An alleged stalker has been arrested for lurking outside Prince Harry and Meghan’s Montecito mansion in the middle of the night.
A member of the security team at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s $14million (£11million) California home reportedly placed the man under citizen’s arrest before alerting the local police.
A spokesperson for the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office told TMZ they received a phone call on Monday at around 2am from security staffers.
The tabloid said 29-year-old Kevin Garcia Valdovinos was placed under citizen’s arrest at the entrance to the couple’s property.
Once police officers arrived the man was taken into custody and booked for misdemeanor stalking, before being released on bail.
The law under which Valdovinos was arrested indicated this was not the first time he has committed such an offense.
TMZ reported he did not make it on to the property, and it was something he told security that prompted them to place him under citizen’s arrest.
It was not clear if Harry and Meghan or their two children Archie, 4, and Lilibet, 1 – were home at the time of the arrest.
The couple were in New York City last night attending the Ms Foundation Women of Vision Awards, where Meghan was presented with the 2023 award ‘for her global advocacy to empower and advocate on behalf of women and girls.’
The couple and their then-one-year-old son Archie moved into the exclusive Montecito neighborhood in 2020. They purchased the lavish 18,000-square-foot home, which sits on 5.4 acres of land, for $14.5million (£11million).
It was revealed a year later that police had been called to the mansion nine times in as many months.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office even responded twice over Christmas to pick up a trespasser who had travelled to the Sussexes’ home from Ohio.
The property’s alarm system had also been triggered five times in that time.
