A Florida man is facing felony charges after police say he used his father’s garden shears to smash what he believed was a Flock Safety camera — only to discover it was a decoy rigged up by local law enforcement as part of a sting operation.
Evan Meyer was arrested shortly after midnight on Thursday, August 20, 2026, according to 404 Media, after Oviedo Police Department officers say he knocked the camera off a pole and destroyed it on the ground. The camera, however, was fake — a replica built by an officer using a personal 3D printer as part of an effort to catch vandals who had been stealing or destroying real Flock cameras in the area.
Decoy Operation After Spate of Camera Thefts
The Oviedo Police Department set up the decoy operation after several real Flock Safety cameras went missing along the Lockwood Boulevard corridor between July 23 and August 3, 2026. According to the arrest report, the department replaced the stolen cameras with “clone style” Flock cameras designed to closely resemble the real ones but costing significantly less and collecting no data.
“These Flock ‘bait’ cameras were made to closely resemble that of real Flock cameras but did not cost the same amount nor collect any data within the device,” the arrest report states.
The decoys were installed the Sunday before Meyer’s arrest, and officers monitored them overnight through Thursday. One of the decoys was built at home by an officer on a personally owned 3D printer and donated to the department, according to a police statement to 404 Media.
Arrest Report Details
According to the arrest report, when Meyer was questioned, he “stated approximately $1,000-$5,000” when asked how much he believed the camera would cost to replace — a detail police say proves he knew it was an expensive piece of real equipment rather than a fake replica. The actual replacement cost for a real Flock camera is valued at $800 plus installation fees, the report notes.
Meyer allegedly told police he had “been hearing all the negative things online about the misuses of Flock cameras (specifically the CEO of Flock Safety)” and decided to knock down the camera closest to his house. He grabbed his father’s pruning shears from the garage, walked down the street south from his house, and, being tall enough to reach the mount, cut it off and smashed the camera on the ground.
He now faces three felony charges: attempted larceny/grand theft, criminal mischief for property damage over $1,000, and property crimes against computer equipment supplies.
Flock Cameras Remain Contentious in Florida
The incident comes amid ongoing debate in Florida over the proliferation of Flock Safety cameras, which are automated license plate readers used by law enforcement agencies across the state. The devices have drawn criticism from privacy advocates and some residents who view them as a form of mass surveillance.
But at least one Florida sheriff has pushed back against those concerns. Breitbart News previously reported that St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick labeled concerns over Flock cameras as “ignorance” and “misinformation” during an appearance on The 904 Now on August 14.
Hardwick said his county has roughly 180 Flock cameras in operation, with some highway exits having four in a small area. He dismissed concerns over mass surveillance as the “flavor of the day” that would eventually die down, and tied efforts to remove Flock cameras to Democrat-run cities that seek to defund the police.
“Across the great state of Florida, here in St. Johns County, we’re not hearing the rhetoric that the rest of the country is actually preaching,” Hardwick said. “Matter of fact, we’re not really hearing the rhetoric across the great state of Florida because of our support and leadership.”
The Oviedo case, however, shows that at least some Florida residents are acting on their concerns — albeit in a way that has now landed one man in serious legal trouble. The fact that the camera Meyer allegedly destroyed was a decoy built on a 3D printer adds an ironic twist to a case that police say demonstrates both the cost of vandalism and the lengths departments will go to protect their surveillance equipment.
Police have not indicated whether additional arrests are expected in connection with the earlier thefts of real Flock cameras in the Lockwood Boulevard corridor.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2026/08/28/police-florida-man-faces-felony-charges-for-smashing-decoy-flock-camera/