'There would be blood in the street': Neighbor talks about Visalia couple accused of luring, beating thieves with bats

Thursday, January 9, 2020
VISALIA, Calif. (KFSN) -- Neighbors are providing new insight into the strange, brazen behavior of a Visalia couple.

25-year-old Corey Curnutt and 29-year-old Savannah Grillot have bailed out of jail after being arrested by Visalia Police on Wednesday.

RELATED: Visalia couple baited thieves, recorded beating them with bat, police say
[Ads /]
Police say the suspects would lure thieves to their home by placing a bike outside, and then run after the thieves and assault them with aluminum bats.

Later, Curnutt would post the surveillance videos on YouTube, and according to neighbors, brag about his actions.

Police first saw those videos in July and say the attacks continued through November.



Kerris LeBeau says Curnutt and Grillot were married and moved in across the street from her home in May or June of 2019.

During their very first night at the house, she says, someone broke into their car, which her cameras captured.

And they were victims of another car break-in days later.

"And then after that he was like, 'Well screw this we're going to take the neighborhood, we're not going to let (them) take us'," LeBeau says.
[Ads /]
A spokesperson at Naval Air Station Lemoore confirmed a sailor and a dependent were arrested on base by Visalia Police on Wednesday.

LeBeau says the woman suspect was a Lemoore sailor.



She says Curnutt and Grillot were really nice people.

But she and her husband had a front-row seat to the never-ending entrapment happening next door, and finally felt it had gone too far.

"There would be blood in the street or on the sidewalks the next day," she says.

So they said something to the couple.

"We had mentioned, 'Maybe it's not the best idea, you're kind of bringing them into the neighborhood that might not be here otherwise'. And it was a lot, it was every night, and just a lot of activity," LeBeau says.
[Ads /]
Visalia Police say there are at least four victims who were beaten with bats.



LeBeau thinks that number has to be much higher.

The couple, she says, moved out about a month ago.

And adds that she hasn't heard of any more neighborhood thefts since they left.

Because both suspects have bailed out of jail, there's no rush for the district attorney's office to file charges.

Action News tried reaching out to them but haven't had any luck.



Also, it appears the YouTube videos have been taken down.
Copyright © 2024 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.