Neighbors on edge after video shows thief lurking through Fig Garden neighborhood

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Fresno County Sheriff's Office needs your help after they say a man has been captured twice walking around Fresno's Old Fig Garden neighborhood on the prowl and, in once case, stealing someone's tools.

Detectives say this month the suspect has been spotted walking around neighborhoods in the early morning hours acting very suspicious. Surveillance video shows him prowling around a home on Shields and Van Ness Avenues. Another clip shows him on Palm and Dakota Avenues where investigators say he stole tools from a garage.

Harly Smith lives nearby, less than a mile away from the recent crime. He says criminal activity in the neighborhood has spiked so much that neighbors are constantly posting on the app NextDoor to keep each other aware of what's going on.

"Things like suspicious people," Smith said. "People being robbed of a bicycle people going through a car breaking a window my daughter had her computer stolen. This is a little petty crime that I don't know what to do about it."

And neither does Smith's neighbor who did not want to be identified. He said though he and his friend came face-to-face a couple weeks ago with an alleged car thief.

"We had told him this ain't your car you can't be doing this. People pay for their stuff so we ended up chasing him off and the cops got here," he said.

Neighbors say they will be on high alert looking for Fresno's latest lurking crook troubling their streets -- and a number of the homes in the Old Fig Garden neighborhood have surveillance cameras.

Detectives say anyone with information is asked to contact the sheriff's office.