CLAYTON, OHIO — HOA compliance volunteer Gary Lindell, 53, was arrested this week after neighbors found a hidden camera concealed in a birdhouse aimed directly at their garbage bins, wired with a battery pack duct-taped to the back.
Deputies say Lindell had drilled a lens hole into the birdhouse himself and mounted it on the fence post separating the two properties, angled to capture the bins around the clock.
Drilled a lens hole into a wooden birdhouse and mounted it facing the neighbor’s bins
Ran a battery pack duct-taped to the birdhouse’s back panel to keep it powered
The camera reportedly held eleven weeks of footage of the same two bins
Logged every time the bins were put out early or brought in late
Described the setup to officers as “passive documentation,” not surveillance
Neighbors reportedly noticed the birdhouse had never once attracted a bird, which was what first raised suspicion. One resident said finding the camera “felt like something out of a spy movie, except it was just our trash schedule.”
Sheriff’s spokesperson Todd Waverly, who has worked the department for ten years, said in a statement, “We’ve had camera disputes over property lines before. We’ve never had one hidden inside a birdhouse.” He added Lindell faces charges related to unlawful surveillance.
The birdhouse camera sat mounted on the fence post for comment.
