| How To Show Masked Gunmen A
Permanent Exit - Surveillance Article
"Another Saturday night," groaned
Thomas. He mopped up a mess of spilled beer at the back of his
convenience store. Some punk knocked it off the shelf, then ran out
the door without even apologizing. As he bent down to pick up the
shards of broken glass, a heard what he could swear
sounded like snakes hissing. He straightened himself up -- and
stared directly into the barrel of a shotgun.
"You stay where you are, old man, and you stay alive," growled the
masked gunman. The gunman glanced at his accomplice, who was
spraying black paint over the lens of the security camera behind
Thomas' register. The accomplice hopped down from the counter and
flashed a thumbs up sign at the gunman.
The gunman ripped the ski mask from his face and complained. "I hate
those things," he said. "I can never see what I'm doing. Now, open
up the safe and you get to live."
Thomas complied, moving behind the counter to enter the manual
override combination into his counter safe. He piled all of the
evening's receipts into a brown paper bag and passed it along to
the thieves. The lead gunman boasted on the way out the door, "You
see? When you pick the right place, you can do these jobs in style.
No goofy masks, and no hurry!"
Thomas just smiled. As soon as the thieves pulled out of the parking
lot, he called 9-1-1. When the detectives asked Thomas to provide a
description, he smiled and said, "I can do a lot better than that."
Everyone in the room stared at Thomas'
split-screen security video. They watched the thieves disable
the parking lot camera, followed by the blacking out of the two
inside lenses. But a fourth frame showed everything that happened
that night, especially the unmasking of the robbers.
"I don't get it," one of the cops said, craning his neck around the
room. "They cased this place out and took out the cameras. How'd
they miss that one?" Thomas grinned and pointed at the exit
sign, a pinhole security camera peeked out at everyone in the
room.
"That sign does a lot more than show folks the way out of the
store," Thomas said. "It shows criminals the way off the streets."
Sure enough, Thomas captured crystal clear images of the thieves
practically staring into the camera. Once those pictures hit the
local news, the cops had them both in custody within a matter of
hours. They hadn't even had time to spend the money.
And they looked better with the masks on.
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