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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."

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

    Note to self: Next time, wear a mask.

    --
    TRHOnline - Staggering Towards Brilliance
  4. 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.

  5. 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...

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

    but a hamburglar doesn't hamburgle, he robbles.

  7. 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.

  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. 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.

  10. 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?