A television wildlife project got more than it bargained for, when infra-red lighting helped to capture an intruder in the middle of the night.
The CCTV system belongs to wildlife presenter Simon King, and was installed as part of a ‘Fox Family Cam’ project, designed to film a family of foxes living in London and stream live video 24-hours to King’s website.
On January 12 at 3.46am in Herne Hill, South London, images captured under Raytec infra-red (IR) lighting, showed a man climbing over a fence, trying to enter a shed and escaping across a back garden. Metropolitan Police are looking to speak to the man captured in the footage, which coincided with a burglary at a neighbouring house in the early hours of the same day.
The CCTV system includes Raytec Infra-Red lighting, an Axis PTZ HD camera and i-Catcher video management software from i-Code. The CCTV is one of a number of wildlife-spotting feeds maintained by King, including ‘River Cam’ and ‘Badger Fox Feeder Cam’.
The intruder was evidently unaware that he was being watched under IR, the product manufacturers report. The illuminated pictures allow the i-Code software to use motion detection software to alert and trigger the recording of wildlife; and the intruder in this case. Simon King later tweeted that police were “delighted” with the “quality of evidence” he was able to provide.
Simon says: “Anyone can view our network of webcams live through our website and they will often see animals doing the strangest of things – but this is taking it one stage further.”
Watch the incredible footage here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4_Tkx8TMl0&list=PLqgv5OMWKnYYOtZICzWhQ6z_USsj5DFQO&feature=share
For more on Raytec lighting visit www.rayteccctv.com
Visit the dedicated Raytec/Axis microsite to view a video library of both technologies in action: www.raytectapp.com with password: axis username: tappax
