Sandy MaloneVisalia, CA – A California couple were arrested after they repeatedly baited thieves with an unlocked bicycle in front of their house and then beat the bandits with baseball bats after they caught them stealing.
The crazy altercations began shortly after 25-year-old Corey Curnutt and 29-year-old Savannah Grillot moved into a home on Dove Avenue in May or June of 2019, KFSN reported.
Neighbor Kerris LeBeau, who lives directly across the street, said her new neighbor’s car was broken into the very first night it was parked in their driveway.
The incident was captured by LeBeau’s security cameras, KFSN reported.
LeBeau said their car was broken into again a few days later and that’s when Curnutt and Grillot vowed to put a stop to it.
“And then after that he was like, ‘Well screw this we’re going to take the neighborhood, we’re not going to let [them] take us’,” LeBeau told KFSN.
She said that Curnutt and Grillot would put an unlocked bicycle in their front yard and watch through their Ring doorbell camera for someone to take it.
LeBeau said that when somebody fell for the bait and snagged the bike, the couple would run out of the house with baseball bats, chase down the suspect, and beat the thief bloody, KFSN reported.
They posted the videos of what Curnutt referred to as his ““crazy adventure … catching criminals, and training to be a professional fighter!” on social media, CNN reported.
The videos have since been removed from Facebook and YouTube.
LeBeau said that Curnutt and Grillot initially had a lot of support from neighbors, but that it trickled off as people saw they “started to bait them and do it for other reasons,” according to KFSN.
“There would be blood in the street or on the sidewalks the next day,” she explained.
LeBeau described the experience as “a lot” and said they eventually approached the couple and asked them to knock it off, KFSN reported.
“We had mentioned, ‘Maybe it’s not the best idea, you’re kind of bringing them into the neighborhood that might not be here otherwise’. And it was a lot, it was every night, and just a lot of activity,” LeBeau says.
Visalia Police arrested Curnutt and Grillot on Wednesday, KFSN reported.
Charges have not yet been filed against the couple who bailed out of jail immediately.
Police said they believed Curnutt and Grillot had beaten at least four thieves with bats but LeBeau said the number was much higher than that, according to KFSN.
She said the couple moved out of the neighborhood a month before they were arrested.
A spokesman from Naval Air Station Lemoore confirmed that Grillot is a U.S. Navy sailor, KFSN reported.
The spokesman said that Grillot and her dependent were both arrested on base on Jan. 8.