A New York homeowner found a horrifying item outside his home while doing yardwork last week amid a ‘sick’ trend spreading across the nation.
The unidentified homeowner noticed a camouflaged camera hidden in the shrubbery outside of home in the upscale community of Scarsdale last Sunday, CBS News reports.
Police said it was camouflaged with fake greenery and hooked up to a cellular hotspot to broadcast surveillance footage, as burglars use these hidden cameras across the nation to monitor opportunities to break into homes or steal vehicles.
It is now believed the group who set up the cameras in Scarsdale are from South America, and local police are getting help from the FBI and Homeland Security in their investigation.
The discovery has left some residents on edge.
A New York homeowner in neighborhood of Scarsdale (pictured), New York, found a hidden camera in the shrubbery outside his home
Police said it was camouflaged with fake greenery in this bush (pictured) and hooked up to a cellular hotspot to broadcast surveillance footage
‘The bad guys are ahead of us,’ Scarsdale resident Steve Samtur told CBS News.
He added that some of his neighbors are now checking their shrubbery for any hidden cameras.
‘I think we will, and in general, Scarsdale will be more vigilant because of this,’ Samtur said.
But officers noted there has been no indication that a burglary has occurred in the city, and no other cameras have been found in the rest of the Bradford Road neighborhood.
Scarsdale resident Steve Samtur said the discovery has neighbors on edge
The incident is just the latest in a string of burglars setting up hidden cameras, like this one, to monitor homes
The incident is just the latest in a string of burglars setting up hidden cameras to monitor homes.
In May, a woman in California also found a camera camouflaged in a bush pointed at her home.
The woman, only identified as Lisa, told KTLA her neighbor had pulled out a bag that had a camera with a battery pack that was pointed right at her home.
‘She thought that someone had put trash in her bush, so she went to clear it up,’ Lisa recounted.
‘Upon getting closer to the bush, she pulled out a bag and there was a camera with a battery pack.’
The camera was pointing right towards her family’s home.
Outside of Boston, a neighbor found a hidden camera pointed at a home that had been burglarized two weeks before
The discovery came just one day after she watched news coverage of four men who were arrested with a similar camera when Glendale police pulled over a vehicle being driven without headlights.
A search of the vehicle turned up a ‘video surveillance device’ with a ‘battery pack charging system camouflaged with leaves’, according to cops.
In a statement, Glendale Police said: ‘This evidence, combined with the finding of freshly disturbed dirt in a planter in the cul-de-sac, led Glendale detectives to believe that the suspects had strategically placed the camera in the planter.
‘This method allowed them to create a sophisticated method to gain a view of residences and know when homeowners would leave.’
The suspects have been identified as Bryan Martinez Vargas, 28, Jose Antonio Velasquez, 28, Edison Arley Pinzon Fandino, 27 and Luis Moreno, 29.
All four men are Colombian nationals that they believe to be part of an apparent burglary tourism ring that uses extensive surveillance, GPS technology, video feeds and counter-surveillance to establish patterns of behavior for their victims.
Two suspects were caught on surveillance footage walking through the empty house in Braintree, Massachusetts on June 20
Another camera was found just one month later in Alhambra, California, and on June 20, two suspects were caught on surveillance camera walking through an empty home outside of Boston.
Two weeks later, Braintree police say a neighbor found a hidden camera in the bushes across from the house where the burglary occurred, Boston 25 News reports.
Photos of the hidden camera show that it was covered in leaves to camouflage it with its surroundings.
Three suspects, all from New York City, have since been arrested in that incident.
Cops across the country are now urging residents to remain vigilant and take precautions to prevent burglaries – like never leaving a hidden key outside your home, and always locking your doors and windows when leaving.
If you spot a suspicious vehicle, write down the license plate, officers also advised – adding to also keep your front porch and exteriors well-lit.
Trees and bushes should also be well-trimmed, they said – so as to not become an easy hiding spot for thieves.
The installation of security cameras is also important, cops said, as is monitoring them frequently.
And lastly, a broken window or open door should be a telltale sign to call police immediately, and to not even come close to entering.
‘Remember, it’s important to regularly inspect the exterior of your home for any unfamiliar objects or changes in the landscaping that could potentially hide a surveillance camera,’ Glendale police said in June.
‘Keep an eye out for suspicious people knocking on doors. They may be checking whether someone is home.’