Killer caught on camera – a true story of how you never know when your security camera will be useful
Posted on Friday, July 16th, 2010
How do you know when your security camera will be more useful than planned? Shown above, the Y-cam Black SD in Whitehaven, Cumbria
Many of our customers buy an IP camera from us as they have a specific need – such as protecting their home, or providing security for their business. Rarely do other uses for the camera come to mind – that is of course, until something happens. We hear thankful stories from our users all the time – a camera set up in a garden inadvertently catching a neighbours shed burglary, an office security camera capturing an employee accident, a home security user being able to check if a courier company has actually delivered or not – all uses of a Y-cam camera that the customer did not originally expect.
Prudence it seems can only be truly appreciated with hindsight. You just never know when a security camera might come in handy and you`ll need to call on its services.
Maureen Hogg from Cumbria purchased a Y-cam Black SD at the start of the year. After continued problems with some neighbours, she installed the camera in a wall mounted box as a way to gain evidence.
However on Wednesday June 2nd, her camera would prove to be much more useful than catching her troublesome neighbours – it would help to piece together a timeline of 12 horrific murders.
Derrick Bird’s murderous rampage across Cumbria saw 12 people killed and many more injured in a gun crime tragedy not likened to any other in the UK since 1996. His crimes caused a shocking ripple throughout the nation and the tragedy was felt far and wide.
The terrible climax to the massacre was caught by the lens and microphone of Maureens Y-cam – setup 50 yards away from the coast road where deranged Bird opened fire as he drove along it in his car.
A still from one of many pieces of footage retrieved from Mrs Hoggs Y-cam
The cameras footage, shown recently on the Channel 4 programme “Catching the Cumbrian Killer“, proved of massive value to the Police, who have used it to help establish exact timings of the events that happened that day.
“Your camera has proved invaluable in capturing both the terrible incident and gaining evidence regarding troublesome neighbours. The quality of the footage in terms of sound and image is outstanding for the price of the camera” said Maureen.
Devin Chawda, Managing Director of Y-cam Solutions, commented “If one of our Y-cam cameras was in some way able to contribute to the investigation, then we count ourselves very fortunate to be able to assist in some small way”.
For many Y-cam users, their camera will never, thankfully, bear witness to such an atrocity, but it proves that even a small innocuous camera, set up to watch a commonplace scene, can play a big part in a major crime investigation.
