indigo and securityspy foil robbery, news at eleven.

this is truly disheartening. today is the glorious first day of construction on the long awaited retaining wall project in our backyard. it's been 18 months since we started bidding this. we finally hired a local guy, unlicensed, but who has done many jobs in the neighborhood. we trust him, we like him, and he is half the price of the inflated companies who go through the city.

i am spending the next three months in ny working, which is bad timing on this because we're just starting work, but what can you do?

so, the geek side of me wins out and i decide one way to feel connected to the whole thing is to use network cams to see the work while i'm in ny. so i install some, and they work perfectly, of course. rather fun all in all. i thought i would feel creepy about it, but i don't. just another gadget.

well, day one on the job and i call up the server from work and what do i see?

unbelievable. this guy is actually pulling open the window in the guest bedroom. me, guy that i am, from philadelphia, believe in god and all that, i think: oh, maybe he needs to get at an electrical socket. no, there's one out there by the pool heater, i told him that... hmm, oh, wait-- he's locked in the back yard. the gardner left and locked the gate and this guy doesn't have a key. but.. still, looks really... suspicious. i send an assistant over to the house to unlock the gate... which is already unlocked when he gets there. he asks the guy if he needs anything, anything in the house? nope, everything is fine.

f*ck. this guy is totally casing my house.

i have full motion video of him from two cameras--as soon as i logged in and saw him, i loaded my indigo control page and hit a control that sets the cameras to record for 1 minute--he tried both windows and tested the sliding door. i called alberto, the guy i hired, his boss, and told him. he fired the guy on the spot (i have video of that, too!) and was really apologetic, but man oh man. this was the last thing i expected to see. day one. sigh.



share other indigo success stories!

[matt (support)]

Wow! Unbelievable. Looks like he even left his work gloves on so as to not leave fingerprints on his attempted points of entry.

Do you have outside speakers wired to your SqueezeBox? You could have queued up the theme to Cops (bad boys, bad boys, bad boys...). Now his reaction to that would have been something to capture on video.

I'm glad you happened to check-in on the progress at the right time...

Matt

...or how about using your web based control page to flash the lights on and off in the guest room?

This is a great ad for securityspy!

i know! i could have done a lot to scare the hell out of him, but i really wanted to see exactly what he was going to do. another centimeter in that window and the alarm would have gone off anyway. honestly, i was too freaked to do anything funny at that moment... lol.

How are the camera's, such as the ones used at the SecuritySpy site, or the iSight, for nighttime use?

All this stuff is pretty wiz-bang, so I'd imagine there are cameras to handle around the clock applications.

Yup, I don't know much about this stuff.

i am using d-link cameras:

http://www.dlink.com/products/category.asp?cid=60&sec=0

i am very satisfied with the image, control and reliability. not the cheapest units on the market, but they work quite well.

fwiw.

Thats great!

Do you have the cameras set to capture on any motion for x amount of time? So if you didn't happen to log in you would be able to go back and see who did it?

Thats great!

Do you have the cameras set to capture on any motion for x amount of time? So if you didn't happen to log in you would be able to go back and see who did it?

yes, snow, i do, during certain conditions. i knew the guys would be at the house and, ironically, didn't want them setting off the motion capture every 5 mins, so i had the cams in passive mode at the time.... silly me!

here's hoping today brings a much better set of circumstances.

This thread has got me thinking...

I see that Image Capture on my iMac can be viewed over the internet. I also have a built-in iSight camera on my iMac. But I don't see where Image Capture can use the iSight as a device. Must be a way, right? Any ideas?

check these posts cz:

http://www.perceptiveautomation.com/php ... php?t=1012

Looks like I know what I want for christmas this year...

By the way: any chance of seeing these movies online?

Are your cameras placed inside the home shooting out or outside the home? You would think he would have noticed the cameras but perhaps he's not a professional. I currently don't have any cameras but would like to have them. The other week, some kids got into my wife's car and rummaged around. They didn't take anything but it would have been nice to have video of these kids to show to their parents. They apparently went through about 8 cars in our neighborhood but didn't take anything.