Identify this car?

[Mr. Scram]

my mind is saying Mazda,

edit: looks like the new 2019 model rav4,

The backlights look very different.

[Mr. Scram]

ok, My guess is a 2016 Mazda CX-9


(Attachment Link)

The license plate cubby-hole doesn't seem to be the same.

[tooki]

In Portugal that would be impossible to change the camera position and show a street, regarding privacy laws:

Yep. Here in Switzerland it would also be illegal. (Indeed, dash cams are a legal gray area here, which the law has yet to adapt to.) But the OP is in USA, where filming in public is legal.

(IMHO, USA is loooooong overdue for some basic privacy and data protection laws, but that’s a whole separate topic for some other venue than eevblog.)

[Mr. Scram]

There may be enough frames to do some stacking to improve picture quality. People are a bunch of dicks.

[Black Phoenix]

In Portugal that would be impossible to change the camera position and show a street, regarding privacy laws:

Yep. Here in Switzerland it would also be illegal. (Indeed, dash cams are a legal gray area here, which the law has yet to adapt to.) But the OP is in USA, where filming in public is legal.

(IMHO, USA is loooooong overdue for some basic privacy and data protection laws, but that’s a whole separate topic for some other venue than eevblog.)

I'm not totally sure but dash cameras and Go Pro cameras on the motorcycles are now being used by their respective drivers, but insurance doesn't accept the images as proof in case of accident. And images can't be used to sue the other driver without the police taking care of the case and be on site.

To be sincere in this case, I would love that Portugal was like the USA. Probably there would be a different angle pointed at the licence plate for example if it was happening in Portugal. But still they don't leave parcels outside in Portugal, they call the contact in case one was given, and if not, they go back and they try to redeliver next day. Or leave a postal in the mail box to were to pick up and when.

[tooki]

I’m totally in favor of dash cams, and IMHO they should carve an exception into the law about using them, as they have such a clear, undeniable benefit in accident reconstruction. I suppose I’d be  ok with there being restrictions on how one publishes the footage, such as blurring out faces and plates, or not being allowed to put it on YouTube and such.

If I owned a car, I’d almost certainly get a dash cam.

[Bud]

OP you need to clean your gutter, seems to be heavily clogged right at the downspout connection.

[nctnico]

If this is too far off topic please feel free to delete it but I'm hoping with enough eyeballs someone out there can identify the make, model and possibly even year of the car that stops at the end of my driveway before a blonde girl gets out, runs up and snatches the mail right off my porch then hops into the car which drives off before her foot is even off the ground. I have filed a report with the local sheriff and am going to provide any additional information I can get.

For starters you have to move your camera so it catches the face of anyone entering your property.

There are physical constraints on where I can place cameras and everything is a compromise. I have others but this one happened to capture the best view.

A video doorbell is a good solution. The better ones have wide angle lenses, night vision and motion activated recording. Hook it up to a VOIP connection and you can get a (video) call if someone is at the door while you are away and talk to the person.

[james_s]

I'll try to get to everything in one go here.

I cleaned the gutters and swept the roof off 3 days ago, it's October in the Northwest and the maple trees are shedding like crazy, it's a futile battle until they're finished, I'll clean them out again next weekend.

That's the annoying thing, I *have* a secure locking mailbox out by the street, but for reasons that are beyond me the mailman left all my mail right there on the porch when he delivered the pack of boxes (which are free so whatever) and picked up the two outgoing parcels I had stashed back in the corner out of sight. I've had many dozens of parcels sit on my porch and I have *never* had something stolen until now. I'm just glad they stole the stuff they did, and not the $350 worth of goods I'd left out there since the night before for the mailman to pick up. I did examine the footage from earlier to verify that those were picked up properly and not stolen.

I have thought about placing another camera down near the edge of my property looking up the street. I don't know whether that's technically legal here or not but frankly I don't care, I've never heard of anyone being charged for such a thing and the courts have well established that there is no right to privacy out in public. I'm perfectly free to walk down the street anywhere in the country, camera in hand taking photos and videos of anyone and anything I want, I don't see how a camera on my property looking out into the street is any different. If criminals were not roaming around victimizing innocent people, there would be no need for cameras in the first place but here we are. I have no interest in spying on my neighbors, the only time I ever even check my cameras is when I'm expecting a package or an incident occurs, usually it's a mole ripping up the back yard or a raccoon getting into the trash can.

A video doorbell would not have helped here, my doorbell button is on the side facing across the porch and the thief covered her face. I have clear video of her walking up the driveway which would have captured her face but it didn't because it was covered. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYOgp78lZPo&feature=youtu.be

The worst outcome from all of this is that I suddenly no longer feel safe having packages delivered to my porch when I'm not home, and that has never been a problem before. Of course usually the delivery person has the sense to not leave something leaning right against the front door in plain sight, that is when they manage to deliver it to the right house and not the next street over or the place next door.

[Mr. Scram]

A video doorbell is a good solution. The better ones have wide angle lenses, night vision and motion activated recording. Hook it up to a VOIP connection and you can get a (video) call if someone is at the door while you are away and talk to the person.

Video doorbells are a privacy nightmare and that's even before taking the proprietary cloud situation into account.

[andy3055]

I live in the east bay in Concord. There is an app/site called Nextdoor Sierra where people can share information, exchange goods and services, sell stuff they don't want etc. etc. I found it very useful as people always share this type of video clips and someone else identifies the culprits some times. It is also helpful to the cops. Even the city officials are on it. I believe this is a service available in a lot of areas. My relative who lives in San Diego has joined Sierra in that area.

Not sure where you are. This might be something to look in to. It is totally free as well.

See below:

https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/

[james_s]

Yep, already posted it on Nextdoor, already found one other neighbor who says they had a package stolen by the same people around the same time, says he has video footage too with a better view of the car and the female accomplice driving it. I've reached out to him and also gave the deputy I talked to his contact info, with any luck we'll get a few more data points over time. If I can get his footage I'll post it here too, I'm very impressed by the car image that was stitched together from the video frames.

When this sort of thing happens around here it's usually someone who drives in from some neighboring community, in this case judging by the appearance of the suspects, the relatively expensive late model car being driven, the overall idiocy of stealing worthless items and the general area, I'm betting these are a couple of relatively stupid young girls driving driving their yuppie parents car out looking for easy drug money or toys to play with.

[andy3055]

cAgreed. Some of them are looking for checks in the mail. Some are looking for credit card statements so that they can hack your accounts. I must say my postman is a gem in that regard. He will leave the package near the door but never the letters, even if they came the same day! I was thinking he should but now I am glad he does not.

We had our cul-de-sac mail boxes left open one night and the next day I put in a lockable box. When we go away for a few days, I stop the mail and so far, it has worked well. I must get cams installed. Waiting for Costco to give a deal during the holiday season.

[james_s]

I've been pretty happy with the Amcrest IP cameras and NVR that I have. The software pretty much sucks however ALL of the mid range camera systems seem to be based on the same ancient Chinese software. I'm a fan of wired PoE IP cameras due to the flexibility, I have mine all plugged into a network switch that has a group of PoE ports and then a group of regular ports that I have all my other gear wired into. I've played with some wireless cameras and they're a pain, less reliable, some of them are uselessly flaky and will drop off the network right when you need them. Also you have to run power to them anyway so in many cases it's not much harder to just run a single CAT5 and be done.

Once I got mine all dialed in I use the mobile app most of the time which is decent. If I need to access the web interface on the NVR or cameras I fire up Internet Exploder (uhg but whatever) and use that, it's the only thing I still use that crusty old browser for. The only time I ever do that is to pull video off it onto my PC, I could also do it locally using a mouse and monitor connected to the NVR but it is locked away in a relatively inaccessible location so I access it remotely over the LAN.

[andy3055]

Looks like you have it under control. 

[james_s]

I got some videos from a neighbor showing a much better view of the car, I was surprised to see that it is in fact a Toyota. Unfortunately no front license plate, illegal in this state, not sure if they took it off for their spree or if they never had it, that doesn't seem to be widely enforced.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/84lpwcfclvcvjhe/3_Package%20_Thievery_2019-10-28.avi?dl=1

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uc4q4r33bs0rw4b/4_Package%20_Thievery_2019-10-28.avi?dl=1

[Black Phoenix]

Well in China most if not all parcels are delivered into this boxes:



You then receive a message at your phone with the location of the box (normally close to your residence) and a code to insert in the screen and for it to open the door. It works wonders, bigger parcels are delivered at home or left near the security guy outside (most buildings here have a security person at the entrance of the building or at the entrance of the compound).

Why don't create a door to a small room outside secure were the parcels can be dropped when delivered or construct something like this?





I don't remember where I saw but some guy developed a shot system were the box outside was something like these and then after the parcel arrived inside it had a system who would slide the box to inside the house using a motorized arm.

[james_s]

Personally I'd rather cut the hands off of thieves, maybe after a while they'd start to think twice about taking things that belong to others. I should not need a big locking box attached to my house.

[Black Phoenix]

Personally I'd rather cut the hands off of thieves, maybe after a while they'd start to think twice about taking things that belong to others. I should not need a big locking box attached to my house.

Yes I understand and perfectly agree with you. But the world is not like that and unfortunately 2 disappear, more will appear and do the same.

OK so basically the car made us all wrong, that what's happen when you have all brands making cars the same way with the same lines and some distinct changes only.

[james_s]

Yes it's ridiculous how similar cars all look these days. Well hopefully now we can get a positive ID on it, I'm not a Toyota guy but the image in that video from the neighbor is clear enough that someone familiar with the model could surely ID it.

[Black Phoenix]

Now with this best image, is the Toyota Highlander 2015:











The headlights curve upwards as in your video, the back window is the same angle and the front grill have the chrome. Probably a facelift model or extra options on the trims since the back not totally add with the extra chrome trim.

[james_s]

Excellent! I think what looks like chrome trim in the back is mostly just clear plastic that is part of the tail lights.

[Psi]

The wheels on that first white toyota pic match up better to the car.
The metal is more of a V pattern.

[james_s]

I actually saw some wheels that look very much like the ones on the suspect car on a Lexus SUV today, which is of course just a rebadged Toyota.

[BrianHG]

It's a girl.....  A little less compression and you would have nailed her face in the second image I posted.