We have a problem where I live with thieves coming around trying doors on cars and houses etc. They are more or less impossible to identify with security cameras as they dress in generic clothes and put a scarf around their face etc.
Got me thinking however, they will no doubt all be carrying a phone. Is is possible to get some info off their phone passively (e.g. wifi network), that could be used to by the police to identify them.
In short requirements are, something that can be collected legally from a phone that could be passed to the police for identification.
That entire depends on where you live and what privacy laws apply there. If in doubt, contact your nearest police office for advise.
One thing you can do, is register what wifi connections are made to your home hotspot. It helps if you allow guest access to the web (obviously not your internal home network!). This will generate a list, which then can be searched by authorised law-enforcement officers for matching devices. Note that ISP’s also have similar data on these phones, which can pinpoint a device pretty accurate to within yards/meters.
you can open a wifi spot which can auto connect to any device that is looking to connect.
but the phone has to solicit the connection from your wifi.
your wifi cant dial out to any device it sees and try to connect to it.
it can be left scanning so it just sees any wifi device that comes in range.
but logging the devices could be seen as a privacy violation.
so before you do anything READ!. or you could end up in hot water turning up to the cops with a log of ip’s
You’re fighting the good fight, but you are missing the fact that the police won’t do anything about it, at least here in Houston they won’t
I saw people going into unlocked cars and stealing stuff, got it on camera as well as the licence plate of the car they arrived in. The police won’t do anything unless I was a victim of the crime
Dollars to donuts the police will do obsoletely nothing about something checking door handles
I’d probably start by rigging a switch to my door handle, which goes to a remote controlled relay, which goes to a 12V siren. An extra remote to carry around, but it’s guaranteed to draw attention to anyone who tries the door handle.
A taser attached to the doorknob… or a hidden pepper spray kit activated by the AI when it detects movement on the camera.
There have already been videos using water and a high-pressure sprinkler triggered on a motion sensor.
I’ve also seen people try to use cameras with loudspeakers and scare away by turning on the voice.
Personally, however, I would go for electric or gas sensations or rubber bullets for a shotgun.
The mere fact that someone touches the handle is not a crime, although personally I would prefer that no one touches my property.
Thanks for the replies folks. You more or less confirmed what I knew, no easy solutions. I did manage to get my camera to turn on a siren if it detects a person. See if that scares them off.
I live in the UK so there is a small chance the cops might do something but if I electrocute someone it will be me that goes to jail!
I’m not an engineer, but making the touch of metal activate a switch/whatever is used in a lot of consumer products. So this isn’t a stretch or rocket science.
Yeah, booby trapping your house and hurting or injuring people is not a thing that is legal in most countries. I remember some dude using a taser trap whenever he left his property, from a local newspaper article a couple of years ago. It actually hit some DHL guy delivering a package. As if they don’t have enough trouble with aggressive dogs already…
So a neighbour spoke to a cop that came round. Apparently they are having a lot of problems with kids riding around on stolen mopeds (which they alter the number plates of) and scanning for cars that they can unlock with a scanner. They then come back at night, open the car (or if might even be still open) and take stuff from the car. Reminds me of war driving but that is a different conversation.
Anyone know if it is possible to detect the signal from a scanner and be able to tell its a scanner and not someone actually trying to unlock their car? I was thinking that if the scanner can be detected then I could use that signal for something useful. E.g. turn on all the lights, set of a very loud noise (release the hounds) etc.
Not really, usually those scanners have a signal that won’t travel far. So I doubt you’ll be able to pick it up, unless you’re close. But then you could see these criminals and more importantly, they see you! Which may not actually be a good thing
Anyway, make your neighbours aware of these offenders so they keep their cars locked. And take their valuables out of their vehicles if they want to keep them. This is a clear case of the curse of wireless: “Look, I can unlock my car from 100ft!” actually means: “Look, criminals can get to spoof my key exchange from 100ft and I can’t do anything about it as I simply don’t know about them spoofing”. So, don’t use the remote, (un)lock the car with the pointy bit of the key, you know, the thingie that you actually stick into the car, like in them oldie days?
Inconvenient? Well, how about the inconvenience of no longer having expensive tools and/or electronics in your car so you can’t do your job anymore and thus loosing business (==money!)
They will be close enough to detect the signal as they are on the street in front of the house, but I will be in bed asleep/out of the house when they use it so I will perhaps not see them. My keys are in a faraday bag so it doesn’t work on my keys and I never leave anything in the car.
What I was suggesting is that if I can detect the use of the scanner that might give me the opportunity to do something. E.g. wake me up so I can call the cops/alert other neighbours and so on. I would need to be able to tell the difference between the scanner and a neighbour unlocking their car.
Usually the scanners are performing a replay attack or are transmitting a known vulnerability in the original keyfob signal so while you might be able to see the signal if you had an SDR it would most likely just look like someone pressing the unlock button on their remote.
Now, this would probably be illegal but you could have a Tx SDR with a small amplifier and then just jam the keyfob frequency so that no one could use their keyfob, Flipper, SDR, etc. in a small area around your house.
not being funny mate but you have a bit of reading to do.
on the law and how it pertains to surveillance and monitoring of public spaces.
there are all sorts of laws and pretty much everything you have mentioned breaks em in most countries.
so yeah, do some reading mate cos you could end up in trouble yourself doing some of the things your thinking about.
I’m not sure if those who mentioned booby traps are serious or not, but in case someone took them seriously, I think it’s important to reiterate booby traps are usually illegal; so don’t pass current to the door knobs, setup spike traps, etc…
Also never discharge your firearm for warning shots. Only use it if your life is in danger and the round should go into your target’s center mass, not into the ground/sky. Also get training if you have a firearm. Training is extremely important.
Intentional RF jamming/unlicensed RF transmission is also illegal unless you live somewhere with no government jurisdiction.
This is what i have, some times when transporting quite important goods. You could easily adapt it to a stationary version. And even better if you got a 4G/5G antenna you could just have it see who connects to it when they get near.
