Ring.com

One Linda Vista neighbor captured a woman wearing a mask in late July, stealing her Amazon package and a mail-in ballot.

Given the rise in Covid-19 hospitalizations, local mask-wearing criminals have again taken advantage of the normalcy of wearing masks outdoors.

On September 18, a ziadalyadago on TikTok posted a clip of a man wearing a mask attempting to steal his Ring camera. "Welcome to San Diego," reads the caption. "California has the best low in the world."

Also, on September 18, on the NextDoor app, Darlene Y. posted a set of incriminating photos on the "Report Crimes" sub-page, which covers San Diego crimes. "A Honda van was stolen from a garage on September 3 by three guys in long shorts, SD sweatshirts, and wearing fake Covid masks to cover faces. They keep coming back to our property and trying to break in."

On all social media platforms, local mask-wearing bandits are getting exposed.

After 4 am on September 11, Matthew D. saw two individuals on the footage captured by his surveillance cameras. He posted the video footage onto the NextDoor app later that Monday. He said the getaway driver was wearing a mask, as the perp who ran up to Matthew's SUV parked in the driveway. This masked bandit was clad in an all-black ensemble with sagging pants. He jiggled the driver's side door handles and realized it was locked. He then bolted back to the getaway car. "I was not able to identify the car they were driving," Matthew continued.

"That's one reason masks need to go away," Sammie Clark said. "Covid is over, and masks only hide a thief’s identity." Joanne B. from Mission Gorge agreed, saying it has nothing to do with Covid. "People doing suspicious/criminal things have been wearing masks for over 1000 years."

Nic Marckstadt, an administrator of the Pacific Beach Bike Theft Return Program Facebook page, photographed a man walking their neighborhood wearing a full facemask, gloves, and backpack. Marckstadt posted the photo on August 7 and captioned it, "Prowler heading west on Turquoise."

A Trisha G. wondered and asked the 1,200 members, "How do you know he is prowling?"

Marckstadt responded: "It’s abnormal to cover your entire face when it’s 79 [degrees] outside. [And] looking to every vehicle as you pass by and checking some door handles." Others on the platform agreed.

Even a popular dispensary packed with security cameras and a security guard was fair game to the maskers.

At about 1:10 am on August 27, San Diego Police pulled up to the Cookies Dispensary at 7850 Mission Center Court to assess a robbery, reported 619newsmedia on Instagram. A security guard told the police officers that two men used a rock to break a window, and the perps, who wore masks to cover their faces, took off with an undisclosed amount of cannabis products.

On September 18, a ziadalyadago on TikTok1 posted a clip of a man wearing a mask attempting to steal his Ring camera.

Back on Facebook, on the Escondido Police Scanners page, which monitors crimes and emergencies in the Escondido area, some people have posted about crimes committed by mask-wearing people. "I have thought that could be a problem," Gregory Blomberg, the founder of the Escondido scanner page, told me on September 27. "I remember during the height of Covid, banks wouldn't let you in if you wore a hat or sunglasses because the rest of the face was covered with a mask."

On the Ring app, locals post about porch pirates stealing their packages. One Linda Vista neighbor captured a woman wearing a Covid-style mask in late July, stealing her Amazon package and a mail-in ballot. The thief returned to her dark blue colored Nissan sedan and took off.

Ricky Jones from North Park saw some of the videos in this article. "TBH, even in the malls, kids wearing Covid-19 [style] masks are video'd looting and yelling 'no face, no case.'"