Another hidden camera targeting a home, this time in Garden Grove, has residents on the edge, and many homeowners are wondering if the disturbing surveillance has anything to do with the tourist burglary rings that have made headlines in Southern California.
The camera was found in some creepy bushes and was camouflaged to prevent it from being seen, but who put it there and how long it has been there remains another unknown.
For the homeowner whose home was apparently under surveillance, the incident was troubling since her neighbor discovered the camera on their property.
“She thought someone had put trash in her bush, so she went to clean it up,” said the homeowner, identified only as Lisa. “As she approached the bush, she took out a bag and there was a camera with a battery.”
She said the camera was found just a day after she watched KTLA’s report about Glendale police arresting four men with a similar camera and battery camouflaged with leaves.
“That’s what was weird to me and what made me want to contact you,” Lisa told KTLA’s Mary Beth McDade.
In the Glendale case, the four men arrested were Colombian nationals whom authorities consider to be tourist burglars.
Burglary tourism involves foreign nationals entering the United States using tourist visas to commit burglaries.
“They will commit these crimes, they will use different identities, things like that and eventually they will return to their home state,” said Glendale Police Sgt. Vahe Abramyan explained.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department issued a bulletin Tuesday warning residents about South American thieving groups after a similar camera and battery were discovered in the flowerbed of a Calabasas home.
In Chino Hills, residents found a camera and battery disguised as a rock transmitting to a nearby cell tower earlier this month. Also in this case the camera was pointed at a single house.
Officials are now recommending that people regularly check their property to ensure that this type of device is not present.