PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — A South Philadelphia resident checking a trail camera meant to monitor raccoons instead discovered footage of a man walking across their roof deck around 2 a.m. Saturday, prompting concern among neighbors.
“I check it every now and then, and I checked it and saw that 2 in the morning Friday night going into Saturday morning, there was some guy on my roof, on my roof deck,” said the resident, who asked not to be identified.
Another neighbor, Bill Fitch, said he saw the same man that night, right around the same time.
IMAGE: Residents are on edge after a person was seen on their roof deck over the weekend.
“He looked down at me, and I thought maybe it’s just a guy on a roof in the middle of the night,” Fitch said. “I don’t know, I gave him the benefit of the doubt for no reason. But later, when we went upstairs, I saw him clearly with a ski mask on up on the roofs, with a flashlight, looking to like gain entry into stuff. Like he was checking windows.”
Fitch called 911, but the man was gone by the time officers arrived minutes later.
Neighbors asked that the street not be identified publicly, saying they do not want to draw more unwanted attention. They believe the man accessed the roofs through a broken alleyway gate next to what they think is an abandoned house.
Fitch said the incident has left him uneasy.
“I feel like he’s gonna come back. I feel paranoid, really. We’re locking the doors. We’re double-checking things. We’re putting bikes in front of doors and things so that if someone were to get in, they’d have to knock stuff over.”
Philadelphia police said criminal trespassing can apply even when a person does not enter a home’s interior. Anyone on a private residence without authorization, including on a roof, may face charges.
The resident who captured the footage said the experience was disturbing.
“It was very violating. Definitely don’t recognize the guy, don’t know what he was doing up there. He was poking around; it looked like he might have been checking the window or something,” they said. “So we have a no trespassing sign on our roof now, crazy as that sounds.”
Installing gates in city alleyways is illegal, but it remains a common practice. Residents often pool money to put up a gate and share keys; the responsibility ultimately falls on property owners.
Philadelphia police are looking into this incident.
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