Whanganui criminal gets a surprise when stolen security camera records him in his bedroom

The man was charged with receiving property and sentenced to 40 hours of community service. Photo / Bevan Conley

A convicted criminal was unaware the stolen CCTV camera he bought from a gang member was streaming live video from his bedroom to the phone of the person it was stolen from.

Mark Andrew Lowe returned the Arlo camera to its owner, an older woman in Whanganui East, after being notified that photos of himself in his room were posted on a public social media page.

Weeks earlier the security camera was stolen from her property.

The woman's daughter said the footage wasn't great and there were no identifiable images of the person who took the camera when it was first stolen, so they did not report it to the police at that time.

"It was dark and they were trying hard to stay off camera, so there was not enough for any concrete identification," the daughter said.

However, the older woman was confused to receive a notification on the morning of August 7 to say her camera was live again.

"She said she could see someone on the camera," her daughter said.

The camera was live inside Lowe's bedroom.

The camera is a battery-powered Arlo device and uses wifi to stream and save the live video feed from the camera to the owner's phone, only when it detects movement.

The Arlo system was connected to her phone and would send her notifications if someone came up her driveway in Whanganui East.

"It's not often they set it up and stream it for you," her daughter said.

"He was just doing what people usually do in a bedroom, he talked to himself a bit, lay down on the bed, get up. Nothing untoward."

A report was filed to the police that day due to the clear images from the video stream.

Her daughter made a post on a Facebook community page with two screenshots, saying if the person in the photos contacted her she would take the post down.

"I thought someone is going to know this joker."

Within an hour and a half she said the post received over 200 comments with many people identifying the man and his approximate address.

"The feed has audio as well and you could hear a girl ring him and say 'have you not seen Facebook? There's a camera in your bedroom and it's live streaming.'"

The daughter said he then looked straight into the camera and turned it off.

She said people knew what street he lived on; it was the same street as the older woman.

"The Arlo has a range that's not huge, and it only reports back if it's in range. So once we figured that out, we thought he must be pretty close."

In the end, he was closer than they thought.

"Once we got all the information from the public from the Facebook post, it narrowed down to being the house next door," the woman's daughter said.

"He's her neighbour.

"We figured it must be someone close by, but we didn't expect them to be right next door."

"[The post] just went mental and he got in contact with me pretty quick."

Lowe was arrested and charged with receiving property and appeared in the Whanganui District Court on Tuesday, August 9.

When spoken to by the police the defendant explained he bought the camera for $40 off an unknown gang member.

He stated he thought it was stolen and he would be able to onsell it.

Lowe pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 40 hours of community service.