Zoneminder helped in an arrest!
Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 12:58 am
I'm not sure that this is the right forum, but I don't see an ideal forum for great experiences with zone minder.
I think most of us set up our systems partly for fun or because they think that the video may help us if something happens to our property some day. I mostly set it up for fun, and because my wife was worried someone may steal our mail for ID theft.
However, in mid December (2011) a couple of thieves walked into my driveway and tried the doors on both of my cars. They found one of my cars unlocked as apparently my key fob had a weak battery and had not reliably been locking my door (now corrected). Luckily they found nothing inside and stole nothing from me. However, I insisted on a police report with the cops and provided all of my photos, and video which I compiled from the photos. From two camera angles I had hundreds of photos covering the 20 seconds that this lasted.
In late January, I contacted the cops to find out what had come of my report. To my supprise they had implemented an effort of bicycle cops patrolling the area between 1 and 4 am (probably longer, but that was the target time) as there was a rash of thefts reported. They found someone at 3am one day and searched their backpack and found electronics. Later they had reports of theft of items matching the contents of the backpack and went back to talk with the people they found that morning, but nothing came of that at that time. Later one was arrested for other reasons, and the cops recognized him from my video. He showed him the photo and asked if he knew who it was, to which he said "I have no idea". Then the cops got smart and checked on his jail phone call recordings. He had called his girlfriend and stated "they have a picture of me breaking into a car". Bam, they have a confession. He has now been tied to about a dozen of these over a months time, and has already been arrainged for on least six counts, with more expected.
Go zoneminder! I had a "tabletop" recorder before I started using zoneminder and I could never just sit down and watch a days events as it took too long. With zomeminder, I have daily videos created with a script such that when I get home I can just go to a website and click on a video and watch every movement in my yard for the whole day in about 90 seconds.
I think most of us set up our systems partly for fun or because they think that the video may help us if something happens to our property some day. I mostly set it up for fun, and because my wife was worried someone may steal our mail for ID theft.
However, in mid December (2011) a couple of thieves walked into my driveway and tried the doors on both of my cars. They found one of my cars unlocked as apparently my key fob had a weak battery and had not reliably been locking my door (now corrected). Luckily they found nothing inside and stole nothing from me. However, I insisted on a police report with the cops and provided all of my photos, and video which I compiled from the photos. From two camera angles I had hundreds of photos covering the 20 seconds that this lasted.
In late January, I contacted the cops to find out what had come of my report. To my supprise they had implemented an effort of bicycle cops patrolling the area between 1 and 4 am (probably longer, but that was the target time) as there was a rash of thefts reported. They found someone at 3am one day and searched their backpack and found electronics. Later they had reports of theft of items matching the contents of the backpack and went back to talk with the people they found that morning, but nothing came of that at that time. Later one was arrested for other reasons, and the cops recognized him from my video. He showed him the photo and asked if he knew who it was, to which he said "I have no idea". Then the cops got smart and checked on his jail phone call recordings. He had called his girlfriend and stated "they have a picture of me breaking into a car". Bam, they have a confession. He has now been tied to about a dozen of these over a months time, and has already been arrainged for on least six counts, with more expected.
Go zoneminder! I had a "tabletop" recorder before I started using zoneminder and I could never just sit down and watch a days events as it took too long. With zomeminder, I have daily videos created with a script such that when I get home I can just go to a website and click on a video and watch every movement in my yard for the whole day in about 90 seconds.