This October, thieves are going after Halloween decorations outside of people’s homes around the Bay Area.
A surveillance video in San Francisco shows someone in a green hoodie walking by. He seems to spot the inflatables. He grabs them and then walks away with them.
“My husband said, ‘Hey, did you move the blow ups inside for any reason into the garage?’ and I said, ‘No, I didn’t,’ he said, ‘I was going to turn them on but I just looked at the Ring camera and someone came at 2 a.m. and grabbed them’,” SF resident Diana Naranjo said.
Naranjo says it happened about a week ago. The decorations were her kids’ favorites.
“I was like, ‘Oh man, my boys are going to be disappointed’,” she said. “They were the boys specific favorites because it’s Nightmare Before Christmas. It’s our favorite movie, we couldn’t find a replacement.”
And she’s not alone.
Last week, NBC Bay Area reported about a San Leandro family who said they got their animatronics stolen. There have also been posts online about stolen decorations along the Peninsula and in San Jose.
One neighbor posted on social media a few days ago that their animatronic witch was taken from her front yard in Willow Glen.
“What these folks do with it really varies, sometimes you have kids who take things just to take things, you have individuals who vandalize things just to vandalize things and now that we’ve evolved into more high tech equipment for both Halloween and Christmas, we’re going to see an uptick in those thefts because they’re highly sale-able,” law enforcement analyst and retired San Jose Police Detective Michael Leininger said.
Neighborhoods all over the Bay Area are known for their spooky decor. Now, many neighbors say they take precautions and have cameras keeping a watchful eye over their yards.
Experts say that is exactly what they should do.
“If they have surveillance cameras, put up a sign that says you’re under surveillance, people do take those seriously,” Leininger said.
Last year, theft was also a problem around Christmas. Leininger says these types of incidents can be low priority for law enforcement agencies, but having those cameras can help.
