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Hi Friends,
My current two guests (boyfriend/girlfriend) have been been at my place for 3 weeks and have been visited by the same creepy guy on four different nights. His M.O. each time is to unscrew the porch light then hide behind the front bushes on either side of the front door. There are windows behind each bush, one goes to a bedroom and the other views the main living area and kitchen. With each visit, he leaves then returns several times, exhibiting the same strange behavior. I think he might be doing more than just “looking” because I have some clips where he appears to be messing with his pants as he exits the bushes.
I’ve called the police several times and they’ve responded quickly, beefing up the patrolling of the street and shining spotlights. Even with all of this attention he keeps coming back. I will mention that I’m the only one with a (very obvious) doorbell camera out of all the homes in the vicinity, so it makes no sense that he chooses to stalk my place?!?
Guests have paid $3,800 for their stay. Even though this is out of my hands I’m thinking of sending them $200 for their troubles. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
I have many other camera clips, but you get the idea.
EDIT: This video doesn’t seem to be working. Anyone know how to upload/link to nest cam clips?
EDIT: Here are some screen shots
What’s the point of offering $200? I don’t understand the “for their troubles”.
Money doesn’t make the peeping Tom go away, nor erase the creepiness. I just hope the police catch him in the act. Are the guests phoning 911 as soon as they hear or see him? That would seem more effective than random drive-bys.
You mention that each time he unscrews the porch light and also hides in the bushes. Is there anyway that you can install a different type of light fixture so it’s impossible to unscrew the light bulb? Do you have drapes?
How attached are you to the bushes? Have you considered cutting them down so he doesn’t have any bushes to hide in?
How about installing a fence with a locked gate. He’s a problem. Once guests mention the creepy guy, folks might not want to spend any time at your place.
I don’t think giving them $200 will ease them much. I think taking drastic steps to stop the creepy guy is what your guests would appreciate.
Guests have never caught him, they have been in bed already each time, so I’m the one that calls the police. They are clearly shaken and constantly checking behind the bushes and porchlight and keeping blinds shut. They said they will tough it out for now, when I asked if they were still comfortable staying there. Because this reservation happens to be through air and not a direct booking, I am a bit concerned for the review…
The lightbulb is not the issue. The nest cam has night vision so it doesn’t make a difference. I was mentioning it because that is a part of his routine. HOA wants all fixtures to match.
Same answer. HOA.
I have a back fence that is locked. This is an urban row home so no front gate is physically possible.
Wondering if they put a sign up saying, “you are on camera and police have been notified-you know who you are” would help?
$200 is just me trying to do the right thing as this is NOT an ideal situation, and so far police have struck out
Have you contacted your HOA? Will they allow you to put out flyers offering a reward to anyone that can identify the creepy guy. Just seeing flyers posted on trees in the neighborhood might scare him away.
Also, just to scare the crap out of him, put something that would make noise under a rug in front of that light fixture so when he steps on it, it will make a loud noise.
Great idea! Ha ha!I’ve been brainstorming on how I could booby trap the area behind the bushes! The BF and I just might go on a stake out next Friday or Saturday as he seems to be a weekend warrior.
Just curious, if you said the guests were already in bed when he shows up, how did they know he was there? Did they alert you? Did you just happen to look at camera footage?
I just don’t see the point in trying to attach a monetary value to creepiness. $100 if he just unscrews the lightbulb, $200 if he hides in the bushes, $300 if he wanks off, $50 extra for each night he comes back?
It isn’t like some non-working amenity you have responsibility for that inconvenienced guests. You have no control over this beyond what you are doing.
Yep. I’m not a slave to the camera, but when I’m getting a flurry of alerts of front door activity late at night, you bet I’m going to be checking the footage to see what’s up.
I tend to agree with you here. However, since this booking happens to be on Airbnb, I’m wanting to bend over backwards a bit, in hopes that they don’t mention the creepy perv. on the review. I do not want this mess memorialized!
I don’t know how I feel about the money being offered. Don’t really think it would make me feel better about the situation. I do think if you’re able to post his picture around it might stop him in his tracks, but you might have to be willing to post them a few times.
One thinks they’ve heard it all, then…
You have zero assurance that offering them money will stop them from mentioning it in the review. And it could seem like extortion, and totally backfire.
Don’t concern yourself with the review. It will be what it will be. You can leave a response to it if you need to. And hopefully by then, the guy will be caught.
The cops should be doing a stakeout for this sicko. But since they haven’t / won’t, and you mentioned going on a weekend warrior search …
A big sign, with the 1st picture of him, by the entrance to the porch. Maybe with the words “Pervert - My porch is NOT your yanking spot”
Then sit in a dark spot on the porch and wait. When he walks up, super bright flash light and mace (in case he is an unbalanced sicko) and an air horn. I’d make it REALLY uncomfortable for him to return.
I WISH there was a way to booby trap that light. Make it spray him with deer pee or something. Growl … What a jerk!
Of course not, but I have a great rapport with these folks and was planning on saying thanks for being so cool and patient about all of this. Have dinner on me. The Cops have banged on the door in the middle of the night FOUR times. If something like this happened in a hotel, there would be some sort of compensation I would hope. I do appreciate your take on things though. Maybe $150 would be a more appropriate amount, because no amount of $$ is going to make this right.
Thanks @LCL I love your entire post! Food for thought…I was wondering if there was a way to switch out the bulb for some kind of bug-zapper bulb?
Set it up so those activity alerts go the THEIR phone as well as yours.
Install lights and loud alarm that they can activate.
If he shows the same time, have cops stake it out.
If you get there, can you door to door and ask if anyone knows him from picture? Just use head & shoulders, nothing indicating what he’s doing.
Does the neighborhood have a local Facebook page? Or other neighborhood alert page? Join and ask others to look out for weird wankers.
Maybe you could get Mark Sobel to help you set up something like his glitter bomb for porch thieves except with a trigger mat. Someone running around the hood with glitter on their clothing and smelling like skunk and fart spray is much likelier to get caught, and should be deterred at least temporarily…
I don’t know about your state but in general I think it’s illegal to booby trap spaces with anything that could really hurt someone. In this situation I’d probably just remove the bulb completely. As for the other ideas of waiting for him, etc. it would probably be a poor use of your time. There’s a bunch of normal people on this thread speculating about how an abnormal person thinks. And if the camera is obvious then maybe exhibitionism is part of his kink.
Plastering his face everywhere you can think of is the best way to ID him.
