Cooler thief hit neighbors house

[StratRider]

I've been tinkering with LPR stuff but temporarily using an Amcrest IP2M-853EW PTZ to see if I could get it to swing fast enough to snag a plate.
The cams on the side of the house have zones set and then tell the PTZ to swing and zoom in - it has been working near perfectly during the day but I can see where the downfalls are so this is not optimum and dedicated cams will be better.
I have it default to watching my truck and zoom in when called just long enough to catch a plate.
Fortunately for my neighbor, I had just sat down and a truck stopped in the road - driver hopped out and left his door open.
Camera pulls back to the default position and I can see the guy through the bushes but in their driveway and he walks out with a cooler.
Taking over cam control myself I started to zoom but it was pointed wrong, so I hit a Preset at the stop sign 300 ft away to make sure I got a shot of his plate.
Went and talked to the neighbors who called the cops and I burned this video to a CD which he gave to the cops also.
It doesn't matter that this is of small value but it ticked me off a lot.
This is why I started coming to this Forum last August or so and I'm glad to see it paying off so quickly.
I thought I read that youtube links were better than uploads here so here it is.

 

[TonyR]

Cannot see it; insure you made it public or unlisted, embed the link.

 

[StratRider]

oh, it's 5:30 in the afternoon and looking right toward the sun

Cannot see it; insure you made it public or unlisted, embed the link.

My first time - seems I didn't see that page and finish it off - fixed it in the first post now I hope.

 

[wittaj]

Wow that is bold. Let us know if the police do anything.

 

[Parley]

In California most police departments will not bother with this. The value is under $1000.

 

[StratRider]

they knew it was of little value before they ever showed up.
With this much evidence though, I only hope that they pay him a visit and maybe bring the guys cooler back.
He needs to be taught a lesson though.

 

[Parley]

they knew it was of little value before they ever showed up.
With this much evidence though, I only hope that they pay him a visit and maybe bring the guys cooler back.
He needs to be taught a lesson though.

I agree with you 100%. I am sure Texas is different from California outside of maybe Austin.

 

[CCTVCam]

As you didn't get a facial shot I'm guessing his lawyer will simply say it wasn't him and that he had a party (hence the cooler target) and someone from the party must have taken his keys and car unbeknown to him. Hopefully not, but I fear this could be the outcome. Great catch though. 100% agree, he should be getting prosecuted if possible. In the Uk we have so many cameras it's likely he'd have been caught on a traffic camera driving the vehicle although whether they#d even look for such a minor crime is doubtful.

 

[vandyman]

Hmmm. A fifty thousand dollar truck stealing a thirty dollar cooler.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

 

[IAmATeaf]

Stupid question but what is a cooler?

 

[gwminor48]

I'm not sure what they are called in the UK, it is an ice chest to put drinks, etc in ice and keep it cool, or cold.

 

[TonyR]

Stupid question but what is a cooler?

Answered by @gwminor48 ....you guys would likely put it in the "boot".

 

[IAmATeaf]

Oh like a cool box, strange thing to stop and steal. Was it visible? Maybe he thought it was being thrown out?

 

[spankdog]

Just a guess here but it was probably a Yeti or similarly expensive cooler. Usually $300+

 

[TonyR]

He had to walk w-a-a-y up in there, right next to garage, he knew it exactly where it was, IMO.
Either he lives nearby and has noted it before and knows what vehicle(s) to look for to determine when no one is at home. Or he was there before and knew where the owner leaves it often....

I'd scan older footage to see if he scoped the area often in the recent past.

Dude has a burnt out right rear brake light, too.

I detest thieves !

 

[wtimothyholman]

In California most police departments will not bother with this. The value is under $1000.

Most police departments in larger U.S. cities will not bother. Nine days ago a guy in a pickup truck drove into the alleyway behind a neighbor's house one block over, and stole a quarter pipe skateboard ramp (worth about $450) from the backyard in the middle of the day. One of my other neighbors with a camera pointed at the alleyway recorded the truck driving off with the ramp, but didn't record the license plate. He contacted me, and as it turned out the thief drove by my house to get to the alleyway, and my LPR cameras recorded the plate number. I also got an excellent shot of half the thief's face that was not blocked by the windshield.

I turned all of this information over to the police. The result? Nothing. The victimized neighbor has never been contacted by the detective assigned to the case. This is as open-and-shut an identification of the perpetrator as you could hope for. If the police got a search warrant, they'd probably find quite a few stolen items at the thief's residence. But the value of the ramp isn't enough to make it qualify as a felony, only as a misdemeanor. The police have better things to do.

What is especially frustrating is that I live in an area with fairly high property values. Collectively we pay a substantial chunk of revenue to the city in the form of property taxes. There's a precinct station about a mile and a half away. It might as well be on the Moon for all the police presence we typically see in our neighborhood.

 

[Parley]

This is the beginning of the downfall of civilization. It starts incrementally like this with small things.

 

[vandyman]

Most police departments in larger U.S. cities will not bother. Nine days ago a guy in a pickup truck drove into the alleyway behind a neighbor's house one block over, and stole a quarter pipe skateboard ramp (worth about $450) from the backyard in the middle of the day. One of my other neighbors with a camera pointed at the alleyway recorded the truck driving off with the ramp, but didn't record the license plate. He contacted me, and as it turned out the thief drove by my house to get to the alleyway, and my LPR cameras recorded the plate number. I also got an excellent shot of half the thief's face that was not blocked by the windshield.

I turned all of this information over to the police. The result? Nothing. The victimized neighbor has never been contacted by the detective assigned to the case. This is as open-and-shut an identification of the perpetrator as you could hope for. If the police got a search warrant, they'd probably find quite a few stolen items at the thief's residence. But the value of the ramp isn't enough to make it qualify as a felony, only as a misdemeanor. The police have better things to do.

What is especially frustrating is that I live in an area with fairly high property values. Collectively we pay a substantial chunk of revenue to the city in the form of property taxes. There's a precinct station about a mile and a half away. It might as well be on the Moon for all the police presence we typically see in our neighborhood.

The real problem is that people like me will get pissed off and take matters on their own and get in trouble for trying to do the right thing.

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using Tapatalk

 

[Podagrower]

127 degrees? Stealing that cooler was self defense.

 

[Frankenscript]

Well done! And I am loving the PTZ action you've got going. Funny thought: when I saw the indicator of 127 degrees I thought: damn it's hot there! Before realizing it was the direction it was pointed.