Yet another one for Adam

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh its it Firth? I never see his posts for some reason..

[Onetap]

An advantage that Google groupos doesn't offer, I believe.

You don't use your name. Are you a nym shifter too? Is it rhyming slang? What's in a nym?

[Steve Firth]

Well since I went away on holiday and got back on Thursday morning things have got even weirder. Last night I had a look at the camera footage and saw two blokes with torches crawling about the garden. They were dressed in track suits and had socks pulled up over the cuffs of the trousers.

After about 10 seconds they ran off. Possibly they saw the red glow from the IR LEDs on the camera?

Two days later a white Transit turned up in my yard. Nice full face shot of the driver - no reason for him to be there. Another two days after that a blue Volvo estate - nice shot of number plate and driver.

Then before I could find the card left by the PC I got a call from another Plod, very excited because they think they know the man in the original photo. Told him about the new photos and he became hyper excited. They're sending around a surveillance team to set up better cameras than mine.

[polygonum]

Do they send a large van marked "Police Surveillance Team" with lots of blue lamps?

[Steve Firth]

No, a rather tired looking unmarked Ford Focus.

[Tim Lamb]

Ask them if they travel to Hertfordshire.

Some mentally challenged person has adopted the idea that rabbit proof gates on one of my footpaths should be left open.

Local highways kindly supplied kissing gate sets (now rather ugly galvanised steel) which I installed last year. I suppose I should be grateful that they waited until the hay crop was removed before wrenching one gate off its hinges and taking it away.

Perhaps just someone needing a gate?

[ARW]

How long did they stop for?

[Onetap]

[pleasantmode] If one were to be really nice about this, do you not think it would be diplomatic to mention to Mr Plod ( before he sets up his surveillance cameras, sound recorders, etc., and spends a lot of man hours on a covert surveillance operation) that the entire job has been compromised by having details posted on that interweb thingy, seemingly by someone using their real, traceable name and not even using a pseudonym?

If I were Plod, I'd be really annoyed if I found out that detail after I'd set up IR cameras, sound recorders, etc.. Just saying, like. [/pleasantmode]

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 13 July 2013 11:52 Onetap wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Don't you think the surveillance team would come in daylight and knock on the door (probably disguised as "not the police", but all the same, quietly showing ID). The only time they are going to pop up as spooks is when they are pointing the cameras *at you*.

[Onetap]

You misunderstand.

The police would be less inclined to spend their time and money setting up a surveillance operation to catch bad guys IF they knew the bad guys had possibly been alerted to the presence of surveillance by traceable posts on the internet.

[Steve Firth]

Tim Lamb wrote: [snip]

Metal thieves. They'll take anything at the moment. A friend lost a load of buckets from a back hoe and a chain harrow to metal thieves.

[Steve Firth]

[snip]

Difficult to tell. The camera works on a PIR and takes single frame photos. Not very long I would say but there are no shots of the vehicles leaving.

My neighbour thinks that they were a surveyor and a drains CCTV specialist inspecting a house for sale locally and they got lost.

Using image enhancement on what appeared to be blank frames I can see that the two Neds came back after a gap of five minutes then ran away again.

[Tim Lamb]

Maybe. There are two other identical gates within 50m. My bet is on a

*nutter*. The deer, rabbits etc. need access to food.... >

[SteveW]

What are the chances of typical unemployable, thieving types even knowing of the existence of usenet, never mind subscribing to this newsgroup?

SteveW

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 13 July 2013 19:58 SteveW wrote in uk.d-i-y:

That's not a very nice way to talk about the police!

[Onetap]

Plod wouldn't bother their arses about thieving types. The activity described is not typical of thieves; they come, they nick, they leave.

If Plod got excited about recognising someone, it would suggest there's more involved than petty thieving.

I refrain from any comment about the plausibility of this.

Plod wouldn't be happy if they knew their efforts had been advertised anywhere.

I wasn't a secret squirrel sort, I was a mere grunt. This is just common sense.

The pikies search Google Earth for rural oil tanks, so they're not all IT illiterate.

[jklam]

It's a tad unlikely that many crims bother with usenet given how few of the general public have even heard of it at all.

[Adam Funk]

That definitely sounds dodgy. No connection with the naked snacker then?

[Adam Funk]

Sounds plausible.

"two Neds" = blokes crawling with torches?

[Steve Firth]

Yes, they look most suspicious. I might string up that path with cheese wire.