A Temecula electrician was left scratching his head this month when he discovered two devices, including a camera with a lens poking through a leaf taped to it, hidden in the planter in his front yard. The camera was pointed toward a neighbor’s home.
“Why is this here?” said the man, who declined to provide more information about himself out of fear for his safety. “What is the purpose? Is this here for a kidnapping? Is this here for a home invasion?”
In the next county, in Chino Hills, a systems analyst for a Pomona hospital, was puzzled after learning that his home was in the line of sight of a camera buried at the base of a tree across the street and directed toward his neighbor’s home.
“It’s kind of strange,” allowed Steve Hippler, 69, who has lived in his Glen Ridge Drive home for 38 years. “I don’t get the purpose.”
But Glendale police do.
Detectives there believe that so-called burglary tourists from South America have been sneaking the recording devices into the flora outside homes throughout Southern California to track the movements of the residents at specific homes to determine the best time to break in.
It’s unclear how many cameras have been planted as reports of discoveries to law enforcement have been few, although an Orange County sheriff’s official said several cases are being prosecuted there.
Glendale detectives began hearing about the tactic starting in December, said Sgt. Vahe Abramyan, a Police Department spokesman.
“They’re using these sophisticated devices to gain access into homes,” Abramyan said. “The whole point of the cameras is to put them in bushes and trees just outside the property they are interested in and they will use the footage to see the behaviors of the house — who lives there, who goes in and out, what happens during the day. That way they can focus their attention on the timespan when no one is home.”
Glendale police believe they solved the mystery when on May 20 a sergeant on patrol as…
Read the full article here
