Explanation of images from 335 Regents Rd., Gahanna, OH

Emergency contact numbers:

Sequence of events

When we leave our home for an extended period of time, we normally leave our main PC turned on with it's webcam pointing towards the back door of our house (the most likely entry point for a burglar).  We use software called GOTCHA! that works with the webcam.  When the web cam detects any differences in the view it sees (the sensitivity can be adjusted), the GOTCHA! software is programmed to do the following things:

  1. It starts taking pictures of what the webcam sees and uploads it to our web site at the rate of about once every 1-5 seconds, depending upon how fast the internet connection is working.  It uses FTP and our RoadRunner cable connection to send them.
  2. It sends the same pictures it uploads to two different e-mail addresses, again using the RoadRunner connection.
  3. It uses our RoadRunner high-speed internet connection to send a text page to both of our text pagers.  No matter where we are at in the United States, we'll know from these text pages within 30-60 seconds that someone may be breaking into our house.
  4. It uses the telephone line to quietly send a special numeric page to our pagers.

We turn on a password protected screen saver so that the burglar can't see that the webcam is taking these pictures.  They also can't stop it from doing so unless they unplug the internet connection or kill the power to the PC.

Explanation of the images

Only the last 50 pictures are stored. The ones at the top are not necessarily the earliest ones.  The software sends file names image0000.jpg - image0049.jpg, then resets back to image0000.jpg over and over again. It keeps repeating this cycle, overlaying the old images as it goes. You'll need to look at the time stamps to see which one was the first.  Sometimes GOTCHA! (the software that makes this all work) sends the images too fast for them to be uploaded.  When that happens, some of the images may be blank.

If you see a particularly good one that you think will be good evidence, right click on it and download it to your local hard drive (we'll also have a copy of all the pictures in our two e-mail accounts once we're able to get to them).  That way if the person(s) step in front of the camera again and trigger another 50 pictures, you'll get copies of the original ones before they're overlaid.  In order to see the latest images, you must use your browser's 'reload' or 'refresh' option.  The software we run on our computer to do this is called GOTCHA!.  You can download a free trial copy of it from their web site at:

http://www.gotchanow.com/