A New York homeowner found a horrifying object outside his house while doing yard work last week, amid a “sickening” trend that is sweeping across the country.
The unidentified homeowner noticed a camouflaged camera hidden in the bushes outside his home in the exclusive Scarsdale community last Sunday. CBS News reports.
Police said it was camouflaged with fake vegetation and connected to a cellular hotspot to transmit surveillance footage, as burglars use such hidden cameras across the country to monitor opportunities to break into homes or steal vehicles.
The group that installed the cameras in Scarsdale is now believed to be from South America and local police are receiving assistance from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security in their investigation.
The discovery has left some residents nervous.
A New York homeowner found a hidden camera in the bushes outside his home
Police said it was camouflaged with fake vegetation and connected to a cellular hotspot to transmit surveillance footage.
“The bad guys are right in front of us,” Scarsdale resident Steve Samtur told CBS News.
He added that some of his neighbors are now checking their bushes for hidden cameras.
“I think we will be, and Scarsdale in general will be, more alert because of this,” Samtur said.
But officials said there has been no indication that a robbery has occurred in the city and no other cameras have been found anywhere else in the Bradford Road neighborhood.
Scarsdale resident Steve Samtur said the discovery has neighbors on edge.
The incident is just the latest in a series of burglars installing hidden cameras, like this one, to monitor homes.
The incident is just the latest in a series of burglars installing hidden cameras to monitor homes.
In May, a woman in California also found a camera hidden in a bush pointing toward her home.
The woman, identified only as Lisa, said KTLA His neighbor had taken out a bag containing a camera with a battery pointed directly at his house.
“She thought someone had put rubbish in her bush, so she went to clean it up,” Lisa said.
“As he approached the bush, he pulled out a bag and there was a camera with a battery.”
The camera was pointing directly at his family’s home.
Outside Boston, a neighbor found a hidden camera pointed at a house that had been burglarized two weeks earlier.
The discovery came just a day after news coverage of four men who were arrested with a similar camera when Glendale police stopped a vehicle driving without headlights.
A search of the vehicle revealed a “video surveillance device” with a “battery charging system camouflaged with leaves,” police said.
In a statement, Glendale police said: ‘This evidence, combined with the discovery of freshly disturbed soil in a planter box at the cul-de-sac, led Glendale detectives to believe the suspects had strategically placed the camera in the planter box.
‘This method allowed them to create a sophisticated method of obtaining a view of the residences and knowing when the owners would abandon them.’
The suspects have been identified as Bryan Martinez Vargas, 28, Jose Antonio Velasquez, 28, Edison Arley Pinzon Fandino, 27, and Luis Moreno, 29.
The four men are Colombian citizens and are believed to be part of an apparent tourist robbery ring that uses extensive surveillance, GPS technology, video feeds and counter-surveillance to establish patterns of behavior of their victims.
Two suspects were caught on surveillance footage walking through the vacant home in Braintree, Massachusetts, on June 20.
Just a month later, another camera was found in Alhambra, California, and on June 20, two suspects were caught on surveillance camera walking through a vacant house outside Boston.
Two weeks later, Braintree police say a neighbor found a hidden camera in the bushes in front of the home where the robbery occurred. Boston 25 News reports.
Photos from the hidden camera show it was covered in leaves to blend in with its surroundings.
Three suspects, all from New York City, have since been arrested in that incident.
Police across the country are now urging residents to remain vigilant and take precautions to prevent burglaries, such as never leaving a key hidden outside your home and always locking doors and windows when you leave.
If you spot a suspicious vehicle, write down the license plate, officials also advised, and keep your front porch and exterior well-lit.
Trees and bushes should also be well pruned, they said, so they do not become an easy hiding place for thieves.
Installing security cameras is also important, police said, as is monitoring them. frequently.
And lastly, a broken window or an open door should be a telltale sign to call the police immediately and not even come close to entering.
“Remember, it’s important to regularly inspect the exterior of your home for any unknown objects or changes in the landscaping that may obscure a surveillance camera,” Glendale police said in June.
‘Be alert for suspicious people knocking on the door. They may be checking to see if anyone is home.’
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