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 wasnt me]

Its disgusting

THAT GOOGLE are ALLOWED to blUr number plates. ITS A crimnuL offense to DESTROY EVIDenCE.

Google MUST BE BROUT to trial.

[Jimmy Floyd]

@It wasnt me

It's OK, I got the (well-crafted) joke. Think it may have gone over the heads of the two downvoters, though...

[Pinkerton]

Joke Alert...

If you're trying to do teh* funnies you need the Joke Alert icon or people will down vote your post.

* sic

[Electric Panda]

Don't get it

Seriously, I don't get it - please explain.

[Anonymous Coward]

It really is OK

Just wait a few minutes, the drugs will kick in and all will be just fine.

[adnim]

Looks

more like a drunk who has just had a piss a the side of his car

[Kenny Millar]

@It wasnt me

Lets see,

Poor grammar, terrible spelling, and a total lack of control of the caps lock - are you sure it wasn't you? After all your computer skills are definitely a crime! ;-)

[Grease Monkey]

@Kenny Millar

And your humour spotting skills?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Grease Monkey

OK, so can someone explain it to the rest of us then please?

[nickrw]

Why is it...

...that the general public will often mistakenly call it "Google Earth" instead of "Google Streetview"?

</petannoyance>

[Steve Roper]

Because...

...you can access Street View through Google Earth by zooming down close enough, and this is probably how the "general public" use it most of the time.

</smugresponse>

[Tempest]

Four points: Google keeps originals; remove wheels from stored trailers, etc.

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!

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry m8 - you are too naive ...

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 ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Choice

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.

[Graham Marsden]

@oliver 8

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 :-)

[Grease Monkey]

No

"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.

[Conrad Longmore]

Here..

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.

[Anonymous Coward]

Glimpse a bit of the reg plate

"If you move down the street a bit you can glimpse a tiny bit of the registration plate."

Only if you have the skills of CSI.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Only if you have the skills of CSI."

Looks like it starts M3 or W3 to me.

[karabuni]

here one minute, gone...

Interesting link - but only got a blurred image, before Safari "Quit unexpectedly" ;

well, not that "unexpectedly", but more so than iDVD for which actually burning a dvd is too much like hard work.

Worked in Firefox, but number plate still blurred.

[Parax]

@karabuni

Run memtest

[Grease Monkey]

Eh?

"Perhaps they can nick him for those illegal looking bull bars too?"

What's illegal about bull bars?

[Flugal]

Face blur

Aren't faces supposed to be automatically blurred by Google?

I'm wondering whether this image straight from Streetview, or one that has been provided by Google on police request with face unblurred.

[Tom 7]

Flugal - Google is American

So they can take anything of ours but we dont get the reciprocal arrangement.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's an easy way to trap him then

Wait until he reports the picture for breach of privacy, and bingo!

[Grease Monkey]

Why?

"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.

[Winkypop]

You choose

< alleged >

Did he just splash and dash OR did he hitch and pinch?

</alleged>

[zaax]

more ?

Maybe cameras should go up and down the street severy year.

Oh hang on they already do with CCTV

[Hans Upp]

@ - Sorry m8 - you are too naive

. . . and I could tell you the story about how in S. Wales, they took a complete working Cochrane Industrial Boiler Plant (i.e. about half the size of a house) overnight when security confirmed, genuinely, no vehicle entered or left the site.

[Anonymous Coward]

Call that a title!

so the Rochdale UFO beamed it away?

Please let's have the method used -you cruel git!

[Danny 14]

easy

pay the £5 an hour security guards £1k each to give a decent report.

[Eenymeeny]

CCTV 2.0

CCTV 1.0: Fuzzy image of someone actually stealing your caravan from your drive

CCTV 2.0: Amazingly clear image of someone "who we think will be able to give us information that would help the police enquiry"