Two weeks ago a customer called with a problem he was having at his business. He owned a big restaurant-had it for years. It seems more than his customers were enjoying his inventory. He was missing products out of his freezer and walk-in the refrigerator almost on a daily basis.
He had two shifts of workers with close to 100 employees so it was not obvious who was guilty. Most of his employees had been with him for years. He thought his manager was honest but wasn’t really sure.
What he needed was another set of eyes to see what was going on when he couldn’t be there. He needed something that would catch the thieves and catch them red-handed.
I suggested the all-inclusive wall clock hidden spy camera with built-in DVR. He is good at what he does but is technically challenged like a lot of us, myself included. He ordered one and picked out a spot that would show the doors to both the walk-in and freezer. It replaced another wall clock so as not to arouse any suspicions.
After reading the instructions he realized how easy it was to use. He set it up when no one was around and made sure he got the 50-degree viewing field just right.
The next day using the remote control he started recording. He set the speed so he’d get a high-resolution picture. At 12 fps and 640X480 resolutions, he could get 48 hours of medium quality recording time on the 8 GB SD card.
Of course, the motion-activated feature makes sure there is a minimum of “dead” time. The date/time stamp feature will be useful in any legal proceeding and can pinpoint “whodunit.”
Very few procedures of collecting evidence are as strong as a video recording of a crime being committed. That’s why surveillance cameras are so popular in businesses all over the world.
After two short days, Bill had his guy. The wall clock hidden camera showed one of his cooks making way too many trips to the freezer and walk-in and going out the back door instead of back to the kitchen.
He confronted his cook with the evidence and quickly got an admission of guilt and resignation. He is not sure if he’s going to file charges.
