CCTV November roundup

Published on 30 Nov 2007

Plans to install live-feed CCTV in London buses have been shelved while a cost-benefit revue is carried out. The system was trialled in September and declared a success after he signal was lost for only two minutes in four days. The estimated cost to install the system is &20 million pounds.

Meanwhile, on London's other major means of public transport, teenage thugs were doing their utmost to help police catch them after they mugged another teen for his iPod and mobile phone. Pictures from a London Underground train show the muggers posing for the cameras before changing their minds and trying to hide their faces. Unfortunately for the intellectually challenged crooks, their features can be clearly identified.

A less obvious, but equally effective, way of identifying a felon was demonstrated when a criminal was convicted thanks a unique birthmark on his buttocks.

Aaron Williams was convicted of a vicious knife attack on another man after a professor of dermatology was able to confirm that CCTV images of the attacker's lower back and buttocks matched that of a picture of Williams taken by police after they arrested him. Williams top had ridden up as he leant across a counter to stab his victim revealing the blemish.

And finally… The Lancashire Evening Post reports that staff at a garden centre have had a close encounter with the beyond after spotting what they thought was a Christmas tree thief on the centre's CCTV system.

Garden centre boss Brian Aughton went out to confront the stranger but was unable to find him. He said,

"I came back in and Claire [Kenyon, garden centre manager] was shell-shocked. She said: "you ran right through him".
"When we tried playing it back on the infra-red cameras there was nothing there."

He added:

"We thought it was someone after pinching Christmas trees. It was amazing. To be honest, I didn't believe in ghosts."