Unwanted visitor in my garden last night Burrow Road

[ukcomputers]

Just to make you all more aware and vigilant we had some unwanted visitor in our garden around 0:40 in the morning. I have installed a CCTV camera few years ago when our shed was broken into (unfortunately this system does not record but that is going to change immediately now). Luckily I was not sleeping and saw a man on the screen jumping through my fence out of my garden. Unfortunately before I got dressed, took my trusty baseball bat and came down to chase him he was already gone. Now there are 3 options why he could be there: first would be to raid the shed (happened before), secondly I've got a motorbike under cover so he may wanted to check if that would be of any interest to him or lastly he could have been trying to get an access to the house itself through the garden doors. I'm not exactly sure why he was there and why he got spooked (maybe a sensor garden light) but it left us properly upset and disturbed. I let the police know what's happened (they were brilliant came in no time, unfortunately too late) and I thought it's a good idea to share that on this forum too.

[Salsaboy]

Be careful with that baseball bat. Unless the handle has got a rubber coating they can get a bit slippery with blood.

[ukcomputers]

Thanks for the advice, fortunately I never had to use it as yes but you never know. They may be back again.

[ukcomputers]

At least the CCTV now sorted and recording as it should in the first place :) Seems that sometimes you need a little kick to wake up

[KatDew]

Unfortunately a friend had things stolen from a car on Abbotswood road on saturday as well. The car was only there for 40 mins but he had forgotten to lok it. Seems that there are some people scoping out the area again. It may well be the same group who were responsible for all the burglaries over the summer.

[Alex K]

Thanks for letting us know, and -- KatDew -- thanks for the heads-up on the Saturday theft from a car parked on Abbotswood. B*stards.

[ratty]

Cool, I sleep in my living room. Armed!

[milk76]

It's true. I have seen his arms.

[3 little piggies]

Hey ratty, still sleeping in your living room - you're not my old man are you?

[thusau]

Reference :

http://adf.ly/2038788/http://www.passingseason.com

[albert spangler]

In all seriousness, the use of a baseball bat may not be seen as appropriate force in the current climate. Especially one that's kept at the bed side as that's a sign of premeditation.

I'm slightly alarmed by this because I caught a burglar in my old ground floor flat once. I heard a bump and a rustle and I snuck out of the bedroom to see him drinking MY orange juice from MY fridge. I don't know if it was the sound of me shouting expletives or the fact that I was starkers, but he legged it without challenging me. It's a brave man who faces another man who turns up to a fight naked!

The lesson is that should make sure you secure your back door.

[ratty]

3 little piggies Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hey ratty, still sleeping in your living room -

> you're not my old man are you?

I'm here now. Woe betide the burglar that stumbles upon me on me inflatable bed in my grundys!

[tomdhu]

Glad you got the CCTV recording sorted.

What you relate appears to prove yet again the deterrence benefit of having PIR activated lights. They are fantastic value for money and very effective. The last one I bought was only about ?7.

I posted some advice a few days earlier on this subject and would add one more suggestion viz -

Install a cheap Infrared illuminator at the rear of your property. They cost around ?5 and consume only about 3 watts. Have it switched on after dark. As you will know infrared is invisible to the human eye. Crims these days know this so they scan a property first with their mobile phone camera which shows up infrared light.

They know that any property with infrared illumination will certainly have a camera and will also most likely have a good alarm system.

They will give that property a wide berth.

Tom

[pistachet1]

Hey ukcomputers,

My house was also broken into on Saturday. We have to do something about it. Neighbours should stay alert until we catch them. In the case there's only one gang operating in ED...

Tom,

That infrared system sounds too good to be true. Does a mobile phone camera show infrared for real? will check them out.

[Loz]

pistachet1 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Does a mobile phone camera show infrared for real?

Yep - it's a good way to show if a remote control is working. Point the business end at any digital camera (mobile phone, webcam or standard digital camera) and press a remote button. You'll see the flashing infrared LED on the camera screen.

This effect means there's also a way of tweaking a webcam to see through (some) clothing!

[DulwichFox]

If you have an iPhone or Ipod, install icloud. and enable Photo Stream

Install on your P.C.

If you are confronted, take a picture..

Even if your device is taken from you it is too late for the theif.

Provided you are in a Wi-FI area or your Data is enabled, the picture will already

be in the cloud and can be retreived from any P.C. With iCloud Photo Stream.

Fox.

[Sue]

DulwichFox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> If you have an iPhone or Ipod, install icloud. and

> enable Photo Stream

> Install on your P.C.

>

> If you are confronted, take a picture..

>

> Even if your device is taken from you it is too

> late for the theif.

>

> Provided you are in a Wi-FI area or your Data is

> enabled, the picture will already

> be in the cloud and can be retreived from any

> P.C. With iCloud Photo Stream.

>

xxxxxxx

Personally I wouldn't want to annoy anybody confronting me by taking a photo of them.

Somebody who is unstable for some reason, and who knows they can be identified, could react in ways you might prefer they didn't.

[DirtyBox]

> If you have an iPhone or Ipod, install icloud. and

> enable Photo Stream

> Install on your P.C.

>

> If you are confronted, take a picture..

>

> Even if your device is taken from you it is too

> late for the theif.

>

> Provided you are in a Wi-FI area or your Data is

> enabled, the picture will already

> be in the cloud and can be retreived from any

> P.C. With iCloud Photo Stream.

>

So when someone confronts you, you say "hang on a second" while you dig out your phone, tap in your pin, open the camera and then get them to pose for you? Right....

[Jessie]

if there was a burglar in my home, I'd hide till he/she had gone. I value my and my son's lives about our possesions.

[Jeremy]

DirtyBox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> So when someone confronts you, you say "hang on a

> second" while you dig out your phone, tap in your

> pin, open the camera and then get them to pose for

> you? Right....

Quite.

Time taken to take a photo of someone using your iphone? 5-10 secs if you react quickly.

Chance of getting a kicking? Quite high.

[ianc]

And depending upon your home broadband connection speed (or 3G, if your phone doesn't happen to be connected via wi-fi at the time), there may be a 30-60 second lag before the picture actually leaves your phone. And in the meantime, you've got a burglar in-front of you, who knows you have an iPhone, and who is pissed off that their pic has just been taken. It really isn't a good mix.

I installed a home alarm from Alertme.com, and I have a camera in one room. (I don't work for them BTW, so this isn't an advert). It's triggered from a few portable movement detectors, and automatically sends a video to their servers via my broadband. It records for a few minutes once triggered, and other than seeing a flickering light in the distance, they wouldn't know. Costs me around a fiver a month, and around ?100 to get set-up. It's 100% portable, and I will take it wherever I live, as I currently rent.

[*Bob*]

Number of times on here the suggestion has been made to 'take a picture' of thief/scammer/burglar: plenty

Number of pictures successfully taken: zero

It's just not going to happen in 99.9% of cases. Nor should it be encouraged, for reasons of general common sense.

[Siduhe]

I did take a fuzzy photo of the retreating backs of two guys who tried my neighbour's front and back doors a while ago (having caught them in the back garden, which they very politely left explaining they had the wrong house - subsequently turned out they'd stolen keys from a car parked at Heathrow) - thought the clothing might be helpful. Wouldn't have dared do it to their faces and got a bit of telling-off from police for even doing that - not worth it they said.

[DulwichFox]

DirtyBox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> > If you have an iPhone or Ipod, install icloud.

> and

> > enable Photo Stream

> > Install on your P.C.

> >

> > If you are confronted, take a picture..

> >

> > Even if your device is taken from you it is too

>

> > late for the theif.

> >

> > Provided you are in a Wi-FI area or your Data is

>

> > enabled, the picture will already

> > be in the cloud and can be retreived from any

> > P.C. With iCloud Photo Stream.

> >

>

> So when someone confronts you, you say "hang on a

> second" while you dig out your phone, tap in your

> pin, open the camera and then get them to pose for

> you? Right....

If there is someone in your Garden and you intend to confront them,

then take out your phone, Not a Baseball bat..

On the more recent iPods you do not need to enter your pin to use the Camera.

The Camera is at the bottom of the home page.

So if the person attacks you they stand the chance of getting a longer sentence if identified.

Probably will attack you anyway if you confront them

If you attack them, you could find yourself being procecuted.

Fox...

[Alex0777]

You have to use CCTV security camera system with infrared illuminator. Such type of CCTV camera system is able to track and capture clear image view at dark night.