my friend has a cabin deep, deep inside wilderness. Unfortunately, recently someone, not so nice, found a place and started breaking in again and again. Costs lots of money and takes pleasure of having such place
He asked me for help, but to be honest I do not have very good idea how to catch a thief!
His idea was to set up something which will find and log imei of the phone visiting the place. Assumption here is, we all have a smartphone with us all the time.
I could not find any way to get imei of the devices near by, so I thought maybe you guys will have other ideas how to give heads up to the police who this might be.
Cameras are too big and energy hungry. We need something easily going on batteries for months.
The most obvious is a camera. But I would not be surprised if some combination of Arduino board and software can do as you suggest. I have no experience, but maybe someone else has.
My bad, I didn't read your whole post. IMEI, you probably can hack it but I don't think it's common knowledge out there.
Many counter measures could be stolen too... or sabotaged.
More bold ideas though: Bucket on the door filled with acid, trapdoor, a megaphone that plays German march music, a stuffed bear on mechanism, release ammonium, hire Bruce Campbell to guard, fill the outside area with skulls and bones.
Wouldn't a standard trail camera or two covertly placed work? They are designed to sit there for days and can take stills and video.
Depending on how deep in the woods the cabin is, you may have mobile phone connectivity - in which case you may be able to get alerts etc.
I have used a Bushnell one in the past. Didn't need the phone network connectivity but they have the option. They also have solar panels for them as well as bear proof housings.
Trail cameras are not that expensive. Batteries last for a couple of months.
The more expensive will transmit. They are harden for outdoor use.
I used one on my boat in salt water for three years no issues
Death traps can land you in prison for 1st degree murder in the US. Maybe watch less TV?
A small direct video camera in single picture mode controlled by an Arduino with person detection could do the trick. Piezo disks provide small power when squeezed that can provide wake-up to a sleeping board. Take 1 pic per second or less onto the camera SD (something like a Go Pro) and it won't fill up too soon.
My suggestion.
A microcontroller in sleep mode.
It is "awakened" by some simple trigger, perhaps a small switch on the door/window.
This way the battery will last forever.
When "awakened", it turns on a camera that takes pictures at intervals of minutes for a while, recording them on a large capacity SD card, and then turns off. And again the Arduino goes to sleep.
I would have just reported it to the police as they have the power to demand this information from the telecom companies.
I know this would work in the UK at least.
That is a good idea. I have been in one of those rooms myself for a demonstration at a security show I was attending. They are quite unpleasant. And you can log when it went off to tell the police when this event occurred so they can make more specific enquirers to the telecom companies.
This entire discussion is based on the premise that the cops will actually do something once you have an IMEI. Whether or not they will is highly variable depending on the police department, and the individual officer.
