There’s no doubt, however, that a sophisticated surveillance system can help (more than harm) a civilized society. In some cases, people committing horrific crimes were caught … thanks to video footage from security cameras. The following list of the 25 Craziest Criminal Acts Caught on Surveillance Videos might surprise you. Clearly, the wise use of sophisticated systems by public security officials help provide security to society. They also made another, more serious mistake. They failed to notice there were internal security cameras, which were capturing every move they did in a centralized surveillance office. Police found low-resolution images of the young abductors from the shopping center’s CCTV system in what may be one of the most shocking crimes in modern British history. He worked at Pennsylvania Hospital and was arrested in 2005 after security camera footage linked him to the murder of coworker Patricia McDermott, a radiographer in the hospital. But that wasn’t his only crime. He would later confess to multiple other murders and attempted murders as well. She equipped her home with surveillance cameras after that first incident in order to keep an eye one her home from work. One day while she was at work, she checked in on the cameras and saw her house being actively robbed again. She called the police immediately and the thief wasn’t as lucky the second time around. He got arrested. Soon after the incident, Groubert was fired from the state Highway Patrol and pleaded guilty to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. Unfortunately, the riots caused more deaths and hundreds of injuries to both police and rioters. After the rioting stopped, however, hundreds of arrests took place thanks to surveillance footage of the events. Individuals were charged with pretty much anything from murder to theft. See, the identification of the two men and a woman happened after police released footage of them from earlier in that evening. Coincidentally, a Twitter user who had seen them while going to work identified the perpetrators and made the police officer’s work easier on the specific case. The homeowners were truly terrified by the burglary after watching CCTV footage and realizing how easily the crooks burst inside their property. However, the local police officers didn’t get as terrified. Instead, they identified the thugs and arrested them shortly thereafter. The bombs killed three people, including a pregnant woman, and injured 140 people, four of whom lost limbs. It needed the meticulous examination of endless surveillance footage to identify, discover, and arrest David Copeland, the scumbag behind the “Nail Bombs.” In 2011, two guys got caught stealing cows from a Florida ranch. How? With a surveillance camera used to track down the cattle rustlers. Unfortunately, the cattle were sold at an auction and sent to be butchered before the perpetrators were caught. For the record, the “cowboy,” Ashdon Gibbs, was caught on camera drinking a beer, making himself a meal, and watching an Atlanta Braves baseball game on TV in a house he had just invaded. The dude had some nerve for sure. Five weeks later, her remains were discovered on an abandoned property in nearby Albemarle County. After reviewing all of the footage, again and again, police identified a suspect on the cameras named Jesse Leeroy “LJ” Matthew. The man turned out to be the one responsible for Graham’s death and was charged in the case. Local police were aided by cops from Maryland who viewed surveillance footage and connected the dots back to a man they suspected of a crime in their jurisdiction. The police then tracked down the car that was used in the crime, rescued Freeland-Gaiter, and arrested the man. Footage from several surveillance cameras, pieced together by an amateur detective, helped to solve the boy’s disappearance. Kletzky was tracked on the cameras before he seemed to disappear with an unknown man. Unfortunately, the dismembered body of the boy was found in the Kensington apartment of Levi Aron and in a dumpster in another Brooklyn neighborhood a few days after Kletzky went missing. However, a video from the local Walmart’s camera revealed that George Tiaffay and Noel Scott Stevens had bought dark clothes and a hammer there. The camera of another store nearby, showed them buying a knife and gloves several weeks before Shauna’s murder. Further, Tiaffay had talked to Stevens 87 times in the month before the murder of his wife. An officer who wasn’t involved in the welfare check later broke into the home and rummaged through the house. He was seen on surveillance footage allegedly opening containers and putting their contents into his pockets. For that reason they decided to check surveillance tapes. The medical staff members were literally shocked to find out that she tried to smother her own baby four times with a pillow within 15 minutes. Her body was never found but her murderer, David Gilroy, was convicted two years later after his actions were spotted by a wide variety of surveillance devices. He learned the hard way that CCTV footage, mobile phone records, emails, and shop receipts leave behind an “electronic footprint.” Surveillance videos played a very important role in identifying the Tsarnaev brothers, as they exposed their movements during the Boston Marathon and subsequent bombings. The four men were pulled over by a Grand Forks County sheriff’s deputy. When the sirens came on, though, they dashed from the car in separate directions. Rather than give chase, the police tracked the suspects with Qube, an aerial drone with four rotor blades, much like those widely used by hobbyists.
