Amateur Photographer Magazine

Canon camera thieves caught by Wi-Fi

Tuesday 10th June 2008

Chris Cheesman

Camera thieves were caught after images of them were automatically beamed to the owner's home computer, thanks to the camera's built in Wi-Fi enabled memory card.

Alison DeLauzon from New York had lost the Canon digital compact at a restaurant while on holiday in Florida, reports UK-based website photographyblog.

The camera was carrying a $100 Eye-Fi Card, a special digital memory card that uses Wi-Fi technology to transfer photos direct from digital camera to computer or photo sharing website.

'I opened up the Eye-Fi manager on the computer and, lo and behold, there are the guys that stole our cameras,' Alison told Reuters news agency.

The technology, the brainchild of California-based firm Eye-Fi, makes use of 'wireless' Wi-Fi networks.

It seems the culprits had, by pure chance, inadvertently wandered past an 'unsecured' wireless network whose factory-installed setting 'matched' that of Alison's computer system – thereby automatically dispatching the digital files to her home computer.

It turned out that the thieves worked at the restaurant where Alison had lost her camera.

According to Reuters, the thieves have been sacked but Alison apparently decided that she didn't want to press charges.

In January, memory card giant Lexar signed a deal with the makers of the Eye-Fi Card.

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