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svu 300x225 Law & Order SVU Fan Helps Catch a CrookEvery day hundreds of people watch their favorite TV shows and say to themselves I wish I could be like that, well Justine Faeth made that a reality. The New York native took after her favorite show “Law & Order Special Victims Unit” and used some skills she had learned to catch a crook.

Faeth was at work when she saw a suspicious man walk into the office. She saw the man steal an employee’s purse, an iPod and a wallet. She also saw the man drink a cup of water and blow his nose before he left. Using the skills she had learned from Law & Order, she quickly collected and kept the items as evidence for police. Sure enough, the police were able to use the DNA samples taken from the cup and tissue to help track down the perpetrator.

Faeth has recently been seen on NBC’s today show along side Actress Mariska Hargitay, who plays a Law & Order detective. Faeth was praised for her quick thinking and there were even talks of her having a walk on roll in the show. [...]

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iphone gps using cell tower triangulation 286x300 iPhones GPS System Leads to Capture of iPhone BanditsA man was robbed at Shady Side on Saturday. He was approached by three men, who demanded that the victim turn over his phone his wallet and his pin number. The man complied and later contacted police while looking up the location of his iPhone through its GPS system.

Through the use of GPS technology the police were able to determine the last few stops of the criminals as well as determine their exact location. The police were then able to arrest the three suspects at a local gas station. The suspects were identified as: Bryant Rather, Brent Ray Potter, Myron Knox Jr.,  all age 22. The men are currently being held in police custody after being found in a gray SUV with all of the victims items. [...]

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koop burglary Citizens Taking Law Into Their Own Hands Using YouTubeLindsay Lohan did it, Audrina Patridge did it, and now a couple from Atlanta is turning to YouTube to help find the criminals involved in the recent break-in of their home.

When the Koops were robbed last October, they posted the surveillance video detailing the crime on YouTube. The video shows three men kicking in the Koop’s front door and running out with the couple’s flat screen TV. Thanks to the surveillance video, the police were able to locate and arrests the burglars involved.

When the Koop’s home was broken into for a second time, they once again turned to YouTube for help. The newest video shows some men breaking into their home, grabbing an assortment of items, and making a fast getaway in a black SUV. The men were unaware of the fact that they were being watched and broadcasting to the Internet community.

Apparently YouTube is more than just silly homemade tapes and music videos, and has started to serve a serious security purpose. Only time will tell if YouTube will locate the criminals involved in the Koop’s home invasion.

(Via CBS Atlanta)



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iraq surveillance Baghdad Looks to Improve CCTV System to Prevent More AttacksThe men and women employed by the Baghdad Security Surveillance Center are paid to help detect suspicious activity and prevent catastrophe. But more often, the cameras simply provide a way to look at the carnage from a distance. The center, which was started about a year ago, uses different stations to monitor 113 cameras spread throughout the city of Baghdad, as well as officers with radio scanners to help prevent disaster. Yet even with all this only five percent of the city is actually being monitored.

The Director of the security center acknowledged that the center still has a long way to go. As of right now the center is understaffed and not open around the clock. Besides that even though they have 113 cameras in use not all of them are functional at all times. Each work station is responsible for monitoring 10 of the active cameras. Last Wednesday they were able to detect suspicious activity but within 20 seconds of noticing it a bomb exploded killing nearly 100 people. [...]

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spectrum 100x100 custom Spectrum Magazine Recommends BrickHouse Securitys GPS Tracking Systems to Keep Tabs on Wandering ChildrenSpectrum, a magazine geared towards the autism and developmentally disabled community, recently featured our GPS tracking systems as an efficient way to keep track of wandering children when they are off of your own property.

“There are also personal child locator systems you can purchase to find your child if she wanders away from your at home or while out shopping or at the park. They cost from as little as $19.99 for a “Giggle Big” locator with a 150 foot range to more than $1,000 for a tracking GPS system within your home. You can go to BrickHouse-ChildSafety.com to see an assortment of systems.” [...]

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gut 100x100 custom Gut Aussehen Magazine Showcases the DVR Camcorder Pen Camera RecorderGermany’s popular men’s fitness magazine, Gut Aussehen, recently featured our DVR Camcorder Pen Camera Recorder in their Camcorder round up. [...]

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gps map GPS TrackingGPS loggers and trackers have become really popular lately, and for good reason too. They make it easy to track where your loved ones, assets, and vehicles are at all times. You can place a small GPS tracker in a briefcase in case it gets lost, into a package to make sure it gets to where it’s supposed to go, use a spy GPS for a car a teen your concerned about is going to use, or you can give it to a loved one as a security measure to make sure that they can be found if they are ever lost and in distress. [...]

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billings pic2 209x300 Home Security System Catches Murderers On TapeWhen a murder takes place, investigators are usually left with few clues. There is much speculation on how the murder could have occurred and who could have done it. Sadly, Byrd and Melanie Billings faced a similar fate when they were found murdered in their Pensacola, Florida home. Thankfully the Billings took precautions that left investigators with a crucial piece of evidence: a home security system video.

The video shows almost every detail of the crime, from the time the intruders broke into the home, to the murder, and the eventual removal of the family’s safe.

The police have used the surveillance video to help determine a list of suspects: Leonard Gonzalez, Jr., the alleged mastermind behind the crime, as well as Wayne Coldiron, Donnie Stallworth, Gary Sumner, Frederick Thornton, and 16-year-old Rakeem Florence, who are all considered accomplices in the robbery and murder.

With the help of the hard evidence provided by the Billings’ home security camera, the six men in this case will be help accountable for their actions. If convicted, the five adults involed are facing the death penalty, while Florence (still a minor) potentially faces life in prison.

(Via Fox10TV.com)

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cell spy 300x183 Hackers Crack GSM Encryption For Full Access To Private Phone CallsIf you think that your phone calls are safe from third parties, you may want to think again. Members from the hacking group called The Chaos Computer Club plan to release a code that will supposedly give hackers complete access to your private phone calls. They claim that it can be done with a simple laptop and an antenna.

They also claim that various government criminal organizations already use this technique to break the encryption that protects your calls. GSM uses algorithms for key generation, authentication, and to encrypt its connections. The Chaos Computer Club has found a way to crack the encryption used on GSM phones that can be used to decode conversations and any data sent to or from your phone.

Mobile carriers are working towards a stronger encyrption algorithm for 3G wireless phones, in the meantime programs like Cellcrypt offers encryption beyond what your cell phone carrier can offer.

(Via CNET)

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towtrucks 300x199 GPS Fleet Tracking Catches Tow Truck Thief In Florida  Someone snuck into a Fort Lauderdale towing company’s parking lot in the dead of night. Someone believed they could be reckless, and that they were above the law when they stole two tow trucks. Someone believed that they would never get caught. What these someone’s didn’t understand was that GPS tracking could and would put an end to their hair-brained schemes.

Fort Lauderdale police arrested two men on Saturday for the theft of the tow trucks. Both were equipped with GPS tracking devices, which had been used to track all movement of the tow trucks during the time they were stolen. A number of stolen items, including car rims, were found in the suspects collection of goods. Police did not immediately identify the men.

Jason Parrett, owner of the Fort Lauderdale repossession truck company First Response Towing and Recovery, said the GPS tracking units were crucial in finding the missing wreckers.

“Without it we wouldn’t have found the trucks,” said Parrett, who has all three trucks in his fleet hooked up with GPS technology.

Parrett said that he was alerted by an employee early Saturday that the trucks were missing and reacted to the situation by pulling up their locations on his wife’s BlackBerry, which is linked to their GPS units to give the company maximum oversight.

After GPS maps showed Ford F-450′s in Oakland Park and the Lauderdale Manors section of the city, Parrett’s drivers were able to find one F-450 abandoned in Oakland Park. When the other was located on Northwest 13th Avenue, the driver observed a man taking the wrecker. The truck was followed by the driver and eventually abandoned when the culprit realized he was being followed.

The GPS system’s activity report was so efficient that it basically did all the police’s work for them, showing where the trucks had been, places where they had been parked for extended periods and how fast they had been driven.This information was used to arrest the culprits on the 1700 block of Northwest 13th Avenue, a location listed in the report.

“The detailed activity reports in these are disgustingly accurate,” Parrett said of the system, which cost him $300 to install and $20 a month for airtime for each of his three trucks.

(Via Miami Herald)

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bank robber1 Famous Bank Robber Gets His Own BillboardA serial bank robber has robbed banks in Georgia, along with Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. In each of these bank robberies he is captured on the surveillance cameras sometimes posing for the camera and making no attempt to hide his face. He often sneers at the camera and brandishes his gun in the faces of the FBI officials reviewing the tape.

The FBI has decided to use the bank robbers arrogance against him, by putting his face on electronic billboards all across the southern United States. The FBI stated that the bank robbers targets have spanned for at least 600 miles north, and about 500 miles east. The FBI believes that the billboards will help in bringing this modern day John Dillinger to justice.

(Via WSB Radio)


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jayceelee 300x225 Abducted Child Jaycee Lee Dugard Found Alive, 18 Years LaterToday, after 18 years missing, abducted child Jaycee Lee Dugard walked into a local California police station.

Dugard was last seen walking to her school bus stop in Lake Tahoe on June 10, 1991 where she was grabbed by an abductor.  Dugard’s stepfather witnessed the abduction and heard the child scream before being forced into a vehicle, which prompted a statewide manhunt for the young missing girl.

Today, 18 years later, a woman claiming to be Jaycee Lee Dugard walked into a California police station. The woman, now 29, was interviewed by the FBI and the Dugard family, who is now convinced that this woman really is the little Jaycee Lee Dugard they lost 18 years ago.

“I had personally given up hope,” stepfather Carl Probyn told press. “I had just hoped for a recovery” and to find the people responsible. Instead, he said, “I’ve actually won the lotto.”

Authorities have been unable to confirm whether or not this woman is the true Jaycee Lee Dugard but have planned a press conference for 6 p.m. ET. Two suspects are in custody: Phillip and Nancy Garrido, two residents of Concord, California.

Jaycee’s stepfather states, “She sounds like she’s okay,” he said. “She had a conversation with my wife and she remembers things. I hope she’s been well treated this entire 18 years.”

Authorities are waiting on DNA before confirming whether this woman is really Jaycee Lee Dugard.

(Via ABC News)

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lindsay break in photo 255x300 Detectives use YouTube to Solve Lindsay Lohan and Audrina Patridge Burglaries The homes of both Lindsay Lohan and Audrina Patridge were recently broken into. Now both actresses are turning to the internet to help bring those who are responsible to justice. First, Patridge posted a surveillance video from her home security system onto her website for others to view. Then the LAPD went ahead and posted the surveillance video from Lohan’s house on Youtube in hopes that someone would recognize the perpetrators. With both of these videos on the internet, police were able to compare the two and as a result there are now suspicions that the burglaries may be related. The police believe that the people shown in Lohan’s security video and those shown in Patridge’s video are one and the same. Aside from possibly having the same suspects the two cases share other similarities. [...]

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lock comp Lawsuit Tries To Attack Hackers Through Their Victims In the never-ending war against shadowy Internet criminals, gangs based in Eastern Europe that electronically break into business computers, steal banking passwords, and transfer the money are a particularly dangerous and mysterious group. With their methods, they are hard enough to defeat as is, but they are also being accidentally aided in their actions through an unlikely source.

A lawsuit was filed on Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia against this group of hackers by Unspam Technologies, an organization that gathers volunteers to discover information about spammers and other online rogues. In a refreshing bit of honesty, the lawyer for Unspam, Jon L. Praed, admits it is very unlikely the company will ever discover the name of these hackers. He claims instead that the purpose of the suit is to obtain the details of the thefts, the names of victims and other information from the compromised  computers in an attempt to increase security. The banks that have been affected by hackers are usually very reclusive in cases like these, therefore inadvertently aiding the hackers. By forcing the banks to give up information, Praed believes that security can be improved and the hackers can possibly be discovered.

Mr. Praed, who is head of the Internet Law Group in Arlington Virginia, has successfully used these “John Doe” suits (so called because the unnamed defendant is identified only as John Doe), to get information from third parties that can be passed to law enforcement and then used on civil suits to go after the main party. Back in 2007, Praed helped Unspam file a suit for the purpose of gathering info on illegal Internet pharmacies and their supporters, though its results are unknown.

“This lawsuit is intended to provide all those being victimized by this massive criminal enterprise the opportunity to come together to gather the data we need to fix the problem at a systems level,” Mr. Praed said.

While it seems that Praed believes he is fighting the good fight, banks may fight back against his subpoenas, even if they’re getting hurt by these hackers.

Banks do not want to get involved in these lawsuits and cases for a number of reasons. They argue that it’s a poor idea to publicize the techniques used by criminals in fraud cases or those meant to thwart them. Wit more information out in the open, it may only lead to more fraud attempts. Banks also want to keep these cases quiet to preserve the confidence and confidentiality of their customers.

“Banks are not the perpetrators of these crimes, and banks are spending tens or hundreds of millions of dollars of industry dollars trying to prevent those acts from taking place,” said Scott H. Frewing, a partner at the Baker & McKenzie law firm, which represents major banks. “The use of John Doe lawsuits to draw them into a civil litigation fight just raises the cost on the banks in a way that the courts may not sanction.”

Mr. Praed said that he hoped his John Doe lawsuit would encourage banks to improve their electronic defenses. “Unless we want to go back to putting our money in a mattress, more needs to be done.”

(Via New York Times)

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