Report stolen cameras button

[AngelG]

Is there a way to add a button (Report as stolen) for all types of Arlo cameras near to "remove this device" button in My Arlo portal Settings / Devices menu?

I have a Base station VMB3000 and if it is assigned to a profile, it can't be assifned to a different profile until I remove it from first one.

This is a good feature and if all cameras have it, Netgear can block the camera for further usage. We can report if a camera have been stoled via portal and the camera will be useless later.

The support team can have acces to the list of stolen cameras and if somebody wants to activate the camera, support team will have to check if he reported it as stolen and tries to reactivate the camera or it is a new user hwo wants to use a stolen camera.

There must be a procedure so Netgear Arlo support team to unblock the camera after customer send a solid prove like invoice, copy of the Box with serial number, or email from reseller with serial number and date of purchase..... for sure there must be a way to unblock the camera too.

[raven66]

Here are some links to recent news reports about stolen Arlo cameras:

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/snohomish-county-neighbors-remain-vigilant-during-rampant-s...

http://www.kiro7.com/www.kiro7.com/news/north-sound-news/thieves-target-security-cameras-at-lynnwood...

[BeenCounter]

Could not agree more with this, and particularly with the suggestion to make the camera connection/location traceable. This seems like it would be SOO easy to implement. All the info is already there. We have only had our Arlo Pro 2 system installed for 3 days and have already had one camera stolen. I have the footage of the theft, but what can I do with it? The police aren't interested in such a trivial incident, especially when the perpetrator can't be traced. I contacted Netgear support who basically said 'Don't worry, as long as the camera remains registered to your base station, it can't be used'. But actually preventing a stolen camera from being used by someone else is of little benefit to me once it's gone. Either way, it's lost to me and I have to replace it. The suggestion to "have it report its location when someone tries to use it on a different base station" is of far more potential benefit, and again, seems so easy to implement. Just have a 'Report as stolen' button in the settings somewhere, add the serial number to a database, and the next time that camera connects, fire off a notification to the original owner with the details..

[TheBee]

Hi BeenCounter, 

"Reporting as stolen camera" was just an idea but there lots of variants how to proceed after camera appears and tryes to coonect to a new base. Even Arlo can show/play a message that the camera is stollen and can't be used. Arlo can think of a returning procedure for such cameras.

The reply from support - "Don't worry, as long as the camera remains registered to your base station, it can't be used" is not really a good option because "as long as the camera remains registered to your base station", it will uses one of a free spaces in your account.

[Chariot]

If I change my base station does this mean that the thief can then use the camera?

[Chocodog]

Yes, this is a “should have been done long ago” feature.  For a security device company to not have this feature is beyond belief.

I just had a camera stolen - it had to be low to the ground to see a specific area of concern and though disguised, yes, I should have secured it much more thoroughly.  My fault there.

However, now I have to chose between blocking someone else from using it, replacing it and allowing a thief to profit, or upgrading my subscription to allow more cameras.  It already cost me money to buy a replacement camera. Why should I be forced to also pay more monthly to deal with a stolen device?  Seriously, is this a marketing ploy for Arlo to profit from stolen devices beyond the replacement device purchase?

Just add a stolen/inactive flag option for the account owner to use.  Limit the number or ACTIVE devices on an account rather than the total registered device count.  This might actually drive more device sales that way for those unwilling to pay more for a subscription, but needing to sporadically monitor more zones.  If they really wanted to be mercenary about it, they could limit the frequency of activation/ deactivation per device to 1 per day or whatever.

Mark a device as stolen , leave it on the original user’s account and, allegedly, the mechanism is already in place to block activation on  another account.  Or so support just told me.  That’s the hard part already done.  Then allow the original user to activate a replacement camera without the stolen one counting towards the account device limit.  I do database work for a living, so don’t tell me that this is difficult to do.