Everyday devices the new weapon in the fight against crime

Babis Anagnostopoulos had claimed that his wife was killed by burglars during a home invasion - but police found otherwise. SEE HOW

They are some of the least suspicious items found in most homes but they are fast becoming the vital silent witnesses in crime investigations.

Home audio visual systems, calculators, dashcams, movie cameras, and smart watches are just some of the ordinary household devices police seize while looking for clues to a solve crime.

In the past five years the AFP have seized almost 17,000 devices across the country during criminal investigations.

While most of them were the obvious mobile phones, computer hard-drives, USB sticks and dedicated encrypted devices, other items also included ipods, voice recorders, radar detectors, answering machines and cash registers.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information revealed the police also hung on to the devices for years.

Almost 10,000 devices were held by police for forensic examination, as evidence for court or were passed to state and territory police or “another agency”.

Police are seizing ordinary household devices for clues to crimes. Picture: Josie Hayden

Less than half of those were disposed of or returned to their owners in the five year period from 2017 to 2021.

Although they may not contain damning footage of the actual crime, these devices can work like an informant or even be an alibi-buster for a suspect’s cover story.

Head of forensics and data analytics at digital forensics company Law In Order David Kerstjens said digital forensic experts now have to be prepared to gather digital evidence from an ever growing number of sources.

But he said smart watches and phones are giving up information that was once never available.

“It is the health data, the heart rate, the steps, the distances covered. If you said you were asleep at the time (of the crime) and the data show that you were walking around – then that is the ultimate alibi-buster,” Mr Kerstjens said.

Forensic investigator David Kerstjens.

In May this year, a Greek pilot was jailed for murdering his wife after their combined smart devices, fitness trackers, smart watches and home monitoring system contradicted his version of events and cracked the case.

Babis Anagnostopoulos had claimed that his wife was killed by burglars during a home invasion.

However, data from his phone, his wife’s smartwatch and home monitoring system all contradict his version of events.

Caroline Crouch, 20, was murdered by her husband Babis Anagnostopoulos, who fabricated a break-in at their Athens home.

His wife’s smartwatch showed her corpse still had a heart beat at the time she was supposed to have been found murdered.

Anagnostopoulos’ activity tracker on his phone showed him moving around the house while he said he was tied up, and data storage cards from their home monitoring system showed they were removed from the system again contradicting his timeline.

Mr Kerstjens said in a lot of situations you need to have to look at the devices of both parties.

He said mobile phone tower data or GPS data help to identify where they’re located, what they’re googling at the time through to their activity levels which could include step count, heart rates and distance covered.

The list of devices seized – released under FOI includes:

Adding Machine

Audio visual players and receivers and voice recorders

Calculators

Computers

Cameras -stills

Cameras -movie

Cash Counting machines

Cash registers

Dashcam

Hard Drive

iPods

Laptop

Mobile Phone

Radar detectors

Routers

Scanners

Smart watches

Telephone answering machines

USB

Wi-Fi

Originally published as Everyday devices the new weapon in the fight against crime