Forbes.com: Riding The Internet Crime Wave
10.27.09, 10:09 AM EDT Can Colin Drane create the AccuWeather of criminal data? Colin Drane recalls an odd crime spree that unfolded near his home in Baltimore a few years ago: Neighbors' copper downspouts were suddenly disappearing. As the thefts grew, he reasoned that if his neighbors could see a map denoting exactly where the gutter bandits were operating, preventive action could be taken. Drane awoke one morning with the idea of using his car's global positioning system as a model--until he discovered that it, too, had been stolen. Since then, Drane, an informercial marketer and inventor of products like the Trunkanizer (organizes groceries in your trunk) and the Invisilift (enhances a woman's bustline) has watched his most successful invention, SpotCrime, rocket to success. The self-financed venture, which has cost him $800,000 to launch, places widgets and ticker feeds of crime data on the Web sites of 90 television news stations in the U.S., Canada and U.K. The digit...