ncc74656's Journal: There's a newspaper thief in my neighborhood. Grr.

It's not quite on the same level as the infamous stolen Sidekick, but there's a newspaper thief in my neighborhood.

For the past month or so, maybe 50% of my subscription has gotten through. I've had problems in the past with my paper not showing up. Not knowing for sure whether this was a delivery problem or a theft problem, I decided to carry out a little experiment.

I already had a moderately-powerful computer gathering dust. I already had some extra MPEG-2 compressor boards (I used an Avermedia M179...crappy tuner, but composite and S-video capture works OK). To speed things along, I downloaded and installed KnoppMyth instead of installing Gentoo and then installing MythTV. All I needed was a camera, so I picked up a small wireless camera (similar to this, but the receiver is different) at Fry's this past weekend and set it up in a discreet location. I had everything up and running yesterday evening, recording continuously in 2-hour chunks.

Before I even checked to see if the paper was on my doorstep, I checked in the DVR to see what it captured. While I've not yet located the delivery of the paper, I found the bastard who stole it at 5 AM this morning. Video is here and here. The first link is what the camera saw, scaled and recompressed for download. The second link has been contrast-enhanced. Both were prepared with MEncoder.

I'm undecided on what to do next. One approach would be to do a stakeout...wait outside tomorrow morning, let the punk take my paper again, and tail him back to where he lives. I'd then have all the info to call out the cops, but even with video evidence, I'm not entirely sure they could be bothered to roll for a few stolen newspapers.

Another approach would be to wait behind the door for him, let him pick it up, pop out of the door, and startle the bastard with a friendly "Hey asshole, what're you planning to do with my paper?" (Said in my best-possible Denis Leary impersonation, of course, because it'd be appropriate.)

Maybe I'll just print up a couple hundred flyers and rubber-band them to people's doorknobs throughout the neighborhood. Maybe the bastard can be shamed into leaving my paper alone.

In the meantime, Fry's had this infrared illuminator in stock this afternoon, so maybe I'll have better video when he comes around again.

haha

[nocomment]

I like the flyer idea!!! That is too funny.

mess with him!

[bryanthompson]

start getting your paper the second it hits the doorstep, set up some kind of sensor or something to let you know when it's there. Then start putting out really old copies of the paper. Get 'em as old as you possibly can.

Or, print a screenshot from your vid and stick it inside the paper somewhere.... or boobytrap the paper with some elaborate inking device, so when he opens it, kabaaam!

Or, hide in the bushes and wait for him to come along... then flip a switch and spot lights go off, alarms, whi

Re:mess with him!

[Miguelito]

Or, hide in the bushes and wait for him to come along... then flip a switch and spot lights go off, alarms, whistles, the works. jump out and scare the crap out of him.

A nice air-horn can would do wonders... those suckers are so loud. Make him drop a load in his shorts. :)

suggestion

[robi2106]

consider putting somethign in the paper that positively identifies it as yours. So beat the un-deliver guy to it and put somethign inside. That is only usefull if you decide to go the police route. Otherwise I vote for the surprise the bastard option.

jason