To catch a thief

cc wrote: <Snip story of [censored] people>

Quoted message said:

It seems that his visits to our building are quite
frequent . Does anyone have creative thoughts as to
catching (or punishing) him, outside of posting up with my
shiny headlamp unguarded?

Cheers, Colin

How about a web cam and laptop (or desktop) indoors at a
strategic location looking out a window at some bait
arranged so the perp would have to face the camera? There's
cheap shareware security camera software that I messed with
a little for a baby monitor that will make it motion
activated. Maybe just a locked bike with an old bag on it
so you don't have that much to loose. If you have access
use a nicer camcorder (zoom) as a web cam or just
standalone to tape.

Depending on your relationship with security and/or local
cops you could maybe involve them too, or maybe not until
you have good evidence. Of course it would be best to have
video and a captive, but then you risk them being a freak
and attacking you and/or being armed.

Good luck, and I could look to see what the software was if
you want. I don't remember offhand.

Matt

Quoted message said:

Depending on your relationship with security and/or local
cops you could maybe involve them too, or maybe not until
you have good evidence. Of

course

Quoted message said:

it would be best to have video and a captive, but then you
risk them being

a

Quoted message said:

freak and attacking you and/or being armed.

Good luck, and I could look to see what the software was
if you want. I don't remember offhand.

Good thoughts. I would love to catch him, but would also
worry of course that he's armed. My labmate used to fight
professionally (I've seen some of his taped fights, which
frankly scare the [censored] out of me), but neither of us are
usually packing (note sarcasm: Colin hates guns).

I'd like to set up a booby-trap, but stories of liability
and lawsuits for thieves have set me against that idea. Hmmm
. . . unless it was very well-executed.

cc said:

The area around my lab at campus is generally quiet, and
we've never had too many problems with bikes before.
Recently, however, there has been a rash of thefts. My
friend's new HR was stolen from outside the window of a
class we were taking (his fault for not locking it, but
amazing that someone picked it up from under our noses in
the 1hr (?!) that we were in class). A friend of mine lost
his front wheel a week ago, my labmate his seat and light
yesterday. Keep in mind this is all just outside of my
laboratory.

whehehe, you should visit holland some time. If you leave
your bike and you only *blink* once, it is gone 🙂

But to solve your problem: ask your friend/colleagues
around for a webcam (load of people bought one but never
use them) and hook it up to a computer. Install some 'spy'
software which captures images when movement is detected
(there is even very nice software in which you can setup
that it only records if there is movement in a specific
area of the image).

Another option is to hook up a videocamera to a ordinary VCR
which has an 4 hours tape in it and supports longplay. You
can record 8 hours with it which should cover most time of
the day. Use 5 tapes so you can find out the thief if
someone reports a stolen bike even after 3 days or so.

cc said:

Anyone ever caught a bike thief? I'd love to hear your
story . . to make me feel better, and perhaps quell my
desire for murder. I'm a very laidback guy, but thieves
make my blood boil.

This won't help you catch your theif but we had a little
luck about two months ago.

My friend's Gary Fisher was stolen about a year ago from
a shed in his back garden when they levered the door off
and broke through his lock. It was all reported to the
police but needless to say he didn't hear anything from
them. He did however get £800 from the insurance company
for his bike.

The good bit came the other month, when my girlfriend and I
were walking home past our local pub, and i saw some guy
messing around on a bike that looked just like Dave's GF.
The guy was parading it to his friends who were drinking on
the outside tables, attempting wheelies and stuff. We
hurried home and I called Dave so he could come and take a
look. He confirmed that it was his bike, so we rang the
police and staked the place out to keep an eye on him. The
police came about half hour later, and apprehended the guy
and the bike, took them down the station. To cut a long
story short, it seems that the guy was able to prove that
he'd bought the bike from someone else, for £60, so he was
freed, but the bike was returned to Dave (he had to prove it
was his with photos, frame numbers, receipt etc), 10 months
after he lost it! He hasn't got round to telling the
insurance company yet either...

Not often you get a nice ending like that is it?

--
Mark

Mark (UK) said:

cc wrote: and the bike, took them down the station. To cut
a long story short, it seems that the guy was able to
prove that he'd bought the bike from someone else, for
£60, so he was freed, but the bike was returned to Dave
(he had to prove it was his with photos, frame numbers,
receipt etc), 10 months after he lost it! He hasn't got
round to telling the insurance company yet either...

Not often you get a nice ending like that is it? Mark

nice story 🙂

But technically your friend is a thief himself now. When the
insurance company paid out for his new bike, they also
became the owner of the old bike in case it is retrieved
(well that's the way it goes in the Netherlands, check your
insurrance policy).

But chances are very slim I guess that someone of the
insurance will check it.

T-V said:

Mark (UK) said:

cc wrote: and the bike, took them down the station. To
cut a long story short, it seems that the guy was able to
prove that he'd bought the bike from someone else, for
£60, so he was freed, but the bike was returned to Dave
(he had to prove it was his with photos, frame numbers,
receipt etc), 10 months after he lost it! He hasn't got
round to telling the insurance company yet either...

Not often you get a nice ending like that is it? Mark

nice story 🙂

But technically your friend is a thief himself now.

yes, be careful of karma....

cc said:

Although it's quite inconvenient due to my setup, I guess
I will just have to take everything indoors. [censored].

My boyfriend had his locked bike stolen out of his
locked lab.

Not much more he could have done to avoid that. His new plan
is to not leave the bike anywhere until he has perfected his
mobile bike charger. He's going to electrify the bike like
my horse's fence. Not enough to hurt, just enough to thwart.
Typical MIT solution.

-Charlotte

MattB said:

cc wrote: <Snip story of [censored] people>

Quoted message said:

It seems that his visits to our building are quite
frequent . Does anyone have creative thoughts as to
catching (or punishing) him, outside of posting up with
my shiny headlamp unguarded?

Cheers, Colin

How about a web cam and laptop (or desktop) indoors at a
strategic location...

tinyurl.com3du6jOpen ↗

Friend of mine has been thinking about getting one of these
to get some information about 4-wheeler riders who poach our
singletrack.

Kinda costy, and you'll probably have lots of pictures taken
of innocent people outside of a lab at Stanford. But this is
probably better solution than a web-cam/laptop combo, at
least for getting pictures of the *$&%%@%^& crook.
--
Tom Purvis - arkansasvalley.nettpurvisOpen ↗
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts."-Bertrand Russell

pas said:

T-V said:

Mark (UK) said:

cc wrote: and the bike, took them down the station. To
cut a long story short, it seems that the guy was able
to prove that he'd bought the bike from someone else,
for £60, so he was freed, but the bike was returned to
Dave (he had to prove it was his with photos, frame
numbers, receipt etc), 10 months after he lost it! He
hasn't got round to telling the insurance company yet
either...

Not often you get a nice ending like that is it? Mark

nice story 🙂

But technically your friend is a thief himself now.

yes, be careful of karma....

And laws!

"T-V" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Mark (UK) said:

cc wrote: and the bike, took them down the station. To
cut a long story short, it seems that the guy was able
to prove that he'd bought the bike from

someone

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

else, for £60, so he was freed, but the bike was
returned to Dave (he

had to

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

prove it was his with photos, frame numbers, receipt
etc), 10 months

after

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

he lost it! He hasn't got round to telling the insurance
company yet either...

Not often you get a nice ending like that is it? Mark

nice story 🙂

But technically your friend is a thief himself now.

technically so are insurance companies hehehe.

Charlotte said:

cc said:

Although it's quite inconvenient due to my setup, I guess
I will just have to take everything indoors. [censored].

My boyfriend had his locked bike stolen out of his
locked lab.

Not much more he could have done to avoid that. His new
plan is to not leave the bike anywhere until he has
perfected his mobile bike charger. He's going to electrify
the bike like my horse's fence. Not enough to hurt, just
enough to thwart. Typical MIT solution.

-Charlotte

Remember that guy in Florida several years back. He
electrified a fence type structure above his pawn shop (or
something like that), because he had been repeatedly broken
into. The next guy to try died in the process, I think the
shop owner was taken to court, probably by the family of the
dead thief.

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove ".nospam" to reply)

On 2004-06-22, Charlotte penned:

Quoted message said:

Not much more he could have done to avoid that. His new
plan is to not leave the bike anywhere until he has
perfected his mobile bike charger. He's going to electrify
the bike like my horse's fence. Not enough to hurt, just
enough to thwart. Typical MIT solution.

When he figures it out, let me know.

--
monique

"Mark (UK)" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

cc said:

Anyone ever caught a bike thief? I'd love to hear your
story . . to make me feel better, and perhaps quell my
desire for murder. I'm a very laidback guy, but thieves
make my blood boil.

This won't help you catch your theif but we had a little
luck about two months ago.

My friend's Gary Fisher was stolen about a year ago from a
shed in his

back

Quoted message said:

garden when they levered the door off and broke through
his lock. It was

all

Quoted message said:

reported to the police but needless to say he didn't hear
anything from them. He did however get £800 from the
insurance company for his bike.

The good bit came the other month, when my girlfriend and
I were walking home past our local pub, and i saw some guy
messing around on a bike that looked just like Dave's GF.
The guy was parading it to his friends who

were

Quoted message said:

drinking on the outside tables, attempting wheelies and
stuff. We hurried home and I called Dave so he could come
and take a look. He confirmed that it was his bike, so we
rang the police and staked the place out to keep an eye on
him. The police came about half hour later, and
apprehended the guy and the bike, took them down the
station. To cut a long story short, it seems that the guy
was able to prove that he'd bought the bike from

someone

Quoted message said:

else, for £60, so he was freed, but the bike was returned
to Dave (he had

to

Quoted message said:

prove it was his with photos, frame numbers, receipt etc),
10 months after he lost it! He hasn't got round to telling
the insurance company yet either...

Not often you get a nice ending like that is it?

--
Mark

My KHS Comp was stolen by a painters helper, along with some
other stuff from our house including my wife's engagement
ring. We and the police questioned the painters fairly
thoroughly but it seems nobody knew anything.

When your bike is stolen I think its human nature to notice
every bike you see anywhere, just in case it's yours. About
a month and a thousand noticed bikes later I am driving
along this road and spot a guy and girl walking along with a
bike, and dammit its mine! They go into a building and leave
the bike outside. I am practically shaking with excitement
and anger at this point but its not that simple, theres alot
more at stake than just the bike. No cell phone with me so I
drove home quickly (a few blocks away). Thanks to a calm
collected wife, who said 'phone the police'. I told them
they had to move quickly if they were going to catch these
folks, and amazingly they
did. I went back to stake the place out and within a few
minutes there were the cops. The guy and the girl
claimed the bike belonged to their friend who turned
out to be one of the painters helpers. We got the bike
and the ring back (the ring was a longer story
involving a pawn shop and I won't go into it here), but
some other stuff was never recovered. However the
police also charged this guy with two other break and
enters, once they investigated him more fully. He was
convicted. Very satisfying. Very lucky to have been in
the right place at the right time.

Sorry to hear about your on-going problems with this thief,
I like the camcorder idea, there has to be some way of
identifying this thief, if he keeps coming back to the same
place he's giving you an opportunity to catch him. Use it!

Sniffinvinyl
----------------
Remain sane, cycle your brains out . . .

T-V said:

Mark (UK) said:

cc wrote: and the bike, took them down the station. To
cut a long story short, it seems that the guy was able to
prove that he'd bought the bike from someone else, for
£60, so he was freed, but the bike was returned to Dave
(he had to prove it was his with photos, frame numbers,
receipt etc), 10 months after he lost it! He hasn't got
round to telling the insurance company yet either...

Not often you get a nice ending like that is it? Mark

nice story 🙂

But technically your friend is a thief himself now. When
the insurance company paid out for his new bike, they also
became the owner of the old bike in case it is retrieved
(well that's the way it goes in the Netherlands, check
your insurrance policy).

I discussed this with him at the time, but of course
it's up to him, and i guess he hasn't had time to take
care of it yet.

--
Mark

SniffinVinyl said:

When your bike is stolen I think its human nature to
notice every bike you see anywhere, just in case it's
yours. About a month and a thousand noticed bikes later I
am driving along this road and spot a guy and girl walking
along with a bike, and dammit its mine! They go into a
building and leave the bike outside. I am practically
shaking with excitement and anger at this point but its
not that simple, theres alot more at stake than just the
bike. No cell phone with me so I drove home quickly (a few
blocks away). Thanks to a calm collected wife, who said
'phone the police'. I told them they had to move quickly
if they were going to catch these folks, and amazingly
they did. I went back to stake the place out and within a
few minutes there were the cops. The guy and the girl
claimed the bike belonged to their friend who turned out
to be one of the painters helpers. We got the bike and the
ring back (the ring was a longer story involving a pawn
shop and I won't go into it here), but some other stuff
was never recovered. However the police also charged this
guy with two other break and enters, once they
investigated him more fully. He was convicted. Very
satisfying. Very lucky to have been in the right place at
the right time.

And now that guy's doing pull-ups in the pen, with "SNUFF
VINYL" tattooed on his knuckles!

Bill "cool story -- way to go" S.

Quoted message said:

Good luck, and I could look to see what the software was
if you want. I don't remember offhand.

So the thing is : I don't know what I would do if I had
footage except get more irritated at someone who I *could*
identify. I doubt that - with the # of people on campus -
I would ever see the person again. Outside of posting
"stop this [censored]" posters around campus, I don't know
what use it would be. That, and I would be down whatever
he ripped off.

Colin

"MattB" <[email hidden]> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

pas said:

T-V said:

Mark (UK) wrote:
> cc wrote: and the bike, took them down the station. To
> cut a long story short, it seems that the guy was able
> to prove that he'd bought the bike from someone else,
> for £60, so he was freed, but the bike was returned to
> Dave (he had to prove it was his with photos, frame
> numbers, receipt etc), 10 months after he lost it! He
> hasn't got round to telling the insurance company yet
> either...
>
> Not often you get a nice ending like that is it? Mark

nice story 🙂

But technically your friend is a thief himself now.

yes, be careful of karma....

And laws!

And karma police! You don't want what you get when you mess
with them....

( cool-lyrics-cool-lyrics-Open ↗
world.net/Karma_Police_Lyrics.html )

--
- Joel C.

Quoted message said:

Not much more he could have done to avoid that. His new
plan is to not leave the bike anywhere until he has
perfected his mobile bike charger. He's going to electrify
the bike like my horse's fence. Not enough to hurt, just
enough to thwart. Typical MIT solution.

Yes, I was thinking of this. I'd love to catch the reaction
on a video camera.

"S o r n i" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

SniffinVinyl wrote:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

We got the bike and the ring back (the ring was a longer
story involving a pawn shop and I won't go into it
here), but some other stuff was never recovered. However
the police also charged this guy with two other break
and enters, once they investigated him more fully. He
was convicted. Very satisfying. Very lucky to have been
in the right place at the right time.

And now that guy's doing pull-ups in the pen, with "SNUFF
VINYL" tattooed

on

Quoted message said:

his knuckles!

Bill "cool story -- way to go" S.

He messed with my bike (oh yeah the ring too). So tough [censored]
about what happened because of it. Besides, doesn't the
penal system rehabilitate offenders? (LOL) And send them
back into society as reformed citizens, ready to be useful
to society? (LMAO) Truly repentent for their crimes?
(ROTFLMAO)

Sniffinvinyl
----------------
Remain sane, cycle your brains out . . .