Harford Park
Just noticed someone slowed down in front of my driveway wound down his window in the rain and snapped a picture with his phone of my house and then continued driving. He was driving a silver or gray pick up truck on Taylor ave. Caucasian male between 25-30 yrs old. Kinda creepy if you asked me. Has this ever happened to anyone? Or why would someone do this.
-Marie
The people who do this are usually either scouting for burglary targets or work for an insurance company and are investigating someone with a workman's comp claim to make sure they are hobbling along on crutches and not dancing in the driveway after they cash their check.
Most investigators are middle-aged and drive sedans.
Based on the age, race and vehicle, I am guessing this is a scout for a burglary ring, car theft operation, or scroungers looking for lawn fixtures, landscaping equipment, new garden hose on a spool, etc. Some handyman types will steal the tools they use for a landscaping job and will even charge a customer for something like a fountain, bird bath, lawn jockey, garden gnome, solar sidewalk lights or wrought iron yard bench and just lift it from someone's yard at night.
This may indicate stalking, investigation or casing, with casing likely and yet unlikely to generate a hit, as a selection will be made from among the houses scouted in a given area and the taking of the picture means a decision has most likely not yet been made.
If your house is for sale, this is most likely an innocent case of some guy looking for a home and going over address-pictures on his smart phone and matching them up with the real estate listing at home.
The fact that it is raining and he had a pickup, during normal work hours [the email was dated at 11:55 a.m.] means that he is probably a landscaper or other outdoors contractor either looking for work, looking to steal or looking to buy a house, because he is not working in the soaking rain.
Rubbing Out Palefaces
Moral Minority Survival at the End of Caucasian Time Paperback
When my wife and I were looking to build a house, we often took pictures of houses that had some feature we liked, like a chimney or porch or the landscaping.
I really think that if he'd be casing the place for a crime, you wouldn't have seen him do it. Someone up to nefarious business wouldn't stop, roll down the window, and aim a camera in a way that would let you identify him and his vehicle in a lineup. Simple enough just to hold up his camera or phone as he drove by, without stopping or looking your way, you'd never have noticed.
Of course, criminals are criminals in the first place because they're stupid people, so maybe he wasn't thinking.
Likelihood low that a burglary is toward. Be ready anyway, whether or not ....
In this particular area there are a number of unbounded and unlicensed landscapers who are pretty shady and also engage in crime. This guy might have been taking a picture of a nice yard on a day he couldn't work just so he could show it to a prospective client as a sample of his work.
LaMano—We only catch the dumb ones.