Woman checked night camera for raccoons then saw every homeowner’s worst nightmare STARING back at her
A Philadelphia woman who set up a camera to detect raccoons wreaking havoc on her roof deck caught a completely different masked bandit peeking behind her in the dark of the night.
The chilling masked figure was caught on a trail camera lurking on the rooftops of connected row houses at 2 a.m. Saturday night.
In the video, the disturbing masked man is seen rummaging through the woman’s porch, assessing her belongings and perhaps even testing her window.
‘This is so violating,’ unnamed neighbor said WPVI. ‘I definitely don’t know the man.
‘I don’t know what you’re doing there. He was searching around. “It looked like he was checking the window or something.”
Neighbors said the bandit managed to gain access to the rooftops through a broken alley door near an abandoned house.
Bill Fitch, who lived nearby, saw the masked figure himself that same evening.
“He looked at me and I thought maybe it was a guy on the roof in the middle of the night,” Fitch told WPVI. ‘I don’t know, I gave him the benefit of the doubt for no reason.’
A masked figure was seen climbing onto the roofs of row houses in the middle of the night
A Philadelphia woman caught on camera bandits setting traps to track raccoons
‘But later, when we went upstairs, I clearly saw him on the rooftops, wearing a ski mask, with a flashlight, as if he was trying to break into things,’ he added. ‘As if he were checking the windows.’
Fitch called 911, but the masked man was gone before police arrived.
Now the entire block lives in fear. Neighbors in a South Philadelphia neighborhood don’t even want their street named for fear of unwanted attention.
“I feel like he’ll be back,” Fitch told WPVI. ‘I feel really paranoid. ‘We lock the doors, double-check everything.’
Fitch began loading heavy items, such as bicycles, outside his door at night to make the job even more difficult in case the mysterious bandit returned and tried to break in.
The anonymous neighbor who caught the culprit on camera put up a ‘No Trespassing’ sign on his roof and admitted it sounded ‘crazy’.
Residents of the area said they wanted the municipality to repair the broken door, which they claimed allowed the trespasser to get onto their roofs.
However, installing gates on city side streets is an illegal but common practice in Philadelphia.
Therefore, installation and repair costs are often the responsibility of property owners.
Join the discussion
What would you do if you saw a masked stranger walking around your house in the middle of the night?
Neighbor Bill Fitch saw the same figure around the same time and even said he looked directly at it.
Accordingly High Schwartz Law FirmIn Pennsylvania, trespassing means ‘entering private property without the permission of the owner’.
This includes houses, gardens and even roofs. The penalty for this offense is a fine of up to $25,000.
The incident is still under investigation by Philadelphia Police and the suspect has not been identified.
The Daily Mail contacted the Philadelphia Police Department for comment.
