What’s Up With the Flashing Light in This New Hampshire Walgreens’ Parking Lot?

Update: An earlier version of this story stated that the light installation was from the Rochester Police Department. They did not put this new blue light in.

Normally, whenever you see flashing blue lights, you think one of two things:

1) If you're driving, it's usually, "Oh God, what did I do wrong?"

2) In every other situation, it's "Oh God, what happened?"

But rarely do you see a flashing blue light in a parking lot, right? (Unless it's attached to a police cruiser because someone got caught stealing at a store or something bad happened, and hopefully both are a rarity.)

However, there's a new blue light that's being seen in New Hampshire that has people asking a third question to themselves -- "What the hell is that?"

Rochester, New Hampshire Walgreens

While the Walgreens on South Main Street in Rochester, New Hampshire, has been a fixture in the community for a while for various reasons -- 24-hour convenience, a couple of last-minute groceries without a full trip to the grocery store, picking up meds from the pharmacy, a centrally-located meet-up spot -- there's been a new addition that has some Granite Staters scratching their heads.

And it took Rebecca Gansburg Sankey's question posted in the You KNOW you're from Rochester, NH if you... group on Facebook to get some opinions on what it might be.

This may be an odd question, but I really want to know what the purpose of the flashing blue light in the Walgreens lot is for. Anyone know?

Rochester PD installed it a week or so ago. It’s capable of 24-hour surveillance of the area, the area is known for high incidents of illegal activities.

However, after Dan Alexander of Seacoast Current reached out to Rochester Police Department, they said they did not have any connection to the light installation.

"The light in the Walgreens parking lot is not associated in any way with the Rochester Police Department," Captain Swanberry said.

Scott Dean also commented that after some original complaints and scares, the new instrument received some tweaks:

"The first night it was screaming a statement every minute or so."

Wednesday night, listener Kari Rousselle reached out to us with the possible answer to everything:

"It was brought in by Walgreens Security Operations Center also known as SOC. The sound or warning statement only goes off when individuals are close enough to touch the machine."

Without official confirmation from Walgreens yet, though, it still seems the light is a mystery. If you know, let me know!