How dashcams solved my house break-in case
Two years ago, I felt that something amiss when I woke up and found my handbag mysteriously perched behind the door of my guest room.
I shrugged it off at first, thinking it was just one of my “blonde moments” or that my robot vacuum must’ve pushed the bag there.
Several hours later as I was out and about, it was only then I realised that my purse was gone, and my Kindle e-book reader was nowhere to be found.
It hit me that my home might have been broken into.
However, as my husband and I checked the entry points for possible signs of forced entry, there were none.
My husband was convinced that I had accidentally dropped my purse and Kindle while grocery shopping the night before especially since none of his belongings went missing.
To be frank, a part of me started to believe it too but the thought of me dropping something as big as my Kindle without noticing - it just didn’t make sense.
Anyway, we reported this to the building management and went to the police station to report the incident as I lost my MyKad and license along with the purse.
I told the police sergeant of my suspicion that someone possibly broke into the house, as the handbag was not in its original spot but I just wasn’t sure.
In the midst of all the uncertainties, I’m not going to lie, a part of me was scared that I might be charged for lodging a fake police report – they might think I made it all up just to get away with the charges of replacing my MyKad which could cost me hundreds.
Few days went by, I kept track of my bank cards since. I decided not to cancel it to see if there were any activities to prove that my instincts were right – that they were in fact stolen. However, I couldn’t detect any suspicious activities.
In that moment, it dawned on me that I must have dropped my stuff somewhere, and now there’s no chance of getting them back.
Suddenly I received a call from my building manager, who told me that another house was broken into - the same level as mine.
The perpetrator apparently had jumped from the ledge into the yard and stole my neighbour’s wallet and car key.
He then went to my neighbour’s car, a pretty fancy one with dashcams that works even when the car engine is off.
Unlike my case, where my bank cards had no activities, my neighbour received a request for TAC number merely hours after it was stolen, which had him suspicious and immediately scoured his home for his wallet and car key.
When he couldn’t find it, he went to check if his car was still there. It was.
He decided to check the footage of the dashcam to see if anyone had gone to his car and sure enough, the dashcam managed to capture the perpetrator’s face.
My neighbour immediately lodged a complaint with the building manager and brought the footage along with him.
As the management staff reviewed the footage, another resident of the building walked in and recognised the perpetrator right away.
Police were immediately called in, and the same sergeant who had been investigating my case came since he had a record of my case in the same area.
Now, since the perpetrator was a tenant in the same building, the police immediately went to the house unit and arrested him.
Finally, I was able to find my identification cards, my Kindle and my neighbour was able to retrieve his missing items as well.
Two things I learned from the incident?
- Dashcams and CCTVs are so important – I know the looting of my stuff is a small case, but it helped in a small crime case, it could help in bigger crimes.
- Don’t listen to others, always trust your instinct!
