The notion of privacy seems quaint in 2024, with billions around the world sharing the details of their private lives all over social media.
Adding to that is the blanket of CCTV cameras that are ubiquitous on the streets of the UK, and increasing in the United States. But the bad guys use technology, too, and a homeowner in the toney zip code of Scarsdale, New York, in Westchester county, which homeowner Steve Samtur discovered recently when he went to tend his lawn.
He discovered a hidden video camera on his property, camouflaged inside the shrubbery. Police say the camera was tied to a cell phone hotspot, meaning that it is wirelessly sending the video to some unknown recipients. It is likely burglars, cops say, as they have taken to spying on homeowners to figure out the best time to break and enter.
Local law enforcement believes the cameras found in Scarsdale were planted by a criminal gang from South America. They’ve called in the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security for help.
Steve Samtur said his neighbors are now spooked and checking their own property for hidden surveillance cameras. “The bad guys are head of us,” he said.
Still, police say they have not had any reports of burglaries recently in Scarsdale. And maybe city residents can rest a little easier knowing that cops have not found any additional cameras in the neighborhood, which includes Bradford Road.
The problem has gone nationwide. This past May, a California woman made the same discovery. A camera secreted in a bush was pointed right at her house. Identified only as “Lisa,” she told local media her neighbor thought she found a bag of trash carelessly tossed in the bushes. What she pulled out, however, was an electronics bag filled with a camera and a battery pack.
Lisa was already nervous having recently seen a local news story of four men who were caught in Glendale with a similar setup when they were pulled over by police for driving at night with the headlights off.
Sure enough, the Glendale Police found that the suspects had stashed a hidden camera and power source in a planter in a residential neighborhood. The four men, all from Colombia, have been arrested.
