Attempted trailer theft across the street from me

[wtimothyholman]

Last Friday my neighbor called and told me that someone had tried to steal the trailer that his contractor had left parked in front of his home overnight. The wheel chocks were missing, and a lock was broken on the hitch. He knows about my camera system and asked if I could identify who did it.

I checked my cameras and saw the attempted theft by three perps in a pickup truck, but could see no license plate. Either the truck had a temporary paper tag, or else the plate was deliberately removed or covered up. On a hunch, I decided to check my LPR records for a white pickup truck over the past couple of days, thinking that perhaps the thieves scouted out the trailer before attempting the theft that night.

Bingo! It was an old Chevy Silverado with a paper license tag. Here's a YouTube video I made up for my neighbor to provide to his contractor. The contractor has filed a police report. The missing wheel chocks cost about $240, plus the lock was destroyed. He still isn't sure why they gave up on stealing the trailer, but is grateful that he didn't lose another $2500 because of it.

The only question now is whether the police will follow up on the report. After seeing the load of lumber in the truck bed, my neighbor plans to visit some nearby construction sites tomorrow to see if he can find the Silverado.

 

[TonyR]

Great work!

You likely noticed that the passenger's shirt is orange, very likely for visibility as required by his employer for on-site or in the roadway. Hopefully the cops will be looking at construction jobs, both private property and in the roadway, in the vicinity that would maybe lead the thieves in passing it by in the first place and then it stuck in their minds to check on later.

Also, white trucks of low trim level are also the type generally used by contractors and even municipal crews.

 

[wtimothyholman]

Great work!

You likely noticed that the passenger's shirt is orange, very likely for visibility as required by his employer for on-site or in the roadway. Hopefully the cops will be looking at construction jobs, both private property and in the roadway, in the vicinity that would maybe lead the thieves in passing it by in the first place and then it stuck in their minds to check on later.

Also, white trucks of low trim level are also the type generally used by contractors and even municipal crews.

Those are excellent points. I had noticed the load of lumber in the images at 4:30 p.m., and my first thought was "construction guys leaving the job". But the thought that this could be a contractor's truck hadn't occurred to me. The orange jackets also didn't click, as orange is one of the team colors of the state university, so you see it everywhere. But it all makes sense. I will pass this on to my neighbor. There is a lot of road work going on in our area as well as construction work.

But if this truck does belong to a local contractor, so much the better. My neighbor's private contractor can show the owner this video and demand the wheel chocks be returned, and the damage to the trailer be paid for. Even if the police don't act, I suspect they'll want to make this problem go away.

 

[bradner]

Great detective work! At ~1:14 into your video the daytime shot is quite blurred with the truck driving by, since lighting is good during the day, have you tried a faster exposure setting to reduce that blur. Great LPR shot BTW! Need to prune those branches to reduce the IR glare too LOL. Neighbor is lucky to have you there with your setup.

My thought is that these guys probably work nearby too. I'm wouldn't be surprised that a drive around the area at say 9am (not coffee or lunch time) you may see that truck at a worksite.

 

[wtimothyholman]

Great detetive work! At ~1:14 into your video the daytime shot is quite blurred with the truck driving by, since lighting is good during the day, have you tried a faster exposure setting to reduce that blur. Great LPR shot BTW! Need to prune those branches to reduce the IR glare too LOL. Neighbor is lucky to have you there with your setup.

The wide-angle front yard and front east cameras are on default settings. You're right, I could adjust that, but since the PTZ front camera is zoomed in and already has fast exposure settings, I haven't bothered. I need to consider writing some software to replicate the Dahua Sunrise-Sunset utility on my Mac, so that it can be applied to all my cameras. Otherwise I'll be having to constantly adjust day / night settings for all the cameras (exclusive of the LPR cameras, which already use the utility). Right now I only do it manually for the PTZ.

I actually paid for a pretty drastic trimming of that poplar earlier this summer. It grows like a weed. I won't bother trimming it again until next spring, as the leaves will be gone entirely in two weeks.

 

[bradner]

The wide-angle front yard and front east cameras are on default settings. You're right, I could adjust that, but since the PTZ front camera is zoomed in and already has fast exposure settings, I haven't bothered. I need to consider writing some software to replicate the Dahua Sunrise-Sunset utility on my Mac, so that it can be applied to all my cameras. Otherwise I'll be having to constantly adjust day / night settings for all the cameras. Right now I only do it for the PTZ.

I actually paid for a pretty drastic trimming of that poplar earlier this summer. It grows like a weed. I won't bother trimming it again until next spring, as the leaves will be gone entirely in two weeks.

I'm not nitpicking, just looking at it from the angle of trying to get the best shot at all times.

I get anal with my cameras since I want them to give me a good shot when possible - or else why do I have them LOL. Those two cams can't have a day/night profile in their own UI? I have a few of my Dahua's on day/night profile and every couple months I just need to adjust for the changing sunrise/sunset times, especially this time of year. I suppose I should add them to the sunrise/sunset utility that my LPR camera uses but I've been lazy.

 

[wtimothyholman]

I'm not nitpicking, just looking at it from the angle of trying to get the best shot at all times.

I get anal with my cameras since I want them to give me a good shot when possible - or else why do I have them LOL. Those two cams can't have a day/night profile in their own UI? I have a few of my Dahua's on day/night profile and every couple months I just need to adjust for the changing sunrise/sunset times, especially this time of year. I suppose I should add them to the sunrise/sunset utility that my LPR camera uses but I've been lazy.

No, these are all Dahua cameras. They have day / night profiles, but you have to tweak the start / stop times pretty regularly as the seasons change, and I haven't bothered. The Dahua Sunrise-Sunset utility didn't work with them when I tried it. I have the documentation for the camera APIs; it's just a matter of getting around to writing the utility. Too many other things to juggle. As long as I get good LPR images and short exposures on the PTZ images, I'm happy for now.

 

[TonyR]

More thoughts:

That's a long bed ( 8 ft.) truck; that lumber looks like pre-cut 8 foot douglas fir or clear pine 2x4's sold at your local big box store or lumber yard, used in wall framing, not fencing since they're not pressure treated.

I'd be looking for a new garage, room addition, re-model or the like.

 

[wtimothyholman]

More thoughts:

That's a long bed ( 8 ft.) truck; that lumber looks like pre-cut 8 foot douglas fir or clear pine 2x4's sold at your local big box store or lumber yard, used in wall framing, not fencing since they're not pressure treated.

I'd be looking for a new garage, room addition, re-model or the like.

There are multiple construction projects in the midtown area, but I suspect that the site these guys are working at is close by. They came back with the third man just 11 minutes after their first visit. Given the round trip, that's about 5 minutes or less each way. So I wonder: is there a construction site nearby that is on a tight schedule, such that they have men working there very late? The first two guys could have driven over there, picked him up, then came back again.

It seems to fit, and there's one place in particular (a large apartment / townhouse development) that is just a few blocks away with a lot of workers on site. My neighbor will be checking there first.

 

[crw030]

Hope the authorities get them! I never have this much good video of criminal elements in my area, hopefully the local construction company is identified, reimburses your neighbor and sends these guys to the unemployment line. Since it was only attempted theft I guess it is probably a misdemeanor for the damage and stolen chocks? But here's hoping the would be thieves get what's coming to them.

 

[wtimothyholman]

Since it was only attempted theft I guess it is probably a misdemeanor for the damage and stolen chocks?

Unfortunately, yes. There is also the problem that none of the guys in the video can be positively identified, so of course whoever was in the truck will claim, "It wasn't me!". This is going to sit on someone's desk at the local PD for a long time.

I think the value of this video may be in bluffing the perps into returning the chocks and paying for the damage.

 

[wtimothyholman]

Update: I spoke to my neighbor. The contractor he hired spent two hours yesterday driving around various construction sites nearby, looking for the truck and asking if anyone had seen it, with no luck.

Given that the truck had never passed by house during the day before Thursday @ 4:30 p.m. (at least for the previous 60 days, according to my LPR records), and that the truck was loaded with lumber at the END of the day, this leads to another possibility: these guys aren't construction workers, they're thieves who target construction sites. With the truck and their orange vests, they "blend in". If the regular work crew quits at 4 p.m., and they show up 30 minutes later, no one driving by will give them a second thought.

With that in mind, I've sent the Youtube link to a detective I've worked with previously, just in case he's been getting reports of construction sites being ripped off.

 

[windguy]

@wtimothyholman - Thanks for sharing - great camera work. Hope these dirt bags are caught.
When you first mentioned the lumber in the bed, I too thought it might be stolen from a construction site.
Keep us posted if you learn more.