In a quiet border town, teenagers earn quick cash sitting on rooftops with cheap radios and orange vests. They’re told to watch for police cars and unfamiliar vehicles. Most of them think they’re just helping the neighborhood stay safe.
Mateo takes the job after school to help his mother with bills. The work is boring. Long hours, dusty streets, and nothing but stray dogs and passing traffic. But after a nearby shooting makes the news, he notices something strange. Security footage shows a blurry figure in an orange vest sitting on a rooftop close to the crime scene. The vest looks exactly like his.
Another crime happens days later. Again, a rooftop watcher appears in the background footage even though Mateo knows the assigned rooftops are miles from where the violence occurs. Curious, he begins writing down dates, locations, and shifts. Soon he realizes the rooftops are placed directly in view of public cameras. They aren’t lookouts. They’re visual suspects.
When Diego, a quiet kid who worked shifts with him, suddenly disappears, police announce him as a suspect in a shooting. Mateo knows it’s impossible. Diego was on the same rooftop that night, nowhere near the crime. Fear spreads among the watchers. Anyone who tries to quit gets labeled a gang lookout online. Families start receiving anonymous threats. The job becomes a trap.
Mateo secretly records conversations and photographs camera angles around his rooftop. The more evidence he gathers, the clearer it becomes that both criminals and certain officials benefit from having teenagers visible on camera serving as easy scapegoats whenever violence happens.
One night, another shooting hits the news. This time, the footage shows Mateo himself sitting on his assigned rooftop presented as a possible suspect. Realizing he’s next, he runs to a local journalist with his recordings and notes. As they prepare to expose the scheme, police begin searching for him, and strangers start asking neighbors where he lives.
For the first time, Mateo understands the real purpose of the rooftops: not to watch crime but to create someone to blame for it. And once your face appears on camera… getting off the roof might already be too late.
