LEAGUE CITY, Texas — Nick Renfro lives at the Anchor at South Shore Apartments in League City.
He said his friends laughed at him when he told them he was planning to install cameras in his apartment, but he's grateful he did. They say you never know who's watching, and in this case, Renfro, 22, caught the action from every angle.
"I'm sitting there at work ... I get a notification on my phone saying that there's motion detected," Renfro said.
His security cameras recorded a man who was supposed to be in his apartment installing a new smoke detector. Instead of just doing his job, that worker was seen going from room to room rummaging through Renfro's personal items.
"It shows the guy going through my dresser drawers. It shows him going through bathroom cabinets," he said.
All the extra work seemingly stimulated the worker's appetite as he made his way into the kitchen.
"He comes over here to the pantry, and I had a thing of Pringles in there, which I bought those back in October so I hope he likes expired chips," Renfro said. "He opens up this cabinet right here and there's a bag of Mexican candy on the top shelf, that's really the only thing he stole was two lollipops."
All jokes aside, for Renfro, his sense of independence and privacy is now shaken.
"We trust the property manager to do their due diligence when hiring people, and so it's just very unfortunate and residents, they must be aware of things like this," Renfro said.
KHOU 11 News reached out to management at the Anchor at South Shore Apartments. They forwarded us to their parent company Cushman & Wakefield, who never responded with any answers.
"You can't trust anybody, you never know, you never know," Renfro said.
In the end, Renfro decided not to press any changes.
Leasing experts said there are ways to protect yourself from theft which include, like Renfro, installing cameras, making sure you have the right renter's insurance, and if you can, making sure someone is home when having work orders fulfilled.