Home » Arrest Made for Loitering and Suspicious Activity in Apartment Laundry Room

Arrest Made for Loitering and Suspicious Activity in Apartment Laundry Room

Posted by Amy Hite on Mar 8, 2022

Part of developing a solid security strategy for apartment communities is making sure common areas are safe and secure. Amenities and common areas are often significant in a renter’s decisions about where they choose to live.

Renters expect to feel comfortable using these areas at any time they are available to them without fear or concern of something bad or criminal happening to or around them. When residents loose access to an area of their community, they may feel they are being forced to relinquish something they invested in as part of the place they chose to call home.

The following video shows an apartment loiterer tampering with some laundry machines and how our live video monitoring solution helped to deter it, leading to arrest of the loiterer.

Around 9:43 p.m., one of our highly trained Stealth security operators saw an individual with a flashlight moving around inside an apartment’s laundry room. The loiterer shined the flashlight toward the back of some of the machines and tampered with the backside. Our operator activated the on-site speaker warning. The loiterer ignored the warning and continued lurking around the laundry room.

Our operator then contacted police dispatch to report a suspicious, in-progress incident. Officers arrived on the property. They entered the laundry room, apprehended and arrested the loiterer.

Take Control of Your Common Area Concerns with Live Video Monitoring

Safeguarding apartment communities helps keep residents safe and gives them peace of mind. This leads to apartment owners and managers having satisfied residents who are likely to volunteer excellent online reviews as well as encourage future residents to choose the community by speaking to others about the positive personal experiences. This all leads to less turn over and a better NOI for your property.

Stealth’s customized live video monitoring security solution for apartment communities is proactive and preventative. We use a combination of technology and human intelligence. High-definition video cameras placed throughout your community help capture and record activities. Our highly trained security operators interpret this live data and act when necessary to deter unwanted activity at your community. Typical deterrents performed by our operators include activating on-site speaker warnings, contacting on-call management and calling police dispatch to request officers at your community to impede and stop unwanted, in-progress activity.

While the loiterer in the video above did not seem to be a threat to others as the individual was busy tampering with laundry machines, if startled by a resident coming to do some late-night laundry, for example, the loiterer could react. Violence could ensue and the resident could receive the brunt of it.

There is also potential for theft and vandalism in this scenario. The loiterer was seen tampering behind some of the laundry room machines. This could result in machine damage or theft of various machine attachments, such as wiring that contains copper – a valuable, sought-after metal from some thieves looking to make quick money reselling it.

Because this apartment community is a Stealth customer, our operator quickly saw the dancing flashlight held by human hands during uncommonly populated hours. Our operator acted in the moment and during the unwanted activity. This resulted in police arriving while the loiterer was still on property, and apprehension and arrest being made.

Contact our multifamily residential security specialists to discuss your common areas and how Stealth’s customized solution can help keep your residents safe, your apartment homes full and your monthly ROI in the green.