Two young men dressed in Halloween costumes allegedly spent the weekend before trick-or-treating tearing down police surveillance cameras across northern St. Louis County, and now they are facing felony charges. St. Louis County prosecutors on Monday charged 18-year-old Caleb Melton II of Hazelwood and 19-year-old Logan Williams of Old Monroe with four counts of stealing $750 or more and five counts of first-degree property damage.
Cameras Started Going Dark Over Halloween Weekend
According to KSDK, police say two men in costumes stole or damaged Flock cameras in the area over Halloween weekend. A probable cause statement cited by the station says the first camera went dark on Oct. 31 on Teson Road in Hazelwood, near the Hazelwood Community Center and White Birch Bay Aquatic Center. Additional cameras went offline the following morning between 12:30 and 2 a.m., according to the same statement.
Investigators later located a camera at Howdershell Road and Knollwood Parkway Drive in Hazelwood, damaged and hidden in a wooded area. Four other cameras remained missing.
Surveillance Footage Led Investigators to a Truck
Surveillance video reviewed by investigators showed two people who appeared to be wearing Halloween costumes getting out of a gray-and-silver Ford F-150 and approaching a camera pole, per the same account. Other Flock cameras in the area reportedly recorded the same truck near locations where cameras were stolen or damaged, and the two people were seen walking back toward the vehicle just after one camera went offline.
Footage from a home near Patterson Road and Rancho Lane, cited in court documents, reportedly showed one person kneeling while the other stood on his back to cut down a camera — and the falling camera struck the kneeling person in the head. The two reportedly left after picking up the camera. Investigators say they identified the truck's license plate in the footage and found the vehicle registered to Williams and his father.
Search Turns Up Camera Parts, Costume Packaging and a Band Saw
Investigators say they recovered red shoes matching those worn by a person seen in the footage, along with a band saw and a Halloween costume found inside the truck. At a St. Charles home where the truck was parked, investigators reportedly found Flock camera parts and Halloween costume packaging.
Williams told investigators he was involved in the five charged incidents and claimed responsibility for at least 20 other incidents involving Flock systems in St. Louis County that same night, according to the probable cause statement. Melton and Williams were both held at the St. Louis County jail on $75,000 bond. The allegations have not been proven in court.
What a Flock Camera Actually Costs
Each Flock camera system costs about $2,500, the station's report states. Hazelwood has used automated license plate readers since 2011 and signed its contract with Flock Safety in 2023, according to St. Louis Public Radio, which reported that more than 1,000 automated license plate readers now operate across the St. Louis region.
That proliferation has sparked pushback well beyond Hazelwood. FOX 2 reported that more than 1,000 Flock cameras are live across Missouri, and that St. Charles, Maries and Pulaski counties have recently put the brakes on their own camera networks while Columbia weighs the future of its system. The St. Louis American reported that County Executive Sam Page has ordered a review of license plate reader cameras on county property and rights-of-way, and that more than 100 law enforcement employees nationwide have been implicated in misuse of Flock's system.
Not the First Camera to Get Cut Down
Vandalism targeting these cameras isn't limited to St. Louis County. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Maplewood officers found one of the city's five Flock cameras cut down in July at Big Bend Boulevard and Gayola Place. Similar incidents have popped up elsewhere in the country — in Ohio, WLWT reported that Cody Morelock was arrested and charged after allegedly removing bolts, damaging a camera housing and taking the camera, solar panel and computer box from a Clermont County pole in June.
Four cameras remained missing at the time, and Williams reportedly claimed responsibility for roughly 20 additional incidents. The case against Melton and Williams is now in the hands of St. Louis County prosecutors.
