Chris Beaulieu is used to the sounds of Burlington at night.

As innkeeper for the Ronald McDonald House on South Winooski Avenue, Beaulieu stays up late to greet parents who spend their days with a sick child at the hospital. He hears nighttime construction work and college kids ambling by after a night at the bars, the sometimes cacophonous soundtrack of city living.

But for the last month, one sound has stood out. Night after night, every half-hour, a loudspeaker blares an automated warning from the Walgreens parking lot across the street.



“You are trespassing! Please leave the area,” a disembodied male voice intones. “This area is under video surveillance, and you have been recorded.”

Affixed to a roughly 20-foot pole with cameras and flashing blue lights, the speaker drones on even in the wee hours of the morning, waking Beaulieu and his guests. The innkeeper has taken to placing them on the opposite side of the house, but those rooms are in short supply. His boss has complained to the store manager, who, while sympathetic, said she couldn’t reverse a “corporate decision.”
A Walgreens spokesperson declined an interview with Seven Days, instead emailing a statement that pledges to “resolve any concerns presented by our neighbors.” Meantime, Burlington police are investigating whether the device violates the city’s noise ordinance.

Beaulieu says the store’s attempts to prevent crime shouldn’t come at the expense of families seeking respite. “The last thing they need to hear is Robocop across the street shouting,” he said.

In Beaulieu’s recollection, the device appeared around July 4. Staff at the inn were holding a daytime meeting with the doors open when a loud, robotic voice first sounded from across the street, startling them.

Since then, Beaulieu has only heard the speaker at night, though Seven Days staffers have heard it during the day. Known as a mobile security system, the camera and speaker are set up on a small trailer. The manufacturer, LVT — which stands for “LiveView Technologies” — markets the device as a simple surveillance solution that takes less than 30 minutes to install. It runs on solar panels to “ensure peak performance” even in rural areas, the company says, though someone has already smashed the ones on Walgreens’ device. A similar machine is being used at the U-Haul on Riverside Avenue.

The Walgreens device has gotten attention, and not just from the Ronald McDonald House. In a video shot by a Seven Days staffer a few weeks ago, passersby can be heard gawking at the machine as it barks out a warning: “This is the security operations center,” it says. “This property is being monitored 24/7.”

Last week, Twitter user @farmerdarrell posted a video that appeared to show the device turning on as soon as he approached it. He expressed skepticism that the machine would deter crime.
Like many cities post-pandemic, Burlington has experienced an uptick in theft that’s driven in part by a worsening drug crisis. Burlington police have recorded more than 700 reports of larceny to date, compared to just over 300 in 2019, according to Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad’s most recent monthly report. Overdoses this year have already surpassed last year’s total.

Burlington police have responded to the downtown Walgreens 97 times in 2022 and 79 times so far this year, though not all calls were for theft, police data show.

A store manager on site last week declined an interview with Seven Days, referring all questions to corporate. In a statement, a Walgreens spokesperson said its stores use “several preventative measures to deter theft and deliver the best patient and customer experience.”

“These devices help to deter disturbances, crimes and other incidents that might happen outside of our stores,” the statement continued.

Shoplifting at Walgreens has been well-documented, particularly in San Francisco, where theft has caused the closure of more than a dozen stores since 2019. But ironically, the pharmacy chain helped create the problem it’s now trying to address.

Earlier this year, Walgreens and three other defendants agreed to a $17.3 billion settlement for their role in the opioid crisis. Vermont will receive $46.4 million over 15 years from the deal, which requires Walgreens to more closely monitor opioid prescriptions.



Kristine Bickford, the executive director at the Ronald McDonald House, knows that the Burlington store struggles with unwanted behavior. But the store’s attempts to crack down shouldn’t infringe on the guests’ need for a good night’s sleep, she said.

“Something’s gotta change,” she said. “We can’t have this across the street. We just cannot.”