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Serial Burglar Caught on Webcam

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the watch-what-you're-doing dept.

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."

3 of 561 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Serial burglar at 19... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "burglarized"

    burgled.

    The word you are looking for is burgled.

    There is no such word as burglarized.

    A burglar burgles.

  2. Techical info by duncangrisby · · Score: 5, Informative
    It was my camera and my flat that was broken into. Here are a few more technical details.

    The camera is just a generic video camera with a composite output. It's connected to a BT-848 video capture card in a Linux PC. I then use motion to detect motion and capture images. I then have some Python scripts I wrote that upload the captured images to an FTP server.

    I'm afraid I had to block access to my server from Slashdot. I don't have enough bandwidth for the onslaught.

    Duncan.

    1. Re:Techical info by duncangrisby · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, apart from a couple of small items (one of which the burglar had destroyed), I haven't got the things back.