Here's a fun story about how an iPhone 4 was used to catch a pesky doorbell ditcher.
James, a UK iOS developer, was being harassed by a doorbell ditcher every morning for a week and wanted to catch the culprit in the act. When he realized that standing at the door all morning looking out his peephole was impractical, he noticed that his iPhone 4 could do it for him. So James grabbed some blue tac, stuck his iPhone to the door, and waited nearby while enjoying his morning coffee with his girlfriend. When he saw the doorbell ditcher arrive, he snapped a photo. Turns out it was the neighbor kid being a prankster on his way to school every day.
After grabbing the pic and quickly opening the door with a loud "HELLOOO!" and watching the poor rascal's skeleton leap out of his body in shock, we were able to show his mother the picture and peace was restored.
Such a great story! Anyone else use their iPhone in an unconventional way?
[TUAW]
Reader comments
iPhone 4 used to catch doorbell ditcher [humor]
What's a doorbell "ditcher"? Is that someone who rings the bell then runs away?
Ding dong ditch
Nicky Nicky Nine Door in Canada. I am assuming is just recorded video.....
Nicky Nicky 9 Door in Canada...
@David: Yes; they ring the doorbell and ditch (run).
It's when you ditch your doorbell. Like throw it in the ditch and run away. I'm not sure why ditching your doorbell is fun. I've ran a doorbell and then run away.
"Doorbell Ditcher" doesn't translate well to the States.
It depends on what part of the US you're in. It translates just fine here in CA; we've always called it either "doorbell ditching" or "ding-dong-ditch." But that's the first time I've ever heard "ring and run," "ghost knocking," "knock door run,", and "nicky nicky 9 Door." Funny how we can come up with so many different names for the same things.
It must be an east coast thing cuz we always called it ring and run too
I've never heard "ring and run" out here on the west coast, but it makes sense.
I always called that "Ring and Run" I used to do it when I was a kid.
UNTIL, I rang a bell, ran across this guys lawn, tripped over a drain pipe for his gutters that went across the lawn, and totally got busted.
Needless to say, check the area you plan to escape through ahead of time.
Or dont do it, if you do, dont cry to mommy when you get a swift kick in the heiney. Ahh the good old days.
Everyone here calls it ding dong ditch.
where is "Here"?
It's known as knock door run in south england. Simple but effective ha!
Apparently, I'm the only one who didn't understand how the heck the iPhone caught the kid if he, as the post says, wasn't willing to wait at the door. If he was sipping on some coffee with his girlfriend, how did he "see the doorbell ditched arrive?"
From London and I've always called it 'Ghost Knocking'
"Ghost knocking..." I like the sound of it.
Nobody here is curious as to how exactly this was done? Haha. Did he have an app that snaps a picture when it senses movement or what?
Something's missing from the story. Instead of waiting by the door he... waited by the phone? Was he using FaceTime? I don't get it.
Ok so still no word on how the picture was snapped if the guy wasn't near the iPhone. Useful.
For everyone asking, here is the detail from the linked story:
"Sure enough though, this morning my girlfriend and I were sitting by the door, coffee in hand and able to chill out and watch the iPhone screen from a distance. As we hoped the culprit approached our door and rang the doorbell several times. I hit the camera button and got a great pic, catching him red handed."
what is all this drama, im from puerto rico (spanish speaker) and i totally got what was a door ditcher...
in the other hand, wtfffffff, this storry is so copy-pasted they didnt even cared to analize it. how in the world is taking a picture different from standing looking at the hole, omg there was nothing improved need to it. if you told me instead: the guy recorded (VIDEO) the whole morning, and then they played it back, i would be enjoying this post. there isnt even proof of this, which would be the only reason to make news out of this.