Police question man filmed licking family’s front door in ‘disturbing’ video
Officers have since identified and charged the man with prowling, theft and breach of his probation.
Police in California have arrested a man after he was caught on camera licking a home security system in the middle of the night.
Horrified homeowners in Salinas, south of San Francisco, called police after surveillance footage showed the man, 33-year-old Roberto Daniel Arroyo, approach and then begin lapping at the intercom of their front door at 2am on Saturday January 5.
Miguel Cabrera, public information officer at the Salinas Police Department, said Arroyo was in the area for “an extended period of time” but had not been licking the intercom for three hours, as reported by some media outlets.
The homeowners continued: “Toward the end of his visit, he started coiling up our electric extension cord which I’m assuming he was stealing it [sic].
“Later the next morning, we found the extension cord next door at our neighbors house. She told us she had heard some knocking at her door about 2 in the morning sometime.
“This individual is quite disturbing. In other videos, it is hard to see if he was peeing or doing some other perverted stuff.”
“The camera is within the doorbell and the residents had installed the system recently. When someone is a certain distance from the doorbell the camera is activated.”
The camera was activated several times during the three-hour period, he added.
Local news organisation KION546 named the homeowner as Sylvia Dungan.
“You kind of laugh about it afterwards because technically he didn’t do anything,” Dungan is reported to have said.
Officer Cabrera said police had contacted Arroyo and charged him with prowling, theft and a breach of his probation for a previous crime.
Arroyo refused to make a statement, he added.
