Future Criminal Star

July 11, 2001 - It was Andy Warhol who once said "In the future, everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes," and he couldn’t have been more right on. It seems that nowadays everybody is looking for his or her fifteen minutes. And some are getting it whether they know it or not. Anyone who’s ever seen the popular show "COPS" has had the opportunity to witness some of those bungling would-be criminals who through a stroke of luck, or a stroke of stupidity, have managed to capture their fifteen minutes, while in the process of being captured themselves.

Dean Robinson has had it with what he calls his "Law breaking, drug using, police provoking, knuckle head" neighbor. He goes on to say, "if it wasn’t for the XCam2 that I had to install I would still be living in fear and uncertainty for my future." Dean has a beer-drinking drug-addict neighbor who gets wired and starts provoking the neighbors. On many occasions he has mimed taking a gun out of the back of his pants and aiming it at Dean. Now we say that he mimed taking the gun out, but as Dean said, "it’s hard to distinguish at night if he has a gun or not." Either way, it’s not wise to play games with the psychotics of this world, just in case they aren’t playing. And that’s been Dean’s problem.

Dean’s problem is probably one of the worst that any of us have ever encountered, and it’s a sobering reminder that there are people in this world who don’t care about the effect they have on other people, and they don’t care to live in peace with their neighbors. But Dean, like many X10 customers has a weapon, and he used it. He hooked up his X10 Security Camera in plain view where his psychotic neighbor could see, and it’s worked to a large degree. "He’s backed off for now," Dean said. "And thanks to the X10 setup my neighbor is now a future criminal movie star." Dean says that his neighbor always wanted to be a movie star, and according to Dean, "I guess this is about as close as he’s going to get to being one." Either on Dean’s camera, or "COPS," one of the two.

So for now Dean has some peace of mind, and that’s a very good thing. "I for one am pleased with the security of having the camera set up to catch the criminal in progress and [making him] responsible for his actions." And he leaves us with an alluring thought. "To put a dent in all these crimes being committed," he says, "we can achieve this by way of the camera." We can achieve this by way of the XCam2.

Thanks to the XCam2 and other X10 security systems, people like Dean are sleeping better at night, and really having an effect in their neighborhoods. We wish him and all our customer well, as they strive to make their neighborhoods better places to live. And we leave you with one more quote from Dean, "This is the era of the camera... Onward with it."

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