Constant Incursions

Jamezzyboyoo

Hey all!

This is going to be a weird thread but I'm kind of in need of help!
So I live in the countryside, just a rural community, this evening 2 men attempted to break into a house on my lane (it's a cul de sac), so immediately I ran outside to see 2 men running like mad through the field! I immediately chased them armed only with a rock but they were too far away and disappeared. After searchs of the area nobody was found. This year alone there has been 5 incidents like this!

My question is this, we could not track them down visually but is there a way to detect mobile phone signals via the band they use to connect to the cell towers? Or any other way?

Thanks!
-James-

Jamezzyboyoo

This may be the wrong section but I've posted it here as it's a tech Q! Feel free to move if so!

coylemj

The network companies could all be asked to see which of their subscribers' phones were being serviced by local masts but it proves nothing since that list will include innocent people who were in the general area. Rural mobile masts tend to be more powerful than ones in urban environments so they cover a bigger area, hence it probably includes the local village and therefore there won't be any purpose served in getting a list of active mobile phones in the area because it will include dozens of people who live in the area or are passing through.

For an attempted break-in the Gardai are not gong to do the legwork involved which will yield no usable results.

TopTec

I think you are asking whether cell site analysis is possible in relation to locating an unknown cell phone at a certain time.

The answer is that it is possible but is very very expensive. A data dump of traffic at a particular time would need pretty expensive hardware and software, expertise to analyze it and very good reasons for doing it under current law, and even then is likely not to produce a definitive result as the identity of the villains phone is not known.

The data would contain tens of 1000's of pieces of information relating to potentially thousands of phones. As said even in a major investigation like a murder for example such a trawl is not undertaken lightly.

Good old fashioned legwork is more likely to succeed.

TT

riclad

YOU could buy a cheap security camera ,
point it at the house entrance, or direction they came from,
Lane entrance .
Place it inside house ,pointing out thru a window .
AT least you have video evidence ,in future ,
if this happens again,
To go to the gardai with .
A lot of phones are unregistered ,
used on prepay credit .
I could go to a shop ,buy a cheap phone ,say my name is pat kelly.

IS it a good idea for 1 person, to chase after two ,burglars,
who may have a knife on them .

Jamezzyboyoo

Yeah I've read up on the topic and came across products that locate mobile phones with their wi-fi/Bluetooth enabled, but what I am looking for say you are in one room and you want to detect how many phones are in the next room, how could this be done?

My problem is when I am out in the field and these people are hiding, I need a way to detect them short of having a Star Trek tri-quarter! I was thinking if they had their mobile phones on them but not switched off or on airplane mode, could this be used to detect their whereabouts? I'm not looking to trace a phone via celluar towers, but rather to detect the phone itself!

Riclad, CCTV would not suffice in this case as they are out in a wide open field! I'm not trying to identify the owner but rather the phone itself. There wasn't 1 person chasing these men I assure you, but I would have been the first to catch them, they'd have been stupid to pull a knife with guns pointing at them!