biggen
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- May 6, 2018
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This week (Monday) I discovered we were missing some jewelry in one of our display cases with the value of $1200. Upon questioning my employees, none of them had sold them. Luckily, we take pictures of the jewelry cases from time to time. We had just snapped pictures of the cases with the pieces still in the display case on the Wednesday the week before so I knew they had to be stolen sometime after we took pictures on Wednesday through Sunday night when we closed. So a 5 day window. I don't have a camera pointed directly at that case and the closest camera is about 25 feet away. So I sat down at my computer, set the FF rate to 32X and started going hour by hour. Took me about 30 minutes to find the bastard that swiped them. Digitally zoomed shot from the only camera that had an angle:
View attachment zoomed_Reg1.mp4
Pulled up my Facecam on the front door to get a better look:
Went to the video to see how they (three of them) arrived at my business but I found on my parking lot video they had actually walked. However, it had started raining so the thief ended up leaving the other two in my store and going to get the vehicle to pick them up. Wearing a different jacket upon arriving (digitally zoomed video):
View attachment parkinglot.mp4
Here is where it gets fun. Remember, I didn't discover any of this until the Monday after the theft (4 days later). I figured they were long gone. However, when I started showing my employees the video of them interacting with the family and the thief himself, they recalled that through chit-chatting with them during the rain, that the family said they were parking in a City parking lot which is right next door to my business. I went outside, looked at the City lot, and damn if the fucking U-Haul fan wasn't still parked there! However, it looked like they were packing up to leave. So, I got on the phone and called the police and had an officer arrive within 5 minutes but the van was actually leaving the City lot as the officer was pulling in. I quickly explained to the officer that I had been burgled and the person who had committed it was driving away in that van. He immediately radioed another unit to pull him over to hold him while I showed him the video evidence. An hour later, the jewelry was recovered and the thief was going to jail for 3rd degree Grand Theft with is a felony here in Florida:
Who says miracles don't happen? We have made a few changes to company policies. First, employees are not allowed to leave the counter when customers are in the store. This really had already been a rule forever but we had become complacent. Second, jewelry cases are to be locked from now on.
Anyway, just wanted to share. All done with Andy's cameras and Blue Iris. I just ordered a new Z12 S2 as an LPR camera for my business parking lot. Should have that up and running by next week.
View attachment zoomed_Reg1.mp4
Pulled up my Facecam on the front door to get a better look:
Went to the video to see how they (three of them) arrived at my business but I found on my parking lot video they had actually walked. However, it had started raining so the thief ended up leaving the other two in my store and going to get the vehicle to pick them up. Wearing a different jacket upon arriving (digitally zoomed video):
View attachment parkinglot.mp4
Here is where it gets fun. Remember, I didn't discover any of this until the Monday after the theft (4 days later). I figured they were long gone. However, when I started showing my employees the video of them interacting with the family and the thief himself, they recalled that through chit-chatting with them during the rain, that the family said they were parking in a City parking lot which is right next door to my business. I went outside, looked at the City lot, and damn if the fucking U-Haul fan wasn't still parked there! However, it looked like they were packing up to leave. So, I got on the phone and called the police and had an officer arrive within 5 minutes but the van was actually leaving the City lot as the officer was pulling in. I quickly explained to the officer that I had been burgled and the person who had committed it was driving away in that van. He immediately radioed another unit to pull him over to hold him while I showed him the video evidence. An hour later, the jewelry was recovered and the thief was going to jail for 3rd degree Grand Theft with is a felony here in Florida:
Who says miracles don't happen? We have made a few changes to company policies. First, employees are not allowed to leave the counter when customers are in the store. This really had already been a rule forever but we had become complacent. Second, jewelry cases are to be locked from now on.
Anyway, just wanted to share. All done with Andy's cameras and Blue Iris. I just ordered a new Z12 S2 as an LPR camera for my business parking lot. Should have that up and running by next week.
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