The iPhone has an application for just about anything. Nature lovers can download apps that identify birds and tracks. Harry Potter fans can create spells and challenge friends to a wand duel with their iPhones. Other apps are designed specifically for work outs. With thousands of apps, you can find exactly what you need – including home security.
Vince Hunter, from Dallas, Texas, downloaded the iCam application for $4.99. While Hunter and his wife were 1,500 miles away on vacation, he received a text message from iCam notifying him that the motion detectors at his home had spotted movement. Using his iPhone, he pulled up the webcams he had installed around his home as part of a security system. On his phone’s screen, he saw two burglars at his home.
“I check the footage, and see in real time guys in this area, and they’re kind of hunched over. They’d just broken the glass. I said, ‘Holy cow, I gotta call 911,’” he told reporters.
After calling the police, he went back to watching the live footage. He said, “They’re in the backyard checking things out. They’re throwing bricks…at the tempered glass and they can’t break it three times. Finally, it appears they wind up and kind of go back in that area, and they just hurl this brick through the glass and…this brick ends up in our living room.”
The broken window triggered the alarm system, and the burglars took off. Hunter watched the police arrive at his home, minutes too late.
The Hunter’s home had previously been robbed, so they installed a home security system including motion detectors and cameras. Hunter can watch footage from the cameras from any computer, but with the iCam app, Hunter receives alerts directly to his phone and he can watch footage from anywhere in the world. After the attempted burglary, Hunter commented, “You know, it was surreal. It really was. The first thing I couldn’t believe is that we could do this on our cell phone. Really? A cell phone?”
Hunter’s home was protected, but his neighbor was not as lucky. Her home had been robbed before the burglars tried to break into the Hunter’s home. Police hope to use the footage from the iPhone to identify and arrest the burglars.
Sources:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/texas-man-watches-home-burglary-iphone-wth-icam/story?id=11477014
