So a couple of years ago we had a pretty bad ice storm here on the east coast and there were thousands of homes left without power for a week or more.  As with any disaster one can expect the criminals to come out of the woodwork and make a bad situation worse.  Well as luck would have it my brother in law was one of the people that had their homes robbed while they “seeking shelter” elsewhere.  Among the items stolen was their sons’ Sony PlayStation 3.  Of course the requisite police report was filed and as is usually the case, none of his property was ever recovered.

Now someone can easily have an alarm system installed in their home which can deter some burglars, but let’s be honest, even the best alarm systems have “holes” in them.  So I got to thinking, why spend the money on a home security system that might deter a burglar when we can catch the burglar instead and possibly get him off the streets.

I spoke with several law enforcement personnel and sure enough, video game consoles are one of the most popular items stolen from home break ins.  So a quick search on Ebay showed several empty Sony PlayStation 3 cases in the $20 range that would work for my project.