Welcome

The Story

TLDR:

I lost track of my Transperth SmartRider transit card, and a miscreant got their hands on it. They rode the rails for almost four months on my coin before I finally noticed, and by then they'd managed to rack up $700 worth of bus and train rides.

So I started tracking down this train robber, and it turns out that being an amateur detective is surprisingly good fun! So much fun that I'm sharing my adventures with the Internet.

This is my story...

The Plan

I'm writing up my adventures each week, and sharing them here and on the mailing list.

Season One is action-packed, and takes us up to Christmas with a proper cliff-hanger!

Season Two picks up in the new year.

Will I expose my train robber? Join me, and we'll find out together.....

The Adventure

  • Noticing that something isn't right.
  • How long has this been going on? Initial investigations.
  • Quick, cancel the card! Or should I....
  • I'm going to need some breadcrumbs to follow.
  • Now I've got the data, but it's frustrating to use. How can I make it more useful?
  • ChickenHawk One and PoopShank Alpha go undercover on a bus stop stakeout!
  • Back at HQ, I get hold of Transperth spatial data to overlay. Maps are cool!
  • Exposing a train robber's daily routine.
  • Who is this person? Getting inside the mind of a train robber.
  • Two more stake-outs! This is great fun, but harder than I expected.
  • No way, could this really be my guy? I might have my prime suspect, but I'm running out of time!
  • Stay tuned for Season 2.

If you want to play along at home, sign up below for the email updates. I share the actual data sets that I'm using to track down my train robber, from the raw downloads right through to the fully cleansed and rationalised data, along with the spatial data overlay.

If data analysis floats your boat, or you want to try your hand at amateur sleuthing, download the files and see if you can ID my guy before I do!

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