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Serial Burglar Caught on Webcam

Metatron writes "The BBC is reporting about a serial burlgar caught after images recorded by a webcam were automatically emailed to an outside server. The evidence was made available to the police even though the computer itself had been stolen! This is also discussed on the victims own web site and the local newspaper in Cambridge." From the article: "I was relieved it did what I'd intended it to when I was burgled again. It was nice to catch him in the act - but it didn't stop him from stealing my things."

17 of 561 comments (clear)

  1. He got me by gowen · · Score: 5, Funny

    I was a victim of a Serial burglar once. I didn't have breakfast for four months because of him... /*rimshot*/

    --
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    1. Re:He got me by tehshen · · Score: 5, Funny

      You think that's bad? A serial burglar stole my XP serial number and now I can't validate Windows!

      --
      Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
    2. Re:He got me by skubeedooo · · Score: 5, Funny
      A serial burglar stole my entire legit CD & DVD collection, but left behind the hard disk full of mp3 'backup copies' behind. For some reason the RIAA/MPAA don't believe me.

      But it's true I tell you!

  2. Note to self... by Traegorn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Note to self: Next time, wear a mask.

  3. Chav by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Baseball cap, thuggish look, awful clothes. Screams thieving chav. Where's the burberry?

  4. Should have sene his face. by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The webcam made our job really easy," added DS Page. "It was a pleasure to show him the pictures and see his expression when we interviewed him."

    If only they had a camera...

  5. Re:Serial burglar at 19... by Trigun · · Score: 5, Funny

    but a hamburglar doesn't hamburgle, he robbles.

  6. Aha!!! by erroneus · · Score: 4, Funny

    So that's the bastard that has been stealing the toys and surprises from my cereal... oh wait... serial? Crap... always get those mixed up.

  7. 'Burglarize' makes me think of stuff like this... by Dogtanian · · Score: 3, Funny

    Them that there varmints with their goin' around burglarizing honest folks houses.... it's making a mockery of the judiciarialary system

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  8. And now for something completely different... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    "No madam, I'm a burglar, I burgle people."

  9. Serial Burglars? by Monkey+Angst · · Score: 3, Funny

    Are serial burglars faster than the old parallel burglars?

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    stripShow - Where WordPress meets webcomics
  10. Re:Serial burglar at 19... by MartinG · · Score: 4, Funny

    In English there is no such word.
    Remember though that slashdot is American and that Americans can't speak English. :-)

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  11. Re:Serial burglar at 19... by pegr · · Score: 5, Funny

    "burglarized"

    burgled.

    The word you are looking for is burgled.

    There is no such word as burglarized.

    A burglar burgles.


    You're absolutely right. I apogle.

  12. Re:11 months??? by Cat_Byte · · Score: 4, Funny

    I spent 11 hours in jail but they woke me up around 11am. That was the lame part.

    --
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
  13. The idea really isn't all that new by atomic_toaster · · Score: 3, Funny

    About three years ago, my brother had a roomie that he suspected was vandalising some of my brother's property. Of course, because they had a dog that was allowed to roam through the entire house, my brother couldn't prove that it had been the roomie and not the dog, becuase all of the destruction was well within the realm of a dog's capabilities. So he set up a webcam on his computer to start recording when there was motion in the room, and then storing the video on his web server. This allowed him to catch his roommate dumping a the bowl of leftover Kraft Dinner that had been left on the desk all over/into my brother's keyboard while my brother was at work.

    A lot of people leave their computer(s) running when they're not around, and a lot of people have webcams sitting around that 99% of the time aren't even plugged in. I know that this is the case for me, at any rate. It's really easy to miss yet another piece of computer-related clutter on an already messy surface. Although I have to admit, it doesn't take all that much effort to look around for cameras before perpetrating a crime and "accidentally" knock them so that they're not pointed at the area where the crime will be comitted... Not that this would have helped the burglar any, since all it had to capture was him breaking in to prove at least breaking-and-entering, but when someone has a legit reason to be in the room and foils themself through sheer lack of attention... That's pretty stupid, I have to agree.

  14. Stripy top by willm5 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did anyone notice he had a stripy top on? What do you suppose happened to his mask, and bag with 'swag' written on it?

  15. Re:Techical info by GPLDAN · · Score: 5, Funny

    Way to go, Duncan. You earned your Slashdot street cred for the year. Not only did you bust him, you used Linux AND Python to do it. Double word score. That's at least good for 200 meta moderation points. The only thing preventing the trifecta and instant Hall of fame induction is that you didn't PGP encode the email as it left the server.