It’s one thing to be concerned about somebody lurking around your backyard, but how about trespassing just to smell your laundry?
That’s what’s happening in one Ahwatukee neighborhood, and it’s all caught on camera.
At around 12:30 a.m. Saturday, a homeowner’s motion detection alarm went off. She has asked to stay anonymous.
“There was a body back there so I knew there was somebody in the yard,” she said.
And she jumped out of bed.
“I called 911. I was scared,” she said.
She thought this man caught on camera was going to break into her house. But then he does something bizarre and unexpected.
He picks up her laundry, smells it several times, and then walks away.
Police were on the scene within minutes to make sure the homeowner was safe.
But it gets weirder. The day after Christmas, their surveillance camera picked up the exact same thing: a man coming into their backyard and smelling their laundry. She believes it's the same guy.
“Creepy? Yes. To think that he’s in my backyard two times in five months and how many times before that?” she said.
“Just hopped back there and started smelling laundry. Not good,” said Jack Kubert, a dad of three who lives right next door.
“It’s a pervert smelling laundry,” said Kubert. “I’ve got little kids and if I saw that video of that guy smelling my kids' laundry I would lose it.”
He is worried about the safety of his three young kids who play just feet away from where this is happening.
“It’s all kids and families on this street. I mean, it’s like Sesame Street, this street,” said Kubert.
The homeowners did file a police report for trespassing. But they also installed two extra surveillance cameras and motion detection floodlights after the December incident, which gave them a clearer picture of the guy this time around.
They’re urging everyone in the area to get surveillance cameras and make sure house alarms are set and working.
The neighborhood is now on edge, hoping the man smelling laundry, will come clean and turn himself in.
By 3TV/CBS5