OT: Thieving scum

May 22, 2025 Last reply: 1 year ago 6 Replies

Cutting grass today. Finished front lawns. Disconnected mower, rolled up flex. Went indoors to disconnect and roll up the extension. Came back outside to get mower and take it round back. Only mower there was none.



Alerted local Whatsapp group and suspicious activity has been seen and recorded and will be forwarded if the police get back.



Total window of opportunity - 60 seconds max. We live in a cul de sac, so the coincidence of passing scotes and theft beggars belief.



It's been suggested they may have mistaken it for something left out for "gifting". Only they managed to not steal the grass box that was a couple of yards away.



On the plus side, I have now learned that a neighbour has practically military grade CCTV with additional ANPR. Every vehicle that crosses his house is quietly logged with the ability to send an alert if a plate matches a list ...


Have you annoyed one or more of your neighbours at any time ?

Thanks to government policy, young people don't believe it's stealing if the value of the goods is only a few hundred quid!

A question, can ANPR be retrofitted to an exisiting CCTV system or does the DVR itself have to be replaced with one that supports ANPR?

Another useful security measure is to put up a Wireless AP that logs all attempts for any wi-fi enabled devices trying to connect, so the MAC address, date and time of attempted phone connections its got...

and it also has Rogue AP detection so I also get a log of cars driving by that have Wi Fi hotspots within the car so I've seen AP names such as "Steve's Wheels", BMW_WiFi, etc so you also get MAC, date and time stamps.

With CCTV footage alongside, its quite enlightening. :-)

It's "just" software. You can retrospectively run it over recordings if your setup is flexible enough.

When I was working with ANPR in (checks) 1999, the vendors demonstrated it by playing VHS tapes of traffic taken from the M42.

Not knowingly :)

There is a current theory in the s'app group that it could have been some ninja scrappies who mistook it for an offering. I'm sceptical, but it has the whiff of a vaguely plausible defence.

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