How to catch a "thief"?

[Eigen]

This goes out to all you adventure-game-problem-solvers. Here's the problem ..

I live in a 5 storied flat and all the apartments have a cellar. Recently someone has decided that he's/she's iron sawing skills need refreshening on your picklocks .. (s)he broke our lock but didn't steal anything. Dad bought a new and bigger lock which was also sawed open soon. (See the image) Again, nothing stolen. Not that there is anything to steal ... first time the grill was taken out from its box but seems it wasn't interesting enough.
I know it has to be someone from our staircase(?) - there are four staircases and we have 15 apartments - because the front door is locked and outsiders can't get in easily. There's also someone who likes to read our newspaper from time to time and not liking to return it, but that's not the issue.

So, help me figure out a way to catch whoever is doing this the next time the "thief" tries. I'd like to say a few words to her/him. I just can't stay in the cellar all night every day to wait until the thief comes. I wish I had a camera with night vision .. it would be perfect. Or this exploding ink pad like they use in banks .. I also had an idea to arrange a "noisy" delivery of something big that we would store in the cellar. Like bringing a bike but in a way, that the possible thief would see us bring it in and then wait until (s)he tries to steal it. But that's too extreme I guess, or not.

Also, don't say to call the cops. They are useless. Once dad's documents and wallet was stolen from the hallway when we were all at home, but the door was unlocked by accident. Now, 5 years later police replied with a letter that the investigation has been closed.

All ingenious ways to solve this problem are more than welcome.

[Nikolas]

hmmm...

Very interesting...

Question: you want to actually catch the thief or stop him from ever doing it again? Cause stoping him, only takes some kind of alarm (simple system, door opens, break the circuit, alarm goes off...

Catching him, would require that you:

i. Have access to peoples faces (say, for example you had a camera, and saw me sneaking in. How would you find me?) But if you are certain they are from your level, then no problem with that really...
ii. Go there very fast to catch him/her in action.
iii. Leave some kind of mark (sprey?).

In general catching him/her is much much harder than stoping him/her.

BUT, here's an idea:

There are in commercial stores, simmple devices with soft light. Put it on the floor, someone passes over, stops the circuit, something happens. If you have a camera or something, and could arrange it to take a photo, you would be fine I guess. Or arrange for the camera to be in the cellar, and take the photo once the door is open.

Potential problems: Thief sees the camera and steals it (plus avoids problems)

Silent alarm? Door opens, you get a beep noise in your room. you go and check cellar.

Again this could work with some kind of circuit, which when broken emmits some kind of sound in your room (considering it's not a km away or something, and you can find a way to connect your room with the cellar)

[ManicMatt]

Put like a baby monitor in the cellar and lay down some crisps or something thats noisy but not well spotted, and when you hear *crunch crunch* from feet walking on the crisps, GO GO GO!!

Or er, don't.

Edit: Ah yes, Nikolas comes up with these high tech things.. think of mine as a low budget alternative haha

[brewton]

Ah, hey Eigen! It's been years, old buddy!
What you should do is camp inside the cellar. When you hear the lock being cut, yell "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?". That should freak whoever it is out enough not to do it anymore. It's probably a kid or something just trying a bit of vandalism. If it's a huge fat f*ck, then you're kind of in trouble if he takes offense.

By the way, do you have my new MSN address? It'd be great to catch up.

[Andail]

Sleeping in the cellar to catch a thief is bound to give you plenty of nights with little or no sleep, and lots of stress.
If nothing ever gets stolen, just don't bother locking it.

[Gilbert]

Also, if you really sleep there you're more likely to be hit right on the head by a crowbar (or worse, as the "thief" probably uses a saw) without any reasons (since the "thief" broke into the cellar without good reasons anyway).

[Hudders]

1. Go to video store.
2. Rent "Home Alone".



Best thing to stop them from doing it again is to make sure there's something slimy and wet for them to slip up on when they come through the door. As it's a cellar, it's reasonable to expect that kind of surface down there, (after all, underground rooms are originally built primarily as a flood defence), so one could make the arguement that "accidents happen" should you become involved in one of those stupid lawsuits.
Enough water would probably be enough to make it reasonably slippery but for added effect, (and realism), water out of a dirty fishtank or pond would work a treat due to the algae in it.

Failing that, any assortment of drawing pins, micromachines or marbles would do fine.

[radiowaves]

Maybe the so called "thief" wants your cellar, do you have 2? We had porblem like that in our house...

[Ali]

Hire a thief to catch a thief.

[RickJ]

Here are a couple of things you could try.

$20 Solution

• Fill a 5 gallon gas can with 1-5 pounds of sugar and gasoline.
  
• Store in locked basement.
  
• Wait for neighbor to turn up with F#@KED UP car, motorcycle, or whatever.
  
  $200 Solution
  
• Buy wireless low light webcam.
  
• Record webcam daily to your computer.
  
• Wait until breakin and then review recording for that day.
  
  

[ShadeJackrabbit]

I like the 200 dollar solution.

[Radiant]

I'm thinking booby traps.

Take a large log of wood, suspend it from the ceiling by means of some rope, then wire it to swing at the doorway when the door is opened. Add sharpened stakes to taste.

Spoiler

Ok, so that wasn't serious go with the webcam instead.

[close]

[Hudders]

I like the $20 solution.

Something like that would work well. Something you could place in the cellar that at first glance looks worth stealing but which will backfire on whoever steals it.

[Cino]

I just love the way you're all thinking like it's a quest

[neelhound]

put a plastic expensive looking necklace on a table at the end of the cellar as bait, maybe with a few others for it to look more realistic, then put one of those nets on the ground in front of it so when he steps on it he gets captured and held in a suspended net.

[Hammerite]

You should post this in the hints and tips thread.

[Hudders]

Attach a strong electro-magnet to the padlock so that when the thief comes along with his saw, it'll get stuck to the lock. All you have to do is turn off the magnet and you've got yourself a brand new saw!

[radiowaves]

Just try combining all the items in your inventory with everything.

[mouthuvmine]

That might be the funniest thing I've ever seen on this site, radiowaves.

I lieu of spending hours mixing your inventory about, try a more direct approach...do you know and trust any close by neighbors?

[Erenan]

On first glance, I read neelhound's post as "plastic explosive necklace." Imagine my confusion when a net was suggested. Why would you need a net to catch someone when you've got an explosive to blow him up?

Seriously, all you need to do is set up a lever that says, "Pull me." And then when it's pulled, a door opens, thus releasing a hungry tiger.