ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A New Mexico woman says a man has been peering into her windows for months, and it’s all been caught on her Ring doorbell camera.
The incident at the woman’s home, located near the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, didn’t happen just once, but more than four times since February.
“We can’t tell people how they feel. If they’re in fear, then that’s a 911 call,” said Franchesca Perdue, an Albuquerque Police Department crime prevention specialist.
The homeowner, who wants to remain anonymous, said she reported the incidents to APD, but the intruder in the video usually peeps in and then leaves. Perdue said incidents like this can be tricky.
“Obviously, if someone is on the property, that’s private property, it’s a home. He’s not supposed to be there,” said Perdue. “So a lot of times like this, we’ll see that they’ll come into a neighborhood and they’ll case the neighborhood. They’ll walk around, and they’ll see what they can get.”
In this case, the APD can only get involved over trespassing since the person’s not technically hurting anyone.
“And then at that point, he gets removed from the property at a later time if officers have to respond to the same location because it’s the same individual, then at that point, enforcement actions can kind of progress,” said Perdue.
However, just because he isn’t doing anything now doesn’t mean it won’t turn into something later. Ring videos are key just in case that happens, officials say.
“It’s more information for our officers and our detectives to have, and so we want that video because he could just be there checking it out one night, and then the next night, he could be the one burglarizing the homes or the vehicles,” said Perdue.
If officers are aware of a situation in a specific neighborhood, they know to be on the lookout. “We wanna know that these people are in the neighborhoods,” said Perdue.