Photo: Stock Image
There was once a time when men who were romantically and lustfully obsessed with the women of their dreams would simply follow them around, show up at their homes, peek through windows, and lurk in the bushes watching them from afar.
But in a world where GPS tools, surveillance cameras and residential video security systems have become affordable and ubiquitous, stalkers today can keep their eyes on the objects of their desires without their victims being aware. One of those technologies was apparently used by 27-year-old Camarillo resident Jesus Rafael Mendez-Mendez, who was arrested on August 31st by detectives attached to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department’s Camarillo Investigations Bureau.
According to VCSD spokesman Det. Mitchell Peterson, law enforcement was alerted to Mendez-Mendez’s behavior in July, 2023 by a female “reported locating a tracking device under their vehicle.” Suspecting Mendez-Mendez—with whom she had “a former friendship, and who had followed her on numerous previous occasions”—she provided information to the cops that he had also been “involved” in an October 2022 shooting in Oxnard.
Further investigation by the Camarillo Investigations Bureau led detectives to the conclusion that Mendez-Mendez was indeed involved in the Oxnard shooting and had, in fact, “placed the tracker on the victim’s vehicle.”
The Camarillo Special Enforcement Unit, working hand-in-hand with Camarillo Patrol Services, made contact with Mendez-Mendez on the morning of August 31st , and took him into custody. He was transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon and felony stalking. He remains in custody with his bail set at $150,000.
