11-21-2013, 06:20 PM
Maybe anyone interested in this topic can give me advice, or warning. About a year ago I built a little 10x12 storage shed on a lot in lower HPP so I could store pieces of leftover lumber for jobs I do in HPP and other not very valuable stuff. (I live in Hilo.) It went untouched for about half a year, then I began noticing little things missing, like useful lengths of lumber. A new alarm clock I had there disappeared. At this point, I didn't make a big deal about any of it, since I kind of figured anything I left there was vulnerable. Then as kind of a joke I left a broken flatscreen TV and old tower PC someone gave me to take to recycle there, figuring the thief would save me a trip to e-waste. They disappeared. But now my door has disappeared (cheap hollow-core). None of this stuff has been high value, but it's all been useful, except the electronics, but the thief didn't know that.
The door was kind of the last straw for me, and next I'm expecting my sheet metal roof to disappear. Now I'm a little pissed off, so I've hatched a diabolical plan to catch the thief. For about $150 I can get a GPS tracker that is usually used to trace children:
http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/catego...hildren.do
So the idea is to get something juicy, like a piece of furniture or a second hand computer or electronics device and hide the tracker inside it. The tracker battery lasts for up to a couple weeks and allows you to monitor its position on your smart phone or computer. So I wait until it moves, get the tracking data and possibly the residence location of the thief and call the police.
My question is, is this a good idea, or am I setting myself up for disaster? How open are the police to having amateurs "help" them apprehend thieves? Is there any liability in doing this? One risk is that I might lose the $150 tracker and whatever I put it in. Another is that even if I find out who is taking stuff, the police might not be able to act on the info that I get. What do people think?
The door was kind of the last straw for me, and next I'm expecting my sheet metal roof to disappear. Now I'm a little pissed off, so I've hatched a diabolical plan to catch the thief. For about $150 I can get a GPS tracker that is usually used to trace children:
http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/catego...hildren.do
So the idea is to get something juicy, like a piece of furniture or a second hand computer or electronics device and hide the tracker inside it. The tracker battery lasts for up to a couple weeks and allows you to monitor its position on your smart phone or computer. So I wait until it moves, get the tracking data and possibly the residence location of the thief and call the police.
My question is, is this a good idea, or am I setting myself up for disaster? How open are the police to having amateurs "help" them apprehend thieves? Is there any liability in doing this? One risk is that I might lose the $150 tracker and whatever I put it in. Another is that even if I find out who is taking stuff, the police might not be able to act on the info that I get. What do people think?