Actually, since my parents' house has been robbed recently, this gives me a great idea:

You put an easy to open fake safe in a clandestine but still fairly obvious location (eg: behind a picture frame). Sort of like a real life honeypot.

You hook up a surveillance system pointing to the safe or maybe even inside the safe that triggers when the safe moves or opens. Maybe hide a gps chip inside the safe (they are tiny these days).

Bam, you have a photo of the criminal, time of the crime, and you get alerted instantly and silently. Chances are you or the police can interfere in time or you'll have some sort of lead on the criminal since you know what they look like but they don't even know you're after them already.

I have seen in my local newspaper an example of a burglar who has been photographed, but who still isn't caught.

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/123030203.html

When this burglar's photograph was taken, he thought he had effectively disabled the home's security system. But he is still able to commit new burglaries, as no one has been able to identify him so far.

Looks like he has been caught: http://www.startribune.com/local/west/124464954.html

"Stewart E. Pesheck, 42, of Minneapolis was arrested on June 9 during a traffic stop in Minneapolis."

It's still an interesting example of the futility of most security attempts. The story notes the earlier surveillance photos but doesn't mention how much they helped.

Hey, thanks for this. One question: how did you find the article?

That's pretty sad, but it's way nicer than having no clue who the perpetrator is. This guy is on local news and now a lot more people have seen his face, so it's much more likely that he'll get busted compared to an unidentified person.

Furthermore, there's the small matter of proof. Even if you happen to see the person who robbed your house and you locate them a couple days later, it can be hard to prove that they were the criminal. A photo solves this problem nicely.

This might work, but my gut says that the average criminal isn't going to spend much time looking behind picture frames for safes: they'll be too busy ripping the plasma TV off the wall and loading your laptops into their van.

I guess this is a cultural thing. In my country, a lot of people keep some of their money in a relatively safe spot in their houses as "just in case" money. It sounds unwise, but many banks have gone down under in times of crisis and it has taken people months to get their money back, even though it is guaranteed by the government. People even keep gold because if you have a crazy crisis and your currency is suddenly worth nothing, it helps to have something that isn't as devalued.

Anyway, this combined with the fact that in the city many buildings are apartments and not houses (and so you need to climb to get in) means that thieves don't steal large things often.

However the one that broke into my parent's house searched a few areas in the bedroom and successfully found the hidden safe, and proceeded to break into it.

I recall in a good friend's home being shown the safe cemented into the floor. Something they inherited from the previous owner -- part of why they were not paranoid about it but treated it more as a bit of a curiosity.

One could eventually get in, of course, but not in the timeframe of a typical burglary. Same problem with regard to moving it off-site.

Are those safes that easy to break into? Or was the guy just that good at cracking safes?

I don't know. It was key access, but it was opened somehow. Guessing it was picked.

Yes, this sounds like an equally absurd idea as copying a key from 100 meters.

Why? It's a weekend project and you don't need much more than some cables, something like an arduino and a camera.