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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."

31 of 561 comments (clear)

  1. British Court system is FAST! by xmas2003 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    For those that don't RTFA, the burgler broke into his flat on Feb 4th, 2005 ... and was sentenced 11 days later on Feb 15; the Brit's don't mess around!

    Note that the Slashdot "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along." certainly doesn't apply here ...

    P.S. Here's my lighthearted "webcam" pictures of a man who vandelized my christmas lights snowman ;-)

    --
    Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
    1. Re:British Court system is FAST! by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, but if the guy who set up the webcam had actually been in the house and tried to stop the burglar, he'd be the one in jail, at least until recently.

      Only if he'd, say, tied him up and set fire to him, or shot him dead when he was running away.

      You are allowed to use reasonable force to repel intruders, and always have been.

    2. Re:British Court system is FAST! by magarity · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the Brit's don't mess around!

      Yes, they do. The criminal in question was out on bail when committing this robbery and had 13 priors. For this, he gets all of 11 months? WTF, that's a pansy slap on the wrist for such a serial criminal.

    3. Re:British Court system is FAST! by prefect42 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yeah come on. If you mean the Tony Martin case it wasn't a rifle it was a shotgun, he is thought to have lied about where he shot the burglar (claiming it was inside on the stairs, but more likely was outside I think), and had in fact shot the kid in the back while he was running away.

      British law allows reasonable force, which doesn't specifically exclude killing him. Almost all the cases brought to court by the police, and thus the CPS have been thrown out. Recent advice to the police is the stop taking these cases to court unless it's clear that an offence has been committed.

      --

      jh

    4. Re:British Court system is FAST! by pe1rxq · · Score: 4, Informative

      3. The interesting bit here is that the system used is likely to have been GNU Motion (which means the machine running linux). He even left the thing running in debug mode where it shows the rectangle where the motion was picked up.

      I never really intended that as a debug mode...
      I added the rectangle to be able to quickly see in a frame what caused the events.
      But some might consider that debug info :)

      Jeroen

      --
      Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
    5. Re:British Court system is FAST! by 91degrees · · Score: 4, Informative

      Last year, Kenneth Faulkner shot and wounded a burglar. He assumed - incorrectly - that the burglar was armed since he had previously stolen guns from Mr Faulkner.

      The CPS decided not to prosecute since the assumption that his life was in danger was reasonable.

      Tony Martin shot and killed a burglar who was running away! His life was not in danger.

  2. 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*/

    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
    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!

  3. Serial burglar at 19... by garcia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It doesn't say a whole lot (and the victim agrees) when a serial burglar who had been imprisoned for burglary before and who was out on bail for yet another attempt only gets 11 months in prison.

    At 19 years old with several prior convictions and now this and they think that it will rehabilitate him to stick him in prison for another year?

    Glad that this guy was able to quickly solve his case (sad that he had to pay the price once before years ago) and get this guy behind bars but I'm sure it won't stop someone else from being burglarized by this guy again. :(

    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. Re:Serial burglar at 19... by garcia · · Score: 4, Informative

      See here.

      Looks good to me.

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

      but a hamburglar doesn't hamburgle, he robbles.

    4. Re:Serial burglar at 19... by cliffski · · Score: 4, Insightful

      don't forget on average he will serve only half his sentence. So even if he factors in the odd 8 months inside (full bed and board) given breaking into houses or a minimum wage job hes probably behaving rationally.
      Given the threat of 5 years seriously hard labour in prison with no TV, no radio, nothing but basic food water and a cell would he be as likely to break in again? I know I wouldn't.

      --
      DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
    5. Re:Serial burglar at 19... by lucabrasi999 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Whatt is going to rehabilitate him?

      I do agree with your sentiment on this issue. But, in this case:

      Police eventually tracked down Park, who has 33 previous convictions of theft, to Kingsway Flats in Cambridge where he tried to escape by climbing over the balcony on February 10.

      The guy has 33 convictions. Is there a point where rehabilitations can even work?

    6. 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. :-)

      --
      -- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz .@adgimnoprstu
    7. Re:Serial burglar at 19... by parliboy · · Score: 4, Informative

      burglarize (bûrgl-rz)

      1. To enter and steal from (a building or other premises).
      2. To commit burglary against: The second-floor tenants have been burglarized twice.

      -----

      burgle (bûrgl)

      To burglarize.

      --
      "You're never ready, just less unprepared."
    8. 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.

    9. Re:Serial burglar at 19... by EnglishTim · · Score: 4, Informative

      Having been driven to distraction by burgalrized, I did a little research and it turns out that both the words burglar and burglarized are only about 135 years old - before then there was only the word burgled. The first recorded occurrence of the world burgle in writing appeared in 1870 in a London newspaper, burglarized appearing a year later in a New York newspaper. It seems burgle caught on over here in the UK, whereas burlarizer became popular in the USA.

      Having grown up with burgle, I had always assumed that burglarized was just down to the American tendency to 'verbize' words - using the word 'leverage' instead of 'lever' for instance.

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

    Note to self: Next time, wear a mask.

    --
    TRHOnline - Staggering Towards Brilliance
  5. How to do this on a Mac by weave · · Score: 4, Informative
    Evocam is a great piece of software, and cheap. Allows you to define different zones on the image to trigger different actions, like upload pictures via ftp or email, its own streaming webcam software on an internal webpage, and other neat fun.

    I have mine record movements while out as well as speak "Intruder alert, intruder alert" hoping to scare any would-be burglers away while snapping their photo.

    Hopefully it will never be "needed."

    A great use for the new Mac Mini too!

  6. FYI by fizban · · Score: 4, Informative

    The victim, Duncan Grisby, is the developer of the excellent omniORB CORBA ORB.

    --

    +1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.

  7. 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...

  8. 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.

  9. ive done this before by tmckay87 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    this has happened to me before... sort of. a few years ago when i was 16 or so, i knew i was going to be bored later in the day at school, so i setup my webcam to record movement with a copy of meloris melcam i downloaded off the internet. I didn't notice anything wrong while I was watching it at school, but when I returned to my room I noticed I was missing about $50. The maids that my mom hired for that day had just come to our house, so I suspected them. I checked the video that my program had saved on my HD and there they were. They went and found my wallet which was in my dresser and removed the $50 I had been saving, right in front of the camera. Apparently they arent the brightest of people as the camera was clearly visible and my computer isnt too much quieter than a jet.

  10. I'm not usually this sarcastic... by benhocking · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You're a genius! If we legalize drugs, there will never be another reason to commit crimes. All crimes can be tracked to this single cause! Cop killers - the cops were trying to keep them away from their inalienable right to get loaded. Wife beaters - because drugs are illegal, the perpetrators needed some other way to amuse themselves. We should all sign a petition to make drugs legal immediately!

    Sigh. OK, now seriously - is there any evidence behind your first claim or any data to back up your second claim, or is this just a dead horse that you're fond of beating?

    --
    Ben Hocking
    Need a professional organizer?
  11. 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 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.

    2. 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.

  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. 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?