It takes a thief

OUR SECURITY CAMERA SYSTEM was put to the test this past week. It provided the ability to identify an inadvertent thief who works at a neighboring business. Below the jump, this post describes how Mishkon enabled the stolen items to be returned to their owner. The case also illustrates our new system’s capabilities.

View of neighboring parking lot, 
at start of incident
(As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.)

It all began on Thursday, 12/14, after an employee from the French restaurant Coucou (218 Main St.) had left six of its 2-person tables, along with attendant chairs, in the restaurant’s rented parking space, which is located along our south wall.

Background

The neighboring parking lot is fenced off from the street. It is used by the staff of various business tenants that occupy 210, 212, 214, 216A, 218, 220, 220A, 220B, and 220C Main Street. Vehicular access to the lot is from Hampton Drive and requires a gate clicker. Near that gate, alongside our play-yard fence, is a shared trash dumpster for these businesses.

Orientation to the Camera View

The screenshots shown are taken from Mishkon’s security video, from a camera that overlooks the neighboring parking lot. The camera faces southwest. Main Street runs behind the building at the top of the image area, while Hampton Drive runs below the bottom of the image area.

• At the right is Mishkon’s south wall (looking curved due to distortion from the camera lens). 
• At the top is the back of 210 Main St., which is currently occupied by a veterinary clinic, Green Dog Dental & Wellness. 
• At the left is a back entrance to Green Dog, which wraps around the parking lot. 

The Problem

One of the owners of Coucou emailed me last Friday:

Last night we had a table we were temporarily keeping in the parking lot stolen and I was wondering if you might be able to check your cameras? It would have been sometime around 6pm and 9pm. 

We count on our tables for operations obviously. Would greatly appreciate your assistance. 

Our Response

I got involved because I was out of town and did not see the email until Sunday night, and our Director of Operations happened to be taking his vacation starting on Monday. 

Coincidentally, our new Administrative Assistant needed to be trained to handle the security video recordings for an incident like this one. So I joined him yesterday in the office at 11:30am. I looked over his shoulder as he was trained remotely by the project manager at Convergent Networks. (They installed the camera system this summer and fall, under the state security grant.) We used the recent theft as a real-life example of something to home in on.

With our system, video recordings are made only when motion is detected, and then they are retained for more than 5 months. One can search for particular dates and times, and for the view from particular cameras.

After the staff training, the trainer continued to work with me, using the system to isolate and download a video record of the incident in question. Here is what we found…

The Incident

At 6:40pm, a hatchback pulled up alongside the tables and chairs. (The car was oriented such that its license plate was directly facing the camera and was clearly visible.) The driver, a woman, got out and opened up the back. She walked directly over to one of the tables, picked it up, and placed it in the back of the vehicle. She also grabbed a couple of chairs. Meanwhile, another woman entered the lot and walked over to the open back entrance of Green Dog. The first woman picked up a table and carried it over to that entrance, and then did the same with at least one chair. Then she got back into the car and drove off by 6:48pm.

View of neighboring parking lot, 
immediately after the incident

Interpretation

The driver’s having access to the parking lot implied that she was on the staff of one of the tenant businesses. Given that she and an accomplice were active near the door to Green Dog, it seemed likely that this was where she worked. 

The thief was not hesitant yet also not surreptitious, implying that she believed that the tables and chairs had been abandoned—and were thus freely available for the taking. (Their location not far from the trash dumpster may have been a factor in her coming to that conclusion.)

Resolution

By 3pm, we had provided a 7-minute video clip to the owner of Coucou, who promptly shared it with the director of operations at Green Dog. 

At 6:24pm, the restaurateur emailed me:

Greendog was finally able to identify their employee and they should be returning the furniture soon. Thanks to your help!