Of chavs and webcams
On February 4, 2005, a serial burglar called Ben Parks broke into a Cambridge (UK) apartment. Unfortunately for Ben Parks, the apartment belonged to Duncan Grisby — a programmer who had set up a webcam with a motion detector (I am pleased to say he was using Linux and the open-source project Motion), and had the camera pictures uploaded off-site. The burglary was recorded in grisly detail, and the pictures were used as evidence for Ben Parks’ arrest and conviction. (Sidenote: I didn’t realize that burglars really do wear striped sweaters and carry large black bags.)