A system and method for searching a video stream collected by a camera in a video surveillance system for an object's placement or displacement is disclosed. The searching includes an interactive question/answer approach that allows for a video snippet including the object's placement or displacement to be found quickly without the need for complicated video analytics. During the search, frames from algorithmically selected points in the video stream are presented to a user for review. The user reviews each frame and indicates if he/she sees the object. Based on the user's response the searching algorithmically reduces the portion video stream that is searched until a snippet of a video is found that includes the object's placement or displacement.