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Crime Technology

Across the US, Popular Video Doorbells Are Recording their Own Thefts (digitaltrends.com) 132

Posted by msmash from the stranger-things dept.
There has been an uptick in reports of video doorbells getting stolen, according to local news reports. A story adds: According to the reports, residents are waking up in the morning or coming home at night only to find their video doorbell devices stolen. Typically the devices are screwed into place on the outside of a house, often with mounts or braces to hold them in place. While they are wired into the wall, thieves don't seem to care too much about that. In most cases, residents appear to report the devices have been pried off the side of their home. In some cases, the cameras are able to capture an image of the perpetrator as they are stealing the device. Those images are usually available through mobile apps connected to the doorbell, which might help police track down the person responsible for the theft. However, there's no guarantee that officers will be able to find the thieves, especially if they steal the device while keeping their face and other identifying features covered while on camera. Police are suggesting that people keep track of the serial number on their devices in order to keep track of them and watch in case the devices appear on Craigslist, eBay, or other online marketplaces.
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Across the US, Popular Video Doorbells Are Recording their Own Thefts More

Across the US, Popular Video Doorbells Are Recording their Own Thefts

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  • This is where Star Wars had it figured out (Score:3, Funny)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @06:30PM (#58406614)

    I always wondered about those loose easily grabbable and expensive cameras sitting where they could be easily plucked.

    This is yet another case where Star Wars has important life lessons to offer us, this time on the subject of door security.

    Do you think anyone tried to grab Jabba the Hutt's door security camera [youtube.com]? Hell no and if they tried to grab it even after it came out from the shielding, you can bet the camera could take care of itself (and the grabber).

    So, still waiting for some company to produce the armored and active Jabba door cam. Been waiting for a while now, come on guys!

  • just an idea... (Score:3)

    by kiviQr ( 3443687 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @06:30PM (#58406616)
    ... if they could ring back home "maybe" we could know their location!?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by redback ( 15527 )

      they rely on wifi so will lose connection once they are taken away from the house.

  • And what then? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Fremandn ( 316311 )

    Unless the perpetrator kills someone in the process, are the police going to do anything even if they know who did it?

  • I never figured thieves would be dumb enough to steal what is basically a FREAKING SECURITY CAMERA, but then the stupidity to which criminals will sink has never had a lower limit, has it?

    Aren't pretty much all of these permanently tied to an account so they'd be useless to the thieves anyway?

    • Re:The world continues to surprise me (Score:4, Informative)

      by DRJlaw ( 946416 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @06:40PM (#58406694)

      Aren't pretty much all of these permanently tied to an account so they'd be useless to the thieves anyway?

      It's cute that you think that these are equipped with secure enclaves and such like a cellular phone rather than a hard reset [technipages.com] like your garden variety WiFi router or IoT device.

      Security is something to add in v4 so that you capture a an additional round of upgrades after the early adopters and first wave mass adopters get burned by having multi-hundred-dollar pieces of equipment wander off.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Aren't pretty much all of these permanently tied to an account so they'd be useless to the thieves anyway?

        It's cute that you think that these are equipped with secure enclaves and such like a cellular phone rather than a hard reset like your garden variety WiFi router or IoT device.

        Security is something to add in v4 so that you capture a an additional round of upgrades after the early adopters and first wave mass adopters get burned by having multi-hundred-dollar pieces of equipment wander off.

        You don't

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by dgatwood ( 11270 )

          This. I've been of the opinion for a while that any hardware costing more than $100 should be required by law to have a lock-out feature that prevents unauthorized use, in such a way that if the user locks himself/herself out, it can only be unlocked by the manufacturer after providing the original proof of purchase or some other plausible chain of custody from the original purchaser.

          • Re:The world continues to surprise me (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Zeroko ( 880939 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @08:25PM (#58407144)
            That seems like it might be used by some manufacturers as an excuse to effectively prevent selling of used devices. Which is not to say that it would be a net negative—just that it can be abused.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dgatwood ( 11270 )

              That practice should already be prohibited under the right of first sale (though I will admit that there has been some erosion of that right, particularly with digital downloads). That said, it might still make sense to include some additional consumer protections in such a law, to prevent that sort of abuse.

              • I am not a lawyer, but here is how it was explained to me: You can resell it, but right of first sale does not obligate the original company to re-register the device. If they say that registration costs them money (any amount), then unless they are paid again by the new owner, they are not obligated to provide the service. And they do not have to accept payment from the new owner. So I could legally buy a video door bell device from you (company cannot stop that), but the video of my front door would conti

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                  We really need to clamp down on that hard. Companies use the excuse of not being obligated to provide services to the second owner to make used items basically worthless, and thereby destroy the second hand market.

                  Everything that requires some kind of service to work should have a minimum of 5 years support (longer for long lived things like cars) and that support must be transferable to any new owner.

                  • That's a tricky thing to legislate. I don't believe most of these devices are left alone because the company wants to drop customers. But if the devices don't sell well enough, the company goes under, and the service gets discontinued. How do you legislate that a bankrupt company continue to provide services?

                    I think instead of the 5-year requirement, just make law requiring that any service contract provided to the first buyer must be transferrable to the second buyer, provided the second buyer continues

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

                      You could require that in the event of bankruptcy whoever buys the assets has to maintain the service. If the assets can't be sold then the liquidator should use the money available to maintain the service, or release as much information as possible so that people can set up their own servers or install open source firmware.

                      I anticipate that one of the consequences of such a law would be that devices become less reliant on central servers, which is a good thing. It should also help discourage companies from

                    • Re: (Score:2)

                      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

                      You could require that in the event of bankruptcy whoever buys the assets has to maintain the service. If the assets can't be sold then the liquidator should use the money available to maintain the service, or release as much information as possible so that people can set up their own servers or install open source firmware.

                      Simpler laws tend to work better, so I'd suggest the simpler approach.

                      For any product with a cost of $100 or more, if that product requires the use of servers maintained by the company o

          • Re:The world continues to surprise me (Score:4, Insightful)

            by sjames ( 1099 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @08:53PM (#58407242) Homepage Journal

            Then, possibly less than a year after the thing hits the shelves, the company loses interest and you're just out over $100 because they've been "discontinued".

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dgatwood ( 11270 )

              Yeah, clearly, we need more than just one new consumer protection law. That said, this is already a problem even without hardware designed to prevent unauthorized use (e.g. Jibo). There's certainly reasonable grounds for demanding that any product selling for more than some trivial dollar amount should have a guaranteed period of support, with all of the cloud services, etc. prepaid in advance, and some reasonable surety bond that covers paying staff to continue operating that hardware, perform repairs,

    • Re:The world continues to surprise me (Score:5, Interesting)

      by QuasiEvil ( 74356 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @10:23PM (#58407634)

      Criminals are, for the most part, not the brightest bulbs on the tree, which is mostly why they're only an inconvenience in the grand scheme of things and not a tremendous threat to civilization. It's certainly not the cops (at least not those around here) who protect us from petty crime.

        I had some idiot break into my truck, in my driveway and in plain view of three different security cameras, and steal a variety of rather worthless items - prescription glasses, my old radio scanner, and (worst) my half-broken 3-year-old cell phone (cracked screen, 802.11 radio no longer worked, etc. but I was still using it). Called the cops, gave them the videos that showed the guy's face, and told them the phone was still on so I could get its location. The phone was getting good coverage (gps was reporting +/- 20ft error), and given its presence in a wooded ravine about a mile away known to be a homeless hangout, I suspected it was still with the thief. Literally all the deputy would have had to do was drive over and I'd call it. Bust the guy, haul him in. Nope. We'll take a report, call your insurance company, we don't plan to do anything. Yet later that day, on my way to replace my sunglasses, they had plenty of time to pull me over for 7 over the speed limit.

      • In California, if they don't steal more than ~$1000 worth of stuff, the courts won't convict them. So the police have responded by not even arresting them.
        • Courts? Judges do not decide guilt, so you must be talking about juries. Are you saying your juries find them not guilty unless $1k? How does that happen? Why is your populace so forgiving? Or is it actually prosecutors who will not bring the cases to the court?

          • The court schedules are clogged and everyone involved is fine with a bench trial, so the defense attorney asks for one.

            The jail and prison system reports its expected population levels and how many new prisoners it can take in the next N days. They have to keep space for violent felons, so there's no space for small-time thieves.

            Ergo, the judge doesn't sentence prison time and the system helps this whole process along with a non-custodial plea bargain. Better yet, "everyone" thinks that stayed sentences w

            • For petty theft, there's plenty of punishments that don't involve jail time. Restitution and community service are the most obvious. And the existence of a record is key in the event that future crimes are committed to evaluate fair sentencing then. And let's not forget that a brush with the law for a relatively minor crime can be a big inducement against that behavior for teens, esp. if parents get involved. No, it isn't a panacea, and there are plenty of kids in homes where it would be shrugged off, but i

              • True problem criminals usually wind up arrested in weeks or months at most, so no expungement is going to hide them. I mostly agree that saddling someone with a lifelong criminal history for a single instance of petty crime is a mistake, especially if complicates jobs or housing -- economics is a big driver towards further criminality if legitimate employment isn't an option.

                The lack of jail space is a real issue. I interned in the legislature and was told by our state's prison director that the sentencin

          • Courts? Judges do not decide guilt, so you must be talking about juries

            Judges frequently throw cases out of court. They're not deciding guilt, they're saying, "this case is silly, go home."

            There is a whole world of legal action you are unaware of. You might want to read a book about law and peek into that world. Real law, not Perry Mason.

            • I am aware that judges throw out silly cases, but that's most commonly civil cases. The judges in the states I've lived in (not California, the state in question) generally don't toss criminal charges because that would be a finding of fact, and judges are trained not to do that. They may encourage a prosecutor to drop small charges or encourage a plea bargain (that they do A LOT). But if a prosecutor says that a crime has been committed, and the judge sees that the legislative branch has specified that cri
      • That's because the former is a cost generator, while the latter is a revenue generator.

  • And they just scream STEAL ME. Meshes well with the battery operated wireless security cameras.

    The entire thing just looks like thief bait to me.

  • Free replacement (Score:3)

    by NickDngr ( 561211 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @06:49PM (#58406738) Journal
    I have a Nest Hello. If it gets stolen, Nest will replace it for free as long as I file a police report.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by OzPeter ( 195038 )

      I have a Nest Hello. If it gets stolen, Nest will replace it for free as long as I file a police report.

      Sounds like a business model!

      Yes officer, it sure is strange that I've had 3 doorbells stolen in the last week.

    • How many thefts before the police tell you to screw off and keep valuable electronics inside your house?

    • Killer (Score:4, Interesting)

      by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @09:04PM (#58407292)

      I assume they then blacklist the serial number of the stolen camera rendering it useless. This is what all electronics companies should do. Make it absolutely clear that any stolen device with a serial number that needs to talk to home base to operate becomes useless once stolen.

      Ideally, if you try to configure a stolen device, a big flag comes up on the phone/tablet/computer you're using to do the setup informing you the thing you are setting up has been stolen and is a useless piece of junk. Even better, QR code on every device you can scan with their app and see if it's been recorded stolen or not.

      • So I should take my phone with my app over to see your cameras, and scan them into my app. Report with the app, these, my scanned camera list of my hardware was all stolen. Please disable it, if you cannot melt them on top of the perpetrator in possession of them.

        But they were mine, you attempt to say. No, no. You sold them to me, and stole them back, to repeat with more victims.

        Have a paper weight. They would not waste money on a department of humans to sort out the messy tales. They will just disable, and

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The first time. It has a limit of 1 use. And they won't repair the wall that the perp ripped it out of.

      Also your home insurance will go up due to having filed a crime report.

    • Then the next one will get stolen. Rinse and repeat. Useless cameras. Just install a normal cam where they can't reach it pointed at the door. Maybe in a spot they don't expect it to be away from the door.

  • Stay tuned! Maybe thieves will be back for the replacements.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      they'll be back before then to swipe the amazon and other online orders that end up getting left on your now camera-free porch.

  • Ring already has instructions in place if this happens. Good news, they will replace it for free. https://support.ring.com/hc/en... [ring.com]

  • Ring replaces your doorbell for free when stolen. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    What to do if Your Ring Device is Stolen
    Question: My Ring device was stolen! What should I do and is there anything that Ring can do to help me?

    Answer: Yes. Ring has a procedure and policy in place that will help you get a free replacement Ring device as quickly as possible after your Ring device has been stolen. The remainder of this article contains the steps you should follow.

    Immediately report the theft to the police. Before you do anything else regarding your stolen Ring device, you should report the t

  • Police report transcript (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I reported mine stolen:

    ME: Are you gonna find these guys? I mean, do you have any promising leads?

    Police: Leads, yeah. I'll just check with the boys down at the crime lab. They uh, got uh, four more detectives working on the case. They've got us working in shifts.

  • Just why the hell would people steal these things? I guess people will steal anything.
    • Because some people do this kind of thing for fun; some do it on a dare; some might get a kick out of the irony of stealing a security camera; some just don't like that you have something they don't. This is why we can't have nice things.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Envy.
  • Serves em right, the paranoid dweebs.

  • If your Ring doorbell gets stolen, they have a form you can submit to them along with a copy of the police report. Upon receiving the paperwork, they'll send you a free replacement doorbell and blacklist the one that was stolen.

    https://support.ring.com/hc/en... [ring.com]

  • Wrap in an aluminum shell wired to the house mains.

    110V isn't usually lethal but it will make your arm go numb for hours.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ELCouz ( 1338259 )
      I think in the US you could be sued for that...even if you are the theft.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Not sued. Convicted of a felony. Most states outlaw lethal booby-traps. If it actually kills somebody, it's usually charged as capital murder.

  • A couple of days ago, Teslarati reported a case in which a Model 3 caught video of a thief breaking in that showed both his face and his license plate [teslarati.com]. From the article:

    the Tesla owner noted that he was simply informed that an officer might look into the incident

    The emphasis on "might" is mine.

    Given that replacing the rear window on a Model 3 will likely cost quite a bit more than your typical video doorbell, I'd be surprised if you even get a "might" from the officers on the doorbell. In fact, they'll likely be annoyed if you make them do a report.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      They will not do anything. I had my back door kicked in and returned home during the breakin. First off the lookout was amazing relaxed about it. She pleasantly said she was picking up her daughter (she was parked in my driveway), I said no her daughter was not there, she had the wrong house. She left. I thought nothing of it until I came in the house and noticed it ransacked in the computer room. The perp had managed to stow a telescope and laptop on the side of the yard on his way out. I called 911, and t

    • The police generally don't care about shit like that. I've had my vehicle broken into and they basically told me to take it up with my insurance company. Unless you live in some kind of small town where nothing happens and something like that is the news for the next month, the police are probably massively behind on murder, rape, or other more pressing cases. Unless they happen to be there to arrest someone while they're committing a crime, the odds of getting anyone are slim. At best they catch the perpet

  • social de-evolution (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sdinfoserv ( 1793266 ) on Monday April 08, 2019 @07:59PM (#58407060)
    Police "suggesting" that people record serial numbers and "patrol" craigslist, fb market place, eBay, store bulletin boards.. what nonsense. Either the police actively will work a crime or they won't. Apparently personal property crime has become such a banality, law enforcement have abdicated their responsibilities. We as citizens shrug with little recourse other than conscientious objectors, must accept the fact the US is one step from anarchy.
    This reminds me of the early 1970s when crime was so bad all the cops could do was recommend you get a gun to protect yourself.
    • Just upload the picture of the thief to Facebook, which will auto tag it for easy public shaming.

  • Those images are usually available through mobile apps connected to the doorbell, which might help police track down the person responsible for the theft. However, there's no guarantee that officers will be able to find the thieves, especially if they steal the device while keeping their face and other identifying features covered while on camera.

    Deep-fake donuts into the images to encourage improved recovery rates.

  • I would think that the doorbell companies could mark a doorbell as stolen by the MAC address or another internal identifier. The same way that cell phone companies or laptop companies do. Then stealing the doorbell would make them worthless.

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