By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Video captures thief stealing security camera
Placeholder Image

If you’re going to steal a security camera, it’s probably a good idea not to target one that records its feed to a separate location.
The Manteca Police Department is currently searching for a man who used a ladder on Saturday evening to access a mounted security camera at EXIT Realty in Downtown Manteca on the southeast corner of Maple and Yosemite avenues. The feed, which was recorded to a computer inside of the building, captures the man walking up to the camera with a ladder, and climbing up to access it – staring directly into the lens before pulling it off of the building.
While the camera was in night vision mode, the still frames shared by the Manteca Police give a crystal-clear picture of the man’s face as the hooded sweatshirt he has on does nothing to conceal his identity.
And according to Manteca Police Department Sergeant Mike Aguilar, sometimes it’s images like the ones that were turned over by the business owner that allow the police to immediately identify the perpetrators.
“Sometimes when we receive a video like this one we’re able to identify the person by simply passing it around the station and asking our officers if they’ve encountered this person while on patrol,” Aguilar said. “And when we share videos like this with neighboring agencies, sometimes they’re looking for the same person for a similar crime and they already know who it is.
“It’s very beneficial to have that information to go off of.”
With the technological advancements in recent years that have security cameras more compact and much more economical for the average consumer to install at their homes, the number of cases where actual video surveillance footage is turned over to the police has skyrocketed – turning something that was once reserved only for banks and large businesses into something that every homeowner can arm themselves with as a deterrent and an investigative tool.
From doorbell systems that begin recording guests the moment they push the button to wireless cameras that are easily concealable in eaves, security cameras have made investigating property crimes much easier for officers who would typically have little to go off of due to the cold nature of the call or report when it comes in.
All of that, Aguilar said, has changed.
“We encourage people who have security cameras as their homes and their businesses to be a part of our camera registry network – a system that allows us to know where there are cameras in use so that if we ever need to look for footage because we’re investigating a crime, we know where to go,” Aguilar said. “And its footage that the owners submit voluntarily – we don’t have access to pull up somebody’s camera and see what it is capturing, so the element of privacy is still maintained.
“It just helps us when there is a specific incident.”
And that network has proved to very reliable for investigators when investigating cases that wouldn’t otherwise go anywhere.
There have been instances in the past, Aguilar said, when somebody who was a victim of a crime submitted their footage and didn’t capture anything, but their neighbor, who was the part of the network, was able to capture the vehicle as it arrived and when it pulled away.
Knowing when to look, and where to look, can make all of the difference in solving a case.
But a camera is only as good as the operator who knows how to work the system, Aguilar said.
“If somebody is thinking about adding cameras as part of their home or business security, we encourage them to take the time to learn the software so they know where the footage is being recorded, and how to retrieve it,” he said. “There have been times that we’ve released something that happened the week prior, and the holdup as the owner didn’t know how to use the system – we encourage people to focus on that part as well.
“It’s nice having an extra set of eyes out there that criminals aren’t expecting.”

To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.