When Jimmy discovered plans for a row of executive townhouses on his street, he wondered if his new neighbors would attract burglars to the neighborhood.

So Jimmy installed a surveillance camera that calls the police department during break-ins. Staring at the sensors and the controls, he wondered if it was enough.

He mounted his surveillance camera facing his front door and his bay window and set it to capture an image every fifteen seconds.

Months later, Jimmy took his family to the movies. They drove right past the construction site, where a backhoe had severed a fiber optic cable. Jimmy didn't know it then, but his entire neighborhood had lost their phone service!

Meanwhile, a plain white van parked in front of Jimmy's house.

Three men wearing hooded sweatshirts sauntered up the lawn. One produced a crow bar from his sleeve and smashed right through that beautiful bay window.

Before Jimmy's neighbors heard the alarm bells, those felons had vanished. With no landlines, the alarm system could not contact ANYONE.

Giggles turned to gasps inside Jimmy's station wagon when they pulled up to their home behind two police cars. Never losing his cool, Jimmy led the detectives to his television, it had been too heavy for the thieves to snatch'and activated the remote control for his surveillance camera.

Even with no lights on, the infrared lens captured everything: the broken window, the first thief climbing in and opening the front door for his companions... everything.

It even captured all three of them, taking off their hoods, staring DIRECTLY into that lens.

Not only did the cops know exactly who they were dealing with, but the surveillance camera Jimmy was using put a time stamp on each frame. Now the investigators knew exactly WHEN the crooks made off with Jimmy's things.

That date stamp came in handy the next day, when Jimmy's insurance adjuster looked at the tape Jimmy made by connecting the surveillance device to a VCR. The agent always hated tracking down receipts and evidence for homeowners' insurance cases. This time, he could see who was aking what items and when.

Jimmy got even more good news that week. One of the ringleader's so-called friends saw his picture on the evening news. That friend wanted the small reward from the neighborhood watch association, and he told police where to find the burglars.

Even the fanciest lawyer could not talk his way around that powerful image of the crooks, with their hands on Jimmy's things, stamped with a time and a date for everyone to see.

Jimmy's insurance company fixed the window and replaced all of the stolen goods.

This all goes to prove that having an effective surveillance camera can be usefull in recovering stolen personal property.