While Lakewood resident Laura Stolk was on vacation, her recently purchased video surveillance equipment captured something of interest — a man behaving very strangely on her property.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3kKaRFjI6M[/youtube]The video shows the man walking on to their front lawn at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19. With flashlight in hand, he goes to the porch and stands there for about two minutes. Then the man goes about placing myriad items including a garden gnome and some candles in the middle of the Stolks’ front yard. He returns to the porch, shines the flashlight around and then leaves.
At about 5:45 p.m. the same day, Stolk says, a black four-door sedan creeps by the house and the driver possibly eyeballs the gnome pile.
This is a snippet of the video in which you can sort of make out the prowler — he appears to be tall, wearing a bulky high-collared jacket, a hat that kind of resembles a sailor’s cap and some sort of eyeglasses, but that’s about all you can see.
Stolk notified the police; they didn’t request the video, she says.
This behavior is weird, but it reminds me of things we’ve heard before. Burglars will place items such as plants, etc. in front of front doors and return the following day to see if they’ve been moved. It is possibly a means of determining if a homeowner is away. Stolk found out later that several of her neighbors’ porch plants and other items also were moved around and moved from yard to yard.
If you know something more about this story, or if I got something wrong, please email me at chughes@advocatemag.com or call or text me at 972.697.8699.
