12 January 2010

Thief caught on CCTV in Rivett

| CrankyCanberran
Join the conversation
38

Rivett Thief

Check out the video here.
[Ed – now below]

Ahhh… there’s nothing like the feeling of waking up, looking at something thinking ‘thats not right’. Welcome to my last Saturday morning. Looking at my back gate thinking “I didn’t leave that open”, and being into electronics, rewind the DVR running my CCTV setup at my house to see a weird light flashing around inside my van.

With the wife gasping going “oh no that looks like a torch”, rewind a bit further back to confirm the dreadful feeling of “yep – that is someone going through my van”.

So it seems, this guy who would be in his mid to late teens, rather slim dressed in 3/4 length shorts, white shoes, white tight t-shirt, light coloured cap and a black bum bag came down next door’s driveway to check out their car. Then he moves onto my place. Unknown by him, i’ve got a CCTV setup in place to watch his moves.

He spends about 25 minutes in total at my place, checking out the 3 cars, looking through the study window, being very careful not to make noise. He moves onto my van where he spends the majority of his time – pulling to bits a cheap $80 LCD monitor in the front of the van (used for a reversing camera), then moving into the back and going through a cabinet in its entirety. In the end, i’m missing a torch, few dollars in coins, but he was nice enough to leave the cheap LCD monitor in a few bits in the back of the van for me.

The police turn up within 30 minutes of my call to have a look at the mess he made and obtain a copy of the footage for their reference. I know there isn’t much they can do with the footage apart from possibly using the description of the guy for anyone else that may have seen this guy lurking around.

In the end, i’m very lucky that nothing was damaged and really nothing big stolen. I can only put down his entry into my van by him using an un-locked door (which is very bizarre for me to leave anything unlocked – however the van was in for a service so i’m thinking perhaps they unlocked it and I neglected to check it), or that he’s very good and getting it open without any damage. If anyone recognises this young fella, i’d be very interested to hear from you to pass the information on to the police. We both have a feeling we’ve seen him around, and now keeping an eye out. He certainly seems to know what to be careful with (noise), and really does not care at all about automatic sensor lights.

If anything comes out of this post for the readers, it’s to make you think everything locked up and secured as best as it can, because there are these little thiefs everywhere. You’ll notice in the video he had a look at the window lock – wouldn’t surprise me if he had entered the house. That’d be a lovely thing to wake up to – seeing a stranger standing in your bedroom. CCTV systems are great for watching bad things happen such as this, but its a cosmetic security. I always recommend concentrate on prevention security – better locks, security doors and grills, back-to-base alarm systems before installing CCTV security, for again, prevention is better then cure.

Keep an eye on your neighbours and street – you know your street best. Report suspicious activity to the police/crimestoppers – for every little bit helps, and hopefully we can reduce the number of these idiots who keep out insurance premiums high.

Join the conversation

38
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

I like the idea of putting the pics up in public. Even if the scumbag had been caught, who would know who he was when he next went on a spree? Public recognition & shaming might do the trick – like the public stocks of old. I also live in Rivett & am sick of the amount of theft that goes on in my street.

aussielyn said :

Top post zhimmyd
The family of the young crims was visited and shown the photos. Hopefully the guardians will keep an eye on their kids before they reserve a place at AMC when their time comes.

The activities in the video were probably “family-night” for his family, I doubt his parents would have any concern… a low-life generally has a low-life start… A friend recently told us about her foster kids, who at 3 an 5, had already been taught how to shoplift valuable items by loving Mum and Dad… We have a family at my school where the uncle, father and oldest child are facing court for a series of burglaries… ah, lovely…

In some of the other states they post the pics of the crims on their websites. I have also seen NSW Police uploading them onto Twitter with comments like “can anyone identify this bloke?”. Albeit they were for stabbings etc but it is something that should be done here.

Pretty scary tho. I thought I was safe with two Rottweilers in my yard….. till someone stole the two Rottweilers.

A friend and I caught a burglar in the act a few months ago. He was very relieved to see the police arrive (less than 6 minutes after being called). The police took photos, took statements etc. they told us recently that we dont even need to turn up to his court date, the case is that strong.

Top post zhimmyd
We need to revive Neighbourhood Watch with current technology and you raise a good point as many are losing faith in our institutions.
I have heard that photos of thieves were posted on a notice board that yielded some names by other neighbours. The family of the young crims was visited and shown the photos. Hopefully the guardians will keep an eye on their kids before they reserve a place at AMC when their time comes. Of course this could have gone all wrong and turned into suburban warfare. All info should be passed onto Crime stoppers so that the AFP can do their best, given the constraints they work under.
It is the duty of our legislators and judiciary to protect the citizenry. CCTV and photographic evidence should be admissible in court, if shown to be not tampered with.

lumnock said :

what the hell is it with losers and bum-bags? see them everywhere also sporting rat tails and/or an ugly streaked mullet. I can’t wait until HD CCTV’s are cheap as chips to buy. It’ll make incidents like this so much easier to resolve.

Smack.
Ice.

Every school holidays mail has gone missing and last Christmas the house was robbed.I had my car broken into recently and stuff taken. Since I have watched/evil eyed, everyone who walks past. Now I know who I am looking for. Ta.

and so on and so forth…

“I waz just drunk bro, I waz just trying to work out if this was yo place, aftral you/or some dude told me this waz da addie, I didnt steal nufink… shit bro you can see I walked away when cudn’t work it out yo…

zhimmyd said :

Hey All,
Prints – yes well this is an interesting one. I did point out a print on the car’s passenger window to the police, but they said immediately “na there is nothing we can do with them”, which I thought was a bit strange. It was a good print as well!

I imagine that it would be impossible to prove that the thief put the print there rather than, say, someone who accidentally touched the car while it was parked at the shops. Both the times I’ve been broken into the police took fingerprints inside the house, so there’s no general problem with doing this in instances where they can prove that whoever put the prints there was doing the wrong thing at the time.

Rawhide Kid No 25:20 pm 13 Jan 10

Ozhair said :

Fingerprints – “na there is nothing we can do with them”

CCTV Footage – the footage can’t be used in court even if the guy was caught

So what flamin’ evidence is permissable to catch these scumbags?

I think it’s the old “red handed” dodad.

Rawhide Kid No 25:18 pm 13 Jan 10

p1 said :

Why can’t the footage be used in court?

What he said….

The main thing I would suggest is employing some software that can send an SMS alert when movement is detected, you can tweak the sensitivity level enough so that some movement won’t set it off but a lot of movement (like in your video above) will. That way you would get an SMS while they are still on the property and be able to call the police and catch them red handed.

zhimmyd said :

Two words – BOOBY TRAP.

Regretfully, Booby traps are illegal in the ACT. However, like Surveillance Cameras, if you have a sign advertising that they may be in mortal peril if they proceed then you might have a chance in court defending your actions.

One time we rigged our letter box with sharpened, rusty screws underneath as there was a fool going around ripping them off from their moorings. We woke when we heard a scream and followed quite a decent blood trail up the road but did not catch them. We have never had the problem since.

Basically, you want to really mess up/hurt the burglar/vandal and for them to have no legal recourse to come back on you or your estate.

you have a good case for the old length of fishing line taped to the wall, then strung across the driveway to a tin cane weighed down with a stone balanced on top of the post on the other side of the driveway. Moron thief wont see a thin fishing line until too late… a tin can containing a stone crashing to the ground at 4am will wake the living dead.

I know someone who did wake up with a guy in her bedroom. Very scary. Damn, I hate low-lifes like this.

Thanks for the timely reminder about home safety, especially in the hotter weather when we’re more likely to leave windows etc open! It is chilling to watch them “case” your stuff! I can’t believe he was dressed in light coloured clothes! I wonder if he did manage to get anything else from your neighbourhood? Worth doing a letterbox drop to warn them? Hope they catch him.

Fingerprints – “na there is nothing we can do with them”

CCTV Footage – the footage can’t be used in court even if the guy was caught

So what flamin’ evidence is permissable to catch these scumbags?

zhimmyd said :

Hey All,

Thanks for your comments.

In regards to camera angles, I totally agree. Problem is, unless you have a DVR with lots (8-16 inputs), having a small amount of cameras at low angles can cause people such at this to taper with them – bit of spraypaint over the front and you don’t see much. In an ideal setup, you’d have a few high cameras watching over the general area, and then a couple low ones at entry points to catch a face. Have a look next time you go out to a club, you may see a dome just above head height next to the entry/exit doors to get a good look at you. In the end, as the police advised, the footage can’t be used in court even if the guy was caught hence my comment about CCTV being a cosmetic security.

Cheers all.

Two words – BOOBY TRAP.

Why can’t the footage be used in court?

Seems the only thing the sensor lights did was light the way for this guy. Probably helped him be as quiet as he was. Seeing the footage makes me think that sensor lights would be better placed where they don’t help a would be thief get through gates etc but screw up their night vision making it harder for them to stealth around

More annoying than scary… Shame you didn’t catch him.

If it were my house the cops would have been the least of his concerns.

Nice work. We’ve been broken into twice and I’ve been contemplating a CCTV system. My understanding is that the police know who is active in most areas and have some good computer systems to track and manage offenders but are unable to do anything until they are caught red handed (most offenders know this too).

Interesting that CCTV footage can’t be used in court, but I think the footage could be used in a ‘name and shame’ exercise, so post those pics wherever you can get them – hopefully family, peer group pressures, and the community will deter the individual from any further crimes.

zhimmyd: just out of interest would you reccomend the CCTV system you have?

Wish I had CCTV to catch the mongrels that stole the tax files from my car the day before christmas. They took nothing else other than a box of envelopes, which I later found.

Bumbag is the lowlife badge of honor. wearing it across your cheast means your hard core scumbag.

Hey All,

Thanks for your comments.

El – love your suggestion about putting up pictures at the local shops, great idea.

In regards to the date – my box records it backwards (so YY/MM/DD) – hence why it looks like it was last year.

It is legal to record video footage of people, as long as they are told it is being done in the form of signs indicating so. I indeed have these on my premises. You’ll notice on most (law obiding) restaurants/clubs/department stores they’ll have a sticker as you enter the premises to advise you are being photographed.

Prints – yes well this is an interesting one. I did point out a print on the car’s passenger window to the police, but they said immediately “na there is nothing we can do with them”, which I thought was a bit strange. It was a good print as well!

Would you believe there was 2 dogs at my place that night (unfortunately inside), one of which hears everything, but neither heard this guy. Thinking the dogs can go camping and sleep outside from now on!

In regards to camera angles, I totally agree. Problem is, unless you have a DVR with lots (8-16 inputs), having a small amount of cameras at low angles can cause people such at this to taper with them – bit of spraypaint over the front and you don’t see much. In an ideal setup, you’d have a few high cameras watching over the general area, and then a couple low ones at entry points to catch a face. Have a look next time you go out to a club, you may see a dome just above head height next to the entry/exit doors to get a good look at you. In the end, as the police advised, the footage can’t be used in court even if the guy was caught hence my comment about CCTV being a cosmetic security.

Cheers all.

Little prick. Shoulda just gone out and thumped him.

just remember – he knows where you live, and tha intarwebs are everywhere.

The video time stamp says January 10, 2009.

Anyway, I hope it leads to some sort of result.

Having a dog or two helps with keeping amateur thieves and prowlers away.

Footloose said :

I think I saw a thief this afternoon going for a walk around Rivett.
Backpack on. Wandering aimlessly around the street.
He was in our neighbours frontyard and when I confronted him when, before I even got a word out came the ‘I’m just getting a drink of water’ line as he stood next to their tap, scoping out our open garage.

Then again, we’ve been hit twice in the past 2 years losing over 40k worth of stuff so I may be just a *li’l* bit paranoid.

You were probably right to be suspicious, your instinct is normally right in these cases. The police seem to be pretty good at turning up pronto when offenders are seen loitering on scene, reporting it to them would probably get a result if you see him again.

How frigging scary!

Did the cops dust for prints? Looks from the video like there might have been some on gate/window/car.

what the hell is it with losers and bum-bags? see them everywhere also sporting rat tails and/or an ugly streaked mullet. I can’t wait until HD CCTV’s are cheap as chips to buy. It’ll make incidents like this so much easier to resolve.

I think I saw a thief this afternoon going for a walk around Rivett.
Backpack on. Wandering aimlessly around the street.
He was in our neighbours frontyard and when I confronted him when, before I even got a word out came the ‘I’m just getting a drink of water’ line as he stood next to their tap, scoping out our open garage.

Then again, we’ve been hit twice in the past 2 years losing over 40k worth of stuff so I may be just a *li’l* bit paranoid.

god seeing this footage at my place would give me the creeps. hope the little scumbag gets caught.

Worth putting these photos up at Rivett shops/Coolo?

I bet he’s a ‘local’.

Your camera angle sucks. Better yet have the camera down on a lower angle to get a good face shot combined with a sensor light which gets the pic in colour.

Need a bigger pic to make out his face..

Though I’m waiting for some civil rights idiot to post how much of a breach of this low life’s civil rights this is by posting pics on the internet of him stealing stuff.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.