ORLANDO, Fla. – The Waterford Lakes community is hoping to get results after two separate incidents with a man on a bike that have a lot of similarities. Some neighbors are calling the incidents suspicious.
A man seen recently on Woodmeade Court, riding a bike and taking photos of resident Stephanie Chandrasekaran's home.
Neighbors confronted him about what he was doing.
The man told residents he worked for a company called Vivint Solar.
That company told News6 on Tuesday it could not verify if they had an employee in the area without an ID number. A neighbor did ask to see the man's ID, but he only flashed it.
“It's just so bizarre. Why just one house in this whole neighborhood?” Chandrasekaran said.
Neighbors asked the man to leave.
Another incident happened on Battler Street Monday night.
“I'm kinda wondering, what's his business and why is he doing this, why is he giving everybody the creep factor?” said a resident, who didn't want to be identified.
She told News 6 she saw a man park a bike on her street last night and look at several houses. After about 10 minutes, she said, the man knocked on the door of just one home, telling the neighbor he worked for Vivint Smart Home Security. Then, he tried to make a sale.
“I thought that was a little weird since no security company would send somebody out like that,” the neighbor said.
A Vivint Smart Home Security representative told News 6 that its employees and contractors "have not been within 25 miles of this area in recent weeks" and if they were they wouldn't be on a bike.
"It had me kinda wondering, is he scoping people's houses? Is he seeing who's home and who's not?” said a neighbor, who called the Orange County Sheriff's Office about the incident.
Deputies arrived after the man left the area.
The Sheriff's Office said the neighbor did the right thing by calling them when she saw someone suspicious.
“Our deputies, at the very least, would have questioned the individual to find out why he was in the neighborhood, had he not left,” Public Information Officer Jane Watrel said. “We have crime prevention deputies who work with Orange County neighborhoods to make sure residents are educated about safety measures they can take in different situations.”
The OCSO's crime prevention unit is listed on its website.
“I hope somebody catches this guy and figures out what in the neighborhood he's doing,” a resident said.