Q. What is it supposed to be on the show? A. The streets outside Dexter's apartment. Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show? A. Outside 8240 Palm Terrace, in Miami. Q. When did we see it on the show? A. In Episode 11, of Season 5, "Hop a Freighter". Dexter discovers that someone is watching him, when his baby monitor accidentally picks up the video from a secretly-planted surveillance camera in his apartment. He quietly warns Lumen, and assumes that the camera has been planted by Jordan Chase. (In fact, it was planted by Stan Liddy.) In this scene, we see Dexter leaving his apartment, and then desperately looking around for the person doing the spying. He thinks to himself that the person must be close by, since wireless cameras have a limited range. As he looks at the buildings and cars in the neighborhood, he thinks that the recording unit could be in a vacant apartment, a motor home, a van... all of which he sees nearby. As his frustration mounts, he jogs down the street, and spots a parking lot with a number of vans (the same lot where Liddy is parked), and thinks that he could be anywhere. Back at his apartment, he finds the camera hidden in a children's lamp, sees that it is police property, and realizes it wasn't Jordan Chase, that it was a cop at his own station. In a later scene, we see Dexter and Lumen walking together in the same neighborhood, still trying to pinpoint the location of the spy. Dexter reports that there are no new renters, and the motor home he saw is gone - so he assumes it must be one of the many vans parked in a small lot behind a building. He notes that there were originally four vans, and that it's down to three now. He tells Lumen they will keep checking back... Just then, he gets a phone call from his nanny, who tells him they are planning a birthday party for baby Harrison. (He eventually spots the right van, leading to the abduction scene. )

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. A residential neighborhood, near a local shopping center

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. These in the Los Altos section of Long Beach, just blocks south of the old "Dexter Neighborhood" where Rita lived.

t's just south of the San Diego (405) Freeway, and just east of Bellflower Blvd, behind (east of) the large Los Altos Market Center.

The scenes with Dexter desperately searching for the spy were shot on the 2200 block of San Anseline Ave, in Long Beach, between Stearns Street and Los Arcos Street.

The scenes of Dexter & Lumen together were filmed on Stearns Street itself, and on Marwick Ave.





To break it down more precisely:


• The first shot, of Dexter sprinting out of his old apartment, was old, recycled footage from the first season, actually shot in Miami.
  
  
• The apartment house with a "For Rent" sign outside was on San Anseline. That brown & white apartment we see us in the west side of that street, at 2225 San Anseline Ave, in Long Beach, CA.
  
  
• The shot of Dexter looking at the motor home, features another apartment house in the background, just a few houses north of the brown & white one, at 2249 San Anseline Ave.
  
  
• When Dexter jogs down the road, he's running south on San Anseline, towards Stearns Street.
  
  
• When he sees the white vans in a parking lot, he is on Marwick Ave. (one street west of San Anseline) looking southwest across Stearns, into the small parking lot behind the L.A. Fitness store in the Los Altos Market Center.
  
  
• When we see Dexter and Lumen walking, later, they are walking west down the residential north side of Stearns, which is separated from the busier (south) side of Stearns by a divider. That divider (with a trash can, and a blue curb drain) is prominent in the scene.
  
  
• Dexter & Lumen reach Marwick Ave and stop. They look south/southwest across Stearns at the same small parking lot in the Los Altos shopping center.
  
  
  
  

I shot the matching photos below, in Long Beach, in December 2010:






The apartment house with the "For Rent" sign -- on the west side of San Anseline Ave.










And the apartment house seen behind the motor home.










Looking east up the south side of Stearns Street.










Looking south from Marwick & Stearns, into parking lot






Here is an aerial photo of the streets, with the locations marked. And here is a map link.

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A.  I knew that they had filmed the scene where Liddy abducts Dexter in that Los Altos parking lot, and since the walking scenes end at that same parking lot, it only made sense that they would film the earlier walking scenes nearby.

Also, I knew they had filmed on San Anseline in a previous season (the scene of Rita dropping off a stolen dog), and that the street is filled with garden-style apartment buildings like the ones seen in this walking scene.

So, all it took was a look with Google StreetView to confirm it and pinpoint the exact buildings. Then I drove down there and shot the photos you see above.

But that was for the houses... When it came to the Dexter/Lumen part, I didn't even have to wait for the episode to air.

Back at the time of the actual filming (October 1st), one of my tipsters, Ellen, was on the scene, and sent me a cell phone photo of Dexter & Lumen standing together at the northeast corner of Marwick &  Stearns.


And here is her photo:



and Ellen's white MINI-Cooper even managed to sneak a cameo in the background:



(Thanks, Ellen!)