was found in the bushes and was camouflaged to prevent it from being seen, but who put it there and how long it’s been there is another scary unknown.
For the homeowner whose house was apparently under surveillance, the incident has been unsettling ever since her neighbor discovered the camera on their property.
“She thought that someone had put trash in her bush, so she went to clear it up,” the homeowner, identified only as Lisa, said. “Upon getting closer to the bush, she pulled out a bag and there was a camera with a battery pack.”
She added that the camera was found just a day after she watched KTLA’s report on Glendale Police arresting four men with a similar camera and battery pack camouflaged with leaves.
“That’s what was weird to me and made me want to reach out to you,” Lisa told KTLA’s Mary Beth McDade.
In the Glendale case, the four men arrested were Colombian nationals who authorities believe are burglary tourists.
Burglary tourism involves foreign nationals entering the United States using tourist visas to commit burglaries.
“They’ll commit these crimes, they’ll use different identities, things like that and eventually they’ll go back to their home country,” Glendale PD Sgt. Vahe Abramyan explained.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department released a bulletin warning residents about the South American theft groups after a similar camera and battery pack were discovered in the flower bed of a Calabasas home.
In Chino Hils, residents found a camera and battery pack disguised as a rock that was transmitting to a nearby cell phone tower earlier this month. In that case as well, the camera was pointed at a single home.
Authorities are now recommending people do regular checks around their property to ensure these types of devices are not present.
