“Steve, you’ve had really bad luck with that Prius” my friend Sam mused as we returned home after a journey out to West Auckland to see if we could find the guy who broke into my car.
Yes, that’s right, yet again, between 7:09am and 7:14am on Tuesday 7th September, my car was broken into, for a third time. This time, however, it was in my very own apartment building, in my very own carpark!
Here’s a video of the whole event: Video of guy breaking into my car.
I turned up at my car about an hour later to discover it had been broken into. I sat down in the driver’s seat and felt an unexpected draft on the back of my neck. I turned around to discover that not only had my car window been smashed but my briefcase and GPS were long gone. Nothing of any great value, to be honest.
I reported the incident to the police that day and they suggested I try get some video off the security cameras. I managed to do that and came up with an unexpected bonus: although my perp covered his face against the camera, he seemed oblivious to his getaway car’s license plate number, clearly visible on camera: WS2542. A quick search through CarJam reveals the registered owner.
I have to confess to a certain amount of glee when rifling through the archived video records. It’s not quite CSI, but the idea of investigating a crime, particularly a crime that is relevant to me, is kind of appealing. There was literally hours of footage to go through, but luckily the camera system allows you to filter by motion detection events. Â
So, now I have a name and a car registration? Now what? Well, I sent all of the information I have to the police, but they seemed unenthused about the whole thing. I guess petty crimes such as breaking into people’s cars is not really a high priority. So much so that I doubt anything will be done without my direct intervention. Sam & I took a trip out to West Auckland to see if we could spot this car, but the address had a bunch of characters standing around outside smoking. I awoke at 5:30am this morning and journeyed out there again.
I woish I could say I found him, but all I found were a couple of cars and a bunch of empty car parks. Don’t worry though, this is not the last installment in the saga!