Free Republic

POINCIANA, Fla. — Going for a stroll through the neighborhood is one thing. Doing so naked, and disrupting neighbors, is another. The Osceola County Sheriff's Office says 23-year-old Giovanni Alcaraz rang multiple doorbells and tried to break into homes in a Poinciana neighborhood Monday night, leaving explicit surprises on some of the doorbell cams. "He's waving his fanny at the door," Osceola County Sheriff Marco Lopez said. Lopez says at least two homeowners called the police. "Somebody happens to look at their ring door camera and says, 'there's somebody naked in front of my house,'" Lopez said. Lopez says after...

Amazon filed a patent recently that suggests its Ring doorbell cameras may soon be able to identify “suspicious” people by scanning their skin texture, walking style, and voice. This represents the latest in Amazon’s growing push into biometric data collection. The Ring patent, filed and awarded in the United States, is named “Neighborhood Alert Mode,” and essentially works as a digital neighborhood watch device. The patent would allow Ring doorbells to share a picture or video of a person it decides is suspicious to other Righ users in the area. Their doorbells will then begin recording the “suspicious” person even...

Jan. 24, 2007 - Why is the Bush administration escalating its accusations that Iran is backing Shiite extremists inside Iraq? One reason: mounting intelligence indicating Tehran has been supplying insurgents with electronic sensors that trigger roadside bombs used against U.S. troops. The devices in question—which cost as little as $1 a piece—are called "passive infrared" sensors or detectors. They are commonly used to turn on lights or burglar alarms when someone or something passes in front of them. Over the past year, U.S. forces in Iraq have repeatedly fallen victim to sophisticated homemade bombs—known as IEDs, or improvised explosive devices—which...

A man who shot and killed a teenage boy playing an after-dark prank could face criminal charges. Legal experts say if the shooter claims self-defense, he'll have a difficult case to prove. Ding, Dong, Ditch. That's the name of a game, played for generations, in which kids knock on a neighbor's door and run away. Then they watch from afar as the homeowner fumes at an empty porch. But half past midnight Saturday, Mark Andrew Drewes, celebrating his 16th birthday, was shot dead in Boca Raton's Boca del Mar subdivision while playing the game. The shooter, Jay Steven Levin, 40,...