Dash Cam

"Did you really find something? What is it?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Xu Mo pointed at the computer screen while operating it and said, "Look, these surveillance footage shows one of the victims passing through these sections yesterday... this is from two days ago, and this is from three days ago."

Wang Dachuan followed Xu Mo's train of thought and looked at the surveillance footage from the past few days, nodding.

"So this victim takes this route every day... but how is this useful? How does this help us solve the case?"

"You're right, it's not useful by itself," Xu Mo nodded first, then continued, "But I haven't finished explaining. The surveillance videos that Captain Han provided us only show the victims' last appearances on camera. That alone isn't enough - we don't know exactly where the victims were kidnapped because surveillance coverage in that area isn't comprehensive. There are many blind spots, and once they leave the camera's range, we don't even know which direction they went..."

"So, I checked other surveillance cameras around that area and reconstructed the route that the victims take every night. From these cameras, I've pinpointed the approximate location where the victims were kidnapped - it's this stretch of road... There's an unmonitored section about 50-60 meters long."

Wang Dachuan was completely lost.

So what?

Even knowing this, how is it useful...

Even if we know the victims were kidnapped on that stretch of road, what good does it do?

There's no surveillance there, so how does knowing this help solve the case at all?

Seeing Wang Dachuan's confused expression, Xu Mo explained further.

"There may not be surveillance cameras on that stretch, but cameras aren't the only things that record footage. There are many other recording devices, like car dash cams."

He pulled up another surveillance clip and pointed to the bottom right corner, where the rear end of a car was visible in the frame.

"This car's front end is facing the stretch of road where the victims were kidnapped. If this car has a 24-hour continuous recording dash cam, the footage might help us solve the case."

"You want to use this car's dash cam footage to help solve the case?" Wang Dachuan leaned closer to the screen. "But the surveillance footage doesn't clearly show the license plate - it's too blurry."

While blurry video might be hard to see, technical methods could be used to enhance the clarity.

Xu Mo was a hacker, so he naturally knew this.

"I downloaded some software that's converting the video now. After conversion, the video quality should improve significantly. Even though the license plate looks blurry now, we should be able to read it after conversion."

"That's possible?" Wang Dachuan's eyes widened in surprise.

If blurry videos could be enhanced through conversion, could mosaic effects be removed... Wang Dachuan suddenly thought of something questionable: "What software did you say you're using for this conversion? Can it remove mosaic effects? I have a friend..."

Xu Mo: "???"

What kind of mosaic effects are you talking about?

What kind of videos would need mosaic effects?!

"We're investigating a case... can you please be serious!" Xu Mo rapped his knuckles on the desk.

Wang Dachuan immediately backed down: "I was just asking for a friend... just asking..."

Sensing the awkward atmosphere, Wang Dachuan quickly changed the subject.

"Don't dash cams stop recording when the car's engine is off? I see the taillights aren't on in the surveillance footage, so the car was probably turned off. It wouldn't have recorded anything."

"That's true..." Xu Mo shrugged. "But there are rechargeable 24-hour continuous recording dash cams on the market. Some car owners like to be prepared for various situations and go the extra mile. We can only hope this owner is one of those people. Maybe they installed a 24-hour continuous recording dash cam? Let's look into it and try - nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Actually, Xu Mo didn't need to explain this.

Wang Dachuan had a car himself and knew perfectly well that there were 24-hour continuous recording dash cams on the market - he used one himself.

He only asked the question to change the subject.

After all, he couldn't keep discussing how to remove mosaic effects with Xu Mo...

Right at that moment, the video conversion software Xu Mo was using finished processing.

He opened the converted video.

He found the car again - the one whose rear end was barely visible in the surveillance footage.

Compared to before, the converted video was much clearer.

While still not quite high definition, they could at least make out the license plate number now.

"Yang-A.XM233... I'll look it up!" Wang Dachuan became excited.

He logged into the system and searched for the license plate Yang-A.XM233.

"Found it - it's a Leiling, and the owner is a middle-aged man. I'll give him a call."

With that, Wang Dachuan immediately took out his phone and dialed the number listed in the vehicle owner's information.

"Hello, we're calling from Yangcheng City Police Station... no, I'm not a scammer."

As soon as the call connected, he was mistaken for a scammer.

After quite a bit of explaining to the car owner, the other party finally believed he was a police officer.

"It's like this, Mr. Li - does your car have a dash cam installed? Is it a 24-hour continuous recording type? That's the kind you have? Yes, yes... we do need it. Would you be willing to provide us with the footage from your dash cam? It's related to a case we're investigating..."

A minute later, Wang Dachuan put down his phone.

"All set. This guy is really enthusiastic - he insists on coming to the station in person to deliver the dash cam. I told him we could pick it up, but he refused."

He probably still isn't completely convinced and wants to come to verify you're really police. If he comes to the station and finds out you're not an officer, he can file a report right away... Xu Mo thought to himself that the anti-fraud campaign these past two years had been incredibly effective - comprehensive anti-fraud awareness wasn't just talk, everyone's fraud awareness had become extremely strong!

After waiting about half an hour.

A middle-aged man with a crew cut, a beer belly, a slightly chubby build, and somewhat tanned skin arrived at the police station.

After explaining his purpose to an officer, that officer led him to Wang Dachuan: "Dachuan, someone's here for you."

"Mr. Li, right? We spoke on the phone earlier. I'm Wang. Did you bring your dash cam?"

The latter thought to himself that these really were police officers looking for his dash cam footage, not scammers... Good thing he had been polite and hadn't started cursing right away, and had cautiously come to check the police station in person. Otherwise, the police would have been so disappointed!

"Yes, yes, I brought it. Here it is."