Cooler thief hit neighbors house

StratRider

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That is awesome - amazing what just a simple phone call does!
Sure - when it is backed up with what I think was overwhelming camera evidence. Glad this forum exists to learn from.
The guy didn't have a Facebook page - I was going there next if I could find him and if the cops dropped the ball.
 
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Doubtful.
I have to agree. The thief is probably the kind of smarmy little twit who plays the Eddie Haskell role in front of his parents and authority figures, but won't hesitate to cheat or steal when no one is looking. He's the kind of guy who will find a lost wallet, and will take all the cash out of it before turning it in because he figures he "deserves it" for getting it back to you.

Trespassing to steal someone's personal property isn't the type of behavior that being caught once will cure. He's done this sort of thing before; he just wasn't recorded doing it. He'll give his parents some lame excuse about what happened, and promise never to do it again ... until he does it again.
 
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I post everything on next door and Ipcamtalk. Hoping someone will recognize the degenerates. It's just like fishing, most of the time you catch nothing, but you keep on fishing because one day you will get the catch of your life.
 

CCTVCam

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Agree with @wtimothyholman above.

Because your 8MP camera is likely not zoomed in to see just license plates. The FOV is likley wide to "see as much area as possible" but you sacrifice detail at distance. It becomes even harder at night.

I run a number of LPR cameras at 80-120ft all 2MP.

View attachment 64397 View attachment 64398 View attachment 64399 View attachment 64400 View attachment 64401
Exactly this. What is important is pixel density. 8mp spread over a very large area is less dense than 2mp spread over a very tight zoom. Hence why you get a better picture with a zoomed 2mp than a wide angle 8mp. Easiest way for someone new to cameras / CCTV to envisage this is imagine taking a felt tip pen and putting 50 dots on a piece of A4 paper. Then take the same pen and put 30 dots on a postcard. The dots on the postcard will be closer together even though there are fewer of them. The reason is the area they're spread over is far smaller so the pattern of dots is denser. Place the dots in a pattern such as picture or shape, and the picture or shape is clearer when the dots are closer. Photos and videos are just dots (pixels). Not trying to teach anyone to suck eggs. Description is for the unitiated only.
 
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CCTVCam

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I have to agree. The thief is probably the kind of smarmy little twit who plays the Eddie Haskell role in front of his parents and authority figures, but won't hesitate to cheat or steal when no one is looking. He's the kind of guy who will find a lost wallet, and will take all the cash out of it before turning it in because he figures he "deserves it" for getting it back to you.

Trespassing to steal someone's personal property isn't the type of behavior that being caught once will cure. He's done this sort of thing before; he just wasn't recorded doing it. He'll give his parents some lame excuse about what happened, and promise never to do it again ... until he does it again.
I hope is father is 6ft 8 and gives sh*t when he gets home. That's the only way he'll learn a lesson from this. As Looney pointed out, it's unlikely just returning it will be sufficient unless it was his 1st time and the close shave scares him to death. If he's done it before, it's likely he'll just regard it as a close shave and be more careful to check for cameras at the next house.
 

looney2ns

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I hope is father is 6ft 8 and gives sh*t when he gets home. That's the only way he'll learn a lesson from this. As Looney pointed out, it's unlikely just returning it will be sufficient unless it was his 1st time and the close shave scares him to death. If he's done it before, it's likely he'll just regard it as a close shave and be more careful to check for cameras at the next house.
Unless he's a chip off the ole block.
I once had a business where I had to deal with the teenage set at times. Usually, if you have a problem child, call the parents, when the parents arrive I saw exactly why the "child" acts the way he does.
I quit calling the parents, and called the popo instead after a while. Heard some scary stories from some of the officers dealing with teenage children and their parents. And this was 25 years ago, in a middle to upper social-economic area.
 

CCTVCam

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I know exactly what you mean Looney. In a local shop a parent kicked off when they wouldn't sell her cigarettes for her 14 yr old daughter. She even asked which ones she wanted in front of the assistant. Then she tried it a 2nd time a few months later this time with about 8 kids with her. The answer was the same, no. However, when the parent doesn't care about the kid getting lung cancer and addicted, how can you expect the kid to know better. As you say, possibly the same here.
 

ltdover

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I have a problem with this sentiment. A crime is a crime. Just how big does it have to be for the police to take notice? So a few hundred dollars is not 'worth' it? If that idea was true, then why enforce traffic laws? But most people with warrants are caught in traffic stops, that's why.

*Maybe off-topic, but because traffic fines generate revenue for the enforcing jurisdiction - (and possibly the State - in Texas, depending on the roadway). Recovering your neighbor's cooler does not. True, fines collected usually go in the General Fund, but it is revenue just the same. As a former cop, I know we didn't have "quotas" per se, but we did have "productivity ratings" that were criticized if they failed to indicate a proportionate amount of traffic-related interactions with the "public". And yes, they can lead to follow-on investigations.
 

MrSurly

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This is a great read for me as I have only just ordered the parts to begin my system. It is informative on many levels and also encouraging and satisfying because of the outcome. I hope to have any part of my system eventually perform as well.
I will be trying to learn also about your method of targeting the ptz by using the other cams’ motion detection. That is cool stuff.
 
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Glad it all worked out!
Amazed that some US police don't react unless the loss is over $1000 or so. If you know this as a local thief , you can have a merry old life making sure you stay under the threshold
 
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Glad it all worked out!
Amazed that some US police don't react unless the loss is over $1000 or so. If you know this as a local thief , you can have a merry old life making sure you stay under the threshold
Past a certain size, property crime ceases to be a crime in most U.S. cities. In California they've taken it to an entirely new level, as they have legalized property crime statewide.
 
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handinpalm

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Past a certain size, property crimes ceases to be a crime in most U.S. cities. In California they've taken it to an entirely new level, as they have legalized property crime statewide.
Maybe CA will be the first State to start a vigilante justice system, seems like that is where everything is starting to go with all the crap going on.
 

StratRider

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This is a great read for me as I have only just ordered the parts to begin my system. It is informative on many levels and also encouraging and satisfying because of the outcome. I hope to have any part of my system eventually perform as well.
I will be trying to learn also about your method of targeting the ptz by using the other cams’ motion detection. That is cool stuff.
I noted early on that using the PTZ for LPR is just an experiment to see if it could be done and in my situation it works pretty well but I have seen the flaws in this system also and highly recommend just using 2 stationary 12x zoom cams instead for the LPR and then maybe just use the PTZ for a more overall view of objects in motion. The Blue Iris software makes using one cam to control another pretty easy.
 
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