MotionEye Surveillance Pi System - Thief Caught!

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dryja123
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MotionEye Surveillance Pi System - Thief Caught!

Post by dryja123 » Wed May 24, 2017 5:30 pm

Hello SudoModders!

I wanted to share a story on how I used MotionEye (Pi surveillance software created by Calin Crisan) to catch a package thief this past holiday season.

During the holidays, the wife and I had 4 holiday packages stolen grossing more than $300.00 in losses. We own a condo and went to the association asking if we could set up a ring doorbell or a small non-invasive camera. We were told no because it would alter the exterior the building. Being a modder, I thought to myself that there had to be a way I could get around this without breaking the association policies and it dawned on me….

A door wreath!

Yes, I saw a holiday wreath on my neighbor’s door and thought that a disguised Pi camera would blend perfectly in the wreath.

So I got to modding…

After work, I stopped by my local Home Depot and Micro Center and picked up all the necessary hardware the get this thing started.
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Brilliantly I ran the ribbon cable for the camera behind the wreath bracket so that the Pi would be mounted behind my front door
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I taped the Pi camera in green electrical tape and stuffed it into the holiday wreath.
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Here's a how it looked when it was initially installed in the wreath. I moved the camera later and did a much better job hiding it.
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Here's a snap of how the system looked like from my PC (I added a second camera to cover both stairwells - sorry I should have taken a screen shot)
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I stashed a brick in an Amazon box and set the bait. 3 days later a local pizza delivery driver ripped off the package and fled the scene.
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I’m happy to report that the case just ended and the pizza delivery driver is awaiting sentencing for his crime.


Here are some bonus photos of my summer security wreath!
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Link to Calin Crisan’s page: https://github.com/ccrisan/motioneye/wiki

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Re: MotionEye Surveillance Pi System - Thief Caught!

Post by Helder » Wed May 24, 2017 5:37 pm

Awesome job!
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Re: MotionEye Surveillance Pi System - Thief Caught!

Post by dryja123 » Wed May 24, 2017 5:41 pm

Thanks Helder! This was a fun project.

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Re: MotionEye Surveillance Pi System - Thief Caught!

Post by dryja123 » Wed Jul 19, 2017 9:42 am

For anyone who is considering a Pi based home security system, I wanted to let you know that this particular system holds up in court. The thief was officially found guilty on June 21st and was ordered to pay me a sum of money in restitution.

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