Identify this car?

[Rerouter]

The accomplice also looks to have a beard that meets his mustache, either black or a dark brown hair colour, and slightly tan skin.

[james_s]

It looks like Bonnie might have a tattoo of a butterfly on both sides of her right ankle?

Well spotted, exactly the sort of info needed!

If it's in a small town/suburb lookup who does pedicures in the local mall/shopping area and ask them if they know who it is.

Unfortunately Woodinville is a small city in itself but a major suburb of Seattle. It along with Bothell, Redmond, Kenmore, Kirkland and the larger city of Bellevue all blend together and have many millions of people. This whole region is built out, the cities all join back to back.

Somebody out here has to know these two though.

[tooki]

This is really like CSI... Don't mess with EE and IT guys...

Reminds me of the case of the P-p-p-powerbook. Oh, the joy of an internet scorned, LOL!

(I don't remember the details, but on a Mac forum I used to be an admin on ages ago, the community also managed to do some sleuthing on a scammer, which culminated in a cop going undercover as the FedEx guy to catch the scammer accepting the package! And then there was the time our resident troll managed to get people so annoyed that someone reported a post of his, containing a totally empty threat to the POTUS, to the Secret Service, resulting in him getting a home visit by the FBI!)

[james_s]

I just got word from another neighbor that the same people in the same car rolled through again yesterday, got into another neighbor's garage and car so if they're ever caught that's a breaking & entering or possibly burglary charge. Gotta say I'm floored that they would be dumb enough to hit the same street twice in one week, perhaps they do live or work nearby. This whole area is affluent but there are much fancier wealthier neighborhoods just minutes away from mine where they surely could find a much better haul. The two days that it happened were the same two days I went to the office downtown and wasn't around, grr.

So maybe a bait box is in order, I found a nice laptop box at work, has a nice conspicuous HP logo on it, and we have a number of furry companions who produce copious amounts of vile carnivore poop soo...

[james_s]

Got another video from another neighbor, hey this is fun, and to be somewhat on topic it can lead to a discussion on security cameras, hardware and technique.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/d50a85bmvgf9qfp/AAAcnaOSRrSZQqXzV2mzMvJMa?dl=0&preview=Video+Oct+31%2C+8+36+43+AM.mp4

[Rerouter]

well it depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go, but if enough neighbors have security cameras in the area, and you suspect they are no more than a few KM away, you can track them,

Main point is you need at least 1 camera per street, or if the routes are limited, 1 camera per route, you have the rough times, so you drive up the road until you spot someone with a camera, ask them if they would be willing to share the footage between X and Y time, if they are willing, and lock in or rule out what way they continued on,

Seeing as they are hitting the same places, they probably stick to a rather predictable route, so you may be able to figure out what direction they are coming from each time,

[soldar]

Try to place a cam in a place where it will get the car rear plate clearly.

[Mr. Scram]

I just got word from another neighbor that the same people in the same car rolled through again yesterday, got into another neighbor's garage and car so if they're ever caught that's a breaking & entering or possibly burglary charge. Gotta say I'm floored that they would be dumb enough to hit the same street twice in one week, perhaps they do live or work nearby. This whole area is affluent but there are much fancier wealthier neighborhoods just minutes away from mine where they surely could find a much better haul. The two days that it happened were the same two days I went to the office downtown and wasn't around, grr.

So maybe a bait box is in order, I found a nice laptop box at work, has a nice conspicuous HP logo on it, and we have a number of furry companions who produce copious amounts of vile carnivore poop soo...

Is there footage or other proof of them breaking into that garage?

[SilverSolder]

Bait, yes...   but most importantly, a hidden camera that can see the license plate!

These two don't think they can get caught, so they are not being careful.

[jogri]

So maybe a bait box is in order, I found a nice laptop box at work, has a nice conspicuous HP logo on it, and we have a number of furry companions who produce copious amounts of vile carnivore poop soo...

I would suggest that you don't prepare a bait box as that will alert them that you have noticed their little adventures and are pissed off enough to spend time packaging such material. Chances are that they will move to another location were no one expects them yet.

Instead, why not use that laptop box to its full intend? If you have a broken laptop you could use it to hide a old android phone inside with a gps tracker on it. That way, you get their home location instead of hoping to get them identified via pictures. If you make it look like the laptop was poorly packaged and has suffered damage on transport, they probably won't question why someone shipped you a broken laptop. And i bet they won't bother disposing it outside their home, so you just have to give their adress to the police and enjoy the show. And even if they do, you can still retrieve it via the tracker.

Edit: If you do this, make sure to include a laptop charger as the ultimate "battery is dead, please bring it home and plug it into a wall socket" sign. That should decrease the chance that they will just dump the laptop if they unbox it in their car and it doesn't boot.

[andy3055]

So maybe a bait box is in order, I found a nice laptop box at work, has a nice conspicuous HP logo on it, and we have a number of furry companions who produce copious amounts of vile carnivore poop soo...

I would suggest that you don't prepare a bait box as that will alert them that you have noticed their little adventures and are pissed off enough to spend time packaging such material. Chances are that they will move to another location were no one expects them yet.

Instead, why not use that laptop box to its full intend? If you have a broken laptop you could use it to hide a old android phone inside with a gps tracker on it. That way, you get their home location instead of hoping to get them identified via pictures. If you make it look like the laptop was poorly packaged and has suffered damage on transport, they probably won't question why someone shipped you a broken laptop. And i bet they won't bother disposing it outside their home, so you just have to give their adress to the police and enjoy the show. And even if they do, you can still retrieve it via the tracker.

This is a great idea. If you pull out the Optical drive  (from an old laptop) it will have enough space for a tracker. For that matter, you can use any other piece of gear and gut the insides to do this using any cardboard box.

[james_s]

Hm I will consider that. In the meantime I do have a spare camera I was going to install elsewhere that I can put out by the street, I need to buy a new box of cat5 though as I'm almost out.

I think I may have seen them drive by today actually, I was out in the driveway setting up some halloween decorations when I saw a familiar looking Toyota SUV pass by out the corner of my eye as it went up the hill. I stood there for a minute or two waiting to see if they came back before going back about my business and then shortly after I walked away they drove back down the hill. It was certainly suspicious at any rate, I've reached out to the same neighbors to see if they have any footage from that time, I'm gonna be really annoyed if it does turn out to be them as I was right there and with just a bit more patience could have caught a high resolution pic of their rear plate as they went by.

[GlennSprigg]

This is really like CSI... Don't mess with EE and IT guys...

I REALLY hope he found those PRICKS eventually. However in regards to what you say....
I always laugh when TV shows like that show a fancy control room, with the latest high
tech computers... and some Senior person says to the Computer Operator....
"Freeze that, and zoom into the numberplate"........
The 'scene' cuts to someone from a speed typing course 'Typing Madly' on the keyboard !!!!
MAYBE they were 'typing'... "Zoom-In-On-That-Ford-Number-Plate-20x".... sigh....
Never a simple 'mouse-drag' etc....  The 'producers' make themselves look so stupid !!!   

[drussell]

If you log an open wifi access point with a decent antenna you might catch their mac address and phone name.

[Syntax Error]

With a long range (100m) class 1 Bluetooth adapter/dongle, it may be possible to scan for either the fugitives phones or, the Toyota Highlander itself - as it has integrated Bluetooth phone tethering and other toys. You would need an always on device and some Bluetooth scanning software to log the timestamp of all pings, but setting this up would be well inside your skillset and budget. The Bluetooth adapter just needs a line of site of the sidewalk and an aerial/Rx sensitive enough for the lower power clients.

[james_s]

Yes if only image enhancement worked anything at all like it does on TV, I would gladly settle for an order of magnitude less but in reality the enhancement that can be done is very limited. That said, I do wonder if it's possible to gather a significant amount of visual data from a series of moving frames and interpolate it into a still image, a bit like what was done with the initial captures of the vehicle image.

The WiFi and Bluetooth angles are intriguing, admittedly I have never even looked into doing something like that, I ignored Bluetooth for a long time and only recently started using it with wireless headphones, trying to capture information from it sounds interesting. The thief was wearing yoga pants without pockets so there was probably no mobile phone on her person but I would be shocked if there were not phones belonging to both perps in the vehicle.

In the meantime I've been hitting some Toyota forums looking for an expert and have tried reaching out to a couple of local dealerships, my hope is that somebody will be familiar enough with the nuances to give me a positive ID on the model, year, rims, paint code, etc as I would be able to do for a 80s-90s Volvo. I also set up a spare camera under a shrub looking right down the street so if they strike again I have a reasonable chance of capturing the license plate.

This process has made me realize that the lenses on the cameras I have are far too wide angle for capturing details. They are great for surveying overall activity over an area but when it comes to trying to grab things like faces or license plates they are nearly useless. I think I need to find a couple of cameras with much narrower FOV dedicated to license plates and the face of anyone entering or leaving my property. A camera to catch them leaving is probably a good idea as most people will expect the cameras to be looking out away from the house toward things that are approaching and not the other way around.

[SilverSolder]

[...]  I do wonder if it's possible to gather a significant amount of visual data from a series of moving frames and interpolate it into a still image [...]

Yes, that is possible, but this kind of "stacking" image enhancement basically works by reducing noise -  i.e. there actually has to be a signal buried in the data that can be unmasked, for it to work.  The video footage is compressed, so details are not just buried in noise, they have been eliminated intentionally by the lossy compression algorithms.

[james_s]

Ah, yes that's a good point. This may be one of those areas where analog has a distinct advantage, though it also has the disadvantage of significantly increased noise and economical analog methods of recording video never were very good. I think in my case the best option is going to be the brute force digital approach, adding a couple more cameras of much higher resolution with much more narrow FOV. It looks like Amcrest now offers a 8MP camera with a 4.0mm lens for 88 degree FOV vs the 3MP cameras with 2.8mm lenses, something like 118 degrees. I think I might also install a concealed camera looking up toward the front door from the end of the walkway, I can build or repurpose a small decorative item to house it inconspicuously.

[james_s]

I think the rims on the vehicle are ALY75162U 18x7.5, one of the available factory rims for the 2014-2018 Highlander. Anyone disagree?

https://www.hubcaphaven.com/c/495/toyota_highlander_wheels_rims.html

In the process I noted that playing with the gamma correction can bring out a considerable amount of detail I couldn't see well before, so it may be worth having a play with that on the original raw video files.

[Psi]

With a long range (100m) class 1 Bluetooth adapter/dongle, it may be possible to scan for either the fugitives phones or, the Toyota Highlander itself - as it has integrated Bluetooth phone tethering and other toys. You would need an always on device and some Bluetooth scanning software to log the timestamp of all pings, but setting this up would be well inside your skillset and budget. The Bluetooth adapter just needs a line of site of the sidewalk and an aerial/Rx sensitive enough for the lower power clients.

i think bluetooth uses a random MAC address, so you wouldn't get an uniquely identifiable info. Would just get the name of the car and phone which will probably be stock.

[james_s]

So funny thing, while trying to figure out why the hard drive in my NVR fills so much faster than the one in the similar system I installed in my mom's house I discovered that all of my cameras have been saving a snapshop once per second all this time. This resulted in a handful of still shots of significantly better quality than what I've been able to grab from the video. I cropped them down to just the relevant content because the raw snapshots came up to almost 22MB.

The annoying thing is had there been one more snapshot between two of the car driving away I almost could have had the license plate.

[floobydust]

She has ankle tatoos?

[Ed.Kloonk]

She has ankle tatoos?

I never understood why crims have tatts. It just seems counter intuitive.

[james_s]

I never understood why crims have tatts. It just seems counter intuitive.

I've wondered that too, however I think it largely comes down to the fact that poor judgement tends to be involved in putting someone into a position where they're swiping packages off of porches instead of being at work.

I'm not entirely convinced those are tattoos though, they look like they certainly could be, however they could also be skin tight socks similar to the yoga pants she's wearing.

[tooki]

She has ankle tatoos?

I never understood why crims have tatts. It just seems counter intuitive.

As someone with lots of tattoos, I wonder this, too!

I never understood why crims have tatts. It just seems counter intuitive.

I've wondered that too, however I think it largely comes down to the fact that poor judgement tends to be involved in putting someone into a position where they're swiping packages off of porches instead of being at work.

I'm not entirely convinced those are tattoos though, they look like they certainly could be, however they could also be skin tight socks similar to the yoga pants she's wearing.

Tattoos aren’t a sign of “poor judgment”, only of different priorities. I’m very aware that my visible tattoos aren’t helpful in the job market, but it’s a cost I’m willing to pay, because the personal benefits to me outweigh that.