Dale Kerstetter Surveillance Videos

[Kyle416]

Just re-watched the episode and stumbled upon these videos.

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/bradfor...5/#file-801454

I downloaded the first 2 videos and they're extremely grainy. They're also enormous files that cover hours of (empty) surveillance. I know that there's huge fans of the show though that I'm sure would still like to check it out. I did a quick search on here and couldn't find this posted. If I'm wrong, feel free to delete.

[drew790]

Wow. Though after looking at it for a few seconds I can see why the police didn't object to releasing it. The original tapes were severely degraded when these were encoded.

[justins5256]

Damn. I clicked on this with extreme cynicism thinking it would be some lame question like "why didn't they use the actual footage" that has been asked 72 times in the past. However, I was blown away to see the real footage is actually available. I legit had no idea. Thanks so much!

Now if we can just get the Redwood City arson video....

EDIT: These look like DVD complient files. It should be possible to drop them into a folder and burn to DVDR should anyone care to do that.

EDIT 2: Damn, these are pretty much unwatchable.

[Todd Mueller]

What did you use to play the files? My device doesn’t recognize any of the formats.

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by Todd Mueller

What did you use to play the files? My device doesn’t recognize any of the formats.

If you download all seven of the files into the same folder, you should be able to open the file called VIDEO_TS.IFO and it will play the video like it is a DVD. Software such as Windows Media Player should be able to handle it. Not sure what to tell you if you have a Mac, as I don't have one myself.

As to the video itself, while it is remarkable that this footage was made available, it is extremely difficult to make heads or tales of it. First, there are some major tracking problems that cause distortion and picture disturbances throughout the entire video making it nearly impossible to watch. Second, it appears the tape was recorded on a continuous loop that cycles through three camera angles holding each view for less than a second.

I would guess camera angle 2 is the one where the "action" takes place, as it sort of looks like what was shown in the re-enactment on UM.

The entire thing lasts about 84 minutes, or one hour and twenty four minutes. There is a time stamp indicating the tape begins around 10:07pm on 9/12/87. Maybe if we knew at what times things occurred that night we could make more sense of the tape.

Unfortunately, I have to go to bed and my patience is wearing thin, otherwise I'd look more deeply.

Anyone else care to lead the charge?

[Kyle416]

Originally Posted by Todd Mueller

What did you use to play the files? My device doesn’t recognize any of the formats.

VLC media player plays the videos. I am pretty sure that only the first 2 download links (the .vob files) are the only video links.
Again, the videos are very, very grainy. I mostly just skipped through and found nothing. Don't expect the picture to be as clear as they were in the segment.

[justins5256]

Just playing around with the video. It is best to watch it in slow motion.

You can see the intruder with the mask appear around the 38:49 minute mark on camera angle 1 - it looks like this was at 11:59:41pm per the timestamp on the video.

I'm guessing this is when he was taking the platinum, but it's really hard to tell. He is dressed exactly the same as the actor in the UM re-enactment.

EDIT: Unless my eyes are deceiving me, you can see Kerstetter and thief walk out of camera range around the 13:08 point. It looks similar to the UM re-enactment.

[sdb4884]

As grainy as it is i'm very intrigued by this, I was able to see those points you noted. Such a shame though it isn't more clear but hey at least it's something.

[justins5256]

A few more comments.

The tape does not play in real time. It appears the video was recorded at an extremely slow speed, so watching it in real time is like watching it sped up. For example, from the time stamps we can tell that the footage begins around 10:07pm and ends at around 2:09am - roughly 4 hours of time, yet the length of the entire video is just 1:24:01. I'm guessing this is some feature of the surveillance system to save tape. Unfortunately, it makes watching this difficult.

You can see Kerstetter and the thief begin walking around 13:09:03 on camera view 2, just after the view switches from camera 1.

At 13:09:29, Kerstetter looks at the camera.

At 13:10:06, the view begins to switch to camera 3

When the view returns to camera 2 at 13:12:11, Kerstetter and the thief are gone.

Going by the timestamps, the thief and Kerstetter talk around 10:45pm. The thief is seen taking the platinum around 11:59pm. So, about an hour and ten minutes. This crime took a LONG time.

I'll add more comments later.

[Todd Mueller]

Originally Posted by justins5256

The tape does not play in real time.

This reminds me of the start of every episode of "24" when you hear Kiefer say "All events occur in real time."

Going by the timestamps, the thief and Kerstetter talk around 10:45pm. The thief is seen taking the platinum around 11:59pm. So, about an hour and ten minutes. This crime took a LONG time.

This leads me to one of two conclusions:

1) The perp felt comfortable being there that long because Dale was in on it

2) The perp felt comfortable being there that long because Dale was dead and he knew there were no other guards and/or nothing bad would happen if Dale didn't check in every hour

The perp obviously had a lot of insider information to know the platinum was there, how to find it, and how to get it out. I don't think Dale was in on it, but I heavily suspect Dale knew his killer and probably wasn't scared for his life (at least initially). There has to be a fairly small group of suspects here.

Thank you justin and Kyle for your help on the video!

[drew790]

Even seeking out those timestamps, slowed down in VLC loading the entire disk folder, I can't see a thing. It's so hard to make out what's pixelation, what's a person, and what's just degradation

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by drew790

Even seeking out those timestamps, slowed down in VLC loading the entire disk folder, I can't see a thing. It's so hard to make out what's pixelation, what's a person, and what's just degradation

I know. I actually burned the footage to a DVDR and watched the disc on fast forward until I noticed movement. Then, I isolated the times of those movements and watched on my computer using TMPEGEnc on the original MPEG files. That was how I derived those times. Once you see where things are, it's easy to find and see them.

You can see Kerstetter and the thief together on camera at 00:13:09:03 at camera view 2 (should be a 2 in the upper left corner).

The thief appears alone around 00:39:01:11. Camera view 1.

You have to play around with it a bit and rock the footage back and forth. Once you see those movements, everything else just kinda falls into place.

[Guardian]

Wow. I have been waiting to see this footage... I want to say my whole life. But that isn’t quite true. I saw this segment as a kid, I was about 8 or 9 and saw it when it originally aired on NBC. Seeing it as a kid and then not seeing the segment again for many years, I had believed that the footage shown on tv was the real camera footage. Once I was older and began researching the case a bit (this was one that always stuck with me), I of course knew it had been recreated and since then I’ve been anxiously waiting to see the real footage one day. But now that it’s here, this is quite disappointing. The quality of the footage has degraded so much that I honestly don’t know how anything could be picked out of it. I can see Dale and the intruder, but I have no idea which way anyone is looking. Dale is barely visible and if I didn’t know the masked man was there, I probably would t have even noticed him at all.

As certain details were known because of this video, we have to assume that it was once in much better shape and had a sharper picture. After so many years though, the footage is barely comprehensible. The factory is about the only thing I can make out halfway clearly.

[Guardian]

So according to the UM segment, the masked man was seen initially (pacing slightly). Has anyone located this portion of the real tape? I’m looking and have some experience in video editing. If I can isolate all of the key moments I can try to enhance the footage slightly. I’m not overly skilled in that area, but as long as we’ve waited to see this, it’s worth a shot. I’ll keep searching myself as well. Chime in if anyone finds anything as is

[justins5256]

Originally Posted by Guardian

So according to the UM segment, the masked man was seen initially (pacing slightly). Has anyone located this portion of the real tape? I’m looking and have some experience in video editing. If I can isolate all of the key moments I can try to enhance the footage slightly. I’m not overly skilled in that area, but as long as we’ve waited to see this, it’s worth a shot. I’ll keep searching myself as well. Chime in if anyone finds anything as is

I couldn't find it, but I didn't look real hard either. Another key moment would be the thief using a moving dolly to transport a bag that may have contained the platinum or Dale Kerstetter

One clue that might help is the camera angles.

Camera angle 1 is where (I'm guessing) the thief returns to steal the platinum at 00:39:01:11.

Camera angle 2 is where the thief and Dale interact at 00:13:09:03

Camera angle 3 appears to be a long shot of some kind of hallway or corridor.

Assuming the re-eanctements shown on UM are accurate (which it looks like they are) the moving dolly bit would be on camera 3 and the thief pacing would be on camera 2. Unfortunately, camera 2 has extreme grain, especially in the background where I'm guessing the thief would be visible. It may not be possible to see him on this version of the tape due to the poor quality.