Dimwits in view

When it comes to remotely monitored CCTV, fact is often stranger than fiction – and the hardworking operators at RemGuard Visual Management certainly have the evidence to prove it!

"Sometimes when you see the behaviour of criminals on monitored sites you simply have to shake your head in disbelief!" says Alan Collinge, Director of RemGuard's RVRC (Remote Video Response Centre).

Over the years RemGuard's operators have encountered their fair share of unusual and dim-witted incidents as the following selection underlines:

Well oiled scam
It's amazing the lengths that people will go to in their attempts to deceive. One of the most blatant examples, captured by RemGuard's cameras, concerned two women, mother and daughter, who decided to stage a forecourt 'incident' at a motor dealership.

While waiting for the daughter's car to be fixed, a dishevelled mother told garage staff that she had slipped on some oil, causing her to fall, and was threatening to sue. Upon review of the CCTV images, by RemGuard, it became apparent that the truth was very different. In reality it had all been staged, with images showing the mother coolly handing her bag to her daughter to hold before proceeding to lie down in the oil. Needless to say the mother did not have much success with her claim for damages.

Don't Disturb the Neighbours
Cameras placed around a site can often be unsettling for a location's less salubrious neighbours, as an incident at a car dealership proved. After a camera at the site failed, images were naturally reviewed pre-fail to see what the cause might have been.

To everyone's surprise it was discovered that a man had actually walked across the road, from the house opposite, up to the camera and attempted to physically remove it from its mounting. When the police were shown the images they advised the RVRC that this individual was actually a local drugs dealer, who, being paranoid about the potential for the camera to pick up his illegal activities, had decided to put it out of action!

Returning to the scene
A gang of burglars who targeted a house in Cheshire found that luck was definitely not on their side. Their first mistake was to choose a residence that had just been connected to RemGuard's RVRC. When they made their move an operator was able to alert the police who arrived on the scene to apprehend one of the intruders on the roadway nearby. Another escaped on foot but made the second big mistake of deciding to return later to the scene of the crime to retrieve the gang's getaway car. This was a forlorn attempt as the vehicle had already been taken away by the police for forensic analysis. Once again activity was detected and police directed to the scene. For this particular criminal there was to be no escape.

We Can See You!
Playing a game of 'hide and seek' with the police was not the smartest step for an intruder to take at a Birmingham builders' merchants after he climbed into their yard one Sunday afternoon. His unwelcome appearance at the merchants was picked up immediately at the RVRC where he was seen by operators talking on his mobile phone 'stealing to order'. When the local police arrived he was in, what he thought, was a perfect hiding place behind a JCB. What he had failed to reckon with was his every move being followed on camera. It was a simple matter for operators to direct the police straight to the bewildered criminal's hideaway.

Shaggy Dog Story
One of the most common excuses offered by intruders when challenged is that they are 'only walking the dog', something which always has to be taken with a pinch of salt. This certainly failed to be a convincing alibi for one criminal at a freight depot recently, when the police could find no evidence of the actual dog, and the individual could not even remember the name of his faithful companion! The case was sealed when the only thing the police search revealed were the stolen goods he had secretly stashed away nearby.