Tarzana man scares off would-be burglars with pepperball gun

A Tarzana resident took action after he saw some people casing his street and going onto his neighbor's property on Tuesday night .

It happened in a neighborhood near Tampa Ave. and Ventura Blvd. around 10 p.m.

Julian Harper-Smith told KNX News’ Jon Baird he noticed on one of his cameras that a silver SUV was going up and down the street before stopping in front of a neighbor’s home. He then saw three people in hoodies climb the gate and jump into the property.

That’s when Harper-Smith decided to take matters into his own hands.

“I just grabbed my powerful flashlight and a pepperball gun and I just walked around the corner, turned on my flashlight,” he said. “They [saw] that before they [saw] me and then they came running out the yard.”

He said the whole thing happened over the course of 45 seconds.

Harper-Smith has 30 to 40 cameras around his whole property as well as a trailer outside his house that's equipped with surveillance. He said he put them up when he noticed things were missing and random people coming into the neighborhood.

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Nicole, Harper-Smith’s girlfriend, told KNX News’ Jon Baird she was excited about what he did.

“I was proud of him and that this is panning out,” she said. “Actually, the neighbor was really against the cameras. The same one who's really appreciative now that the cameras were here because it was his house that was targeted.”

Another resident in the area praised Harper-Smith’s actions but said more needs to be done.

“He's the hero of the neighborhood,” he said. “But we are hearing more and more of this and, and I ask, where is our tax money? Where is our police? Where is the deterrent?”

The incident comes following a surge of burglaries in homes in Encino and Tarzana.

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