Caravan-swiping suspect spotted on Street View Derbyshire Police have issued a Street View snap of a possible caravan thief. Street view snap of suspected thief Back in June 2009, a Derbyshire family had their caravan nicked from their driveway. Despite forensic examination of the wheel clamps used to secure the caravan, police were unable to finger a suspect. That is …
It's my understanding that Google retains original Street View shots in untouched format so I wonder if the Plod has actually contacted Google.
As an owner of a boat trailer as well as a pop-up camper trailer I advise people to (A) remove all wheels and store the trailer on blocks or welded triangular frames that attach in place of the wheels; (B) Weld some unique marks on the frame of the trailer so they can be used for identification; (C) Use a lock on the trailer hitch.
Guaranteed they will be there when you return, unless a car haulage company takes them!
Trust me. If thieves want. Thieves will get. Having grown up with coppers I could tell you amazing stories all day long. The one about the guy whose 3-tonne printing press was stolen when he was away for a weeekend - thieves bought a grab lorry and asked all the neighbours to move their cars so they could reverse down the alley ....
Or the guy who had state of the art immobiliser fitted to his top-range Merc - woke up one Sunday morning to see it disappearing on the back of a low loader.
Or the steam roller that got stolen when the road crew had a lunch break ...
The only thing you can do is make your goodies slightly less attractive than your nearest neighbours ...
If its a choice between a caravan with wheels or one without wheels I am guessing they are gonna take the wheeled one.
It isn't like caravans are hard to find in the UK. They are hardly comparable to a 3 tonne printing press or a top-of-the-range merc which are very specific items probably stolen to order.
I own a motorbike, one of the easiest to steal valuable items around (left on the street, can be put on a trailer or even carried away by 3 blokes) it has a padlock, disc lock, immobiliser and an alarm. Protect your stuff and it wont be you spending the next 3 days on the phone to your insurance company.
Good work on protecting your bike, but, from one biker to another, I'd recommend adding DataTag or similar to it as well.
Practically every part (down to the mirrors!) can have a code unremovably acid etched on it meaning it's virtually not even viable to break it for parts, plus there's a couple of transponders which can be fixed such that if it's recovered the Police can determine the legal owner :-)
"It's my understanding that Google retains original Street View shots in untouched format so I wonder if the Plod has actually contacted Google."
Actually I'd read that Google are required, in the UK at least, to delete all the untampered photos. As far as I know they would be in breach of the DPA if they kept any personally identifiable data, which would include any unblurred pics.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=Caldwell+Rd,+Linton,+Swadlincote,+Derbyshire+DE12,+United+Kingdom&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=17.287903,39.506836&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FfDbJAMd8pPn_w&split=0&hq=&hnear=Caldwell+Rd,+Linton,+Swadlincote,+Derbyshire+DE12,+United+Kingdom&ll=52.747462,-1.602515&spn=0.001085,0.002411&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=52.747454,-1.602302&panoid=vj8tgsO0P0XmacspBDm4qA&cbp=12,173.92,,1,14.36
Perhaps they can nick him for those illegal looking bull bars too? If you move down the street a bit you can glimpse a tiny bit of the registration plate.
"I'm wondering whether this image straight from Streetview, or one that has been provided by Google on police request with face unblurred."
Why don't you go to maps.google.co.uk and see for yourself?
Since you can't be arsed I'll tell you. It's an image direct from streetview. I suspect the auto face recognition tech was fooled by the extreme baldness and the fact that the guy was looking down.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
