1. A method for processing a time-ordered sequence of video frames, each frame comprising a two-dimensional array of pixels and a frame-dependent color intensity at each pixel, said method implemented by execution of program code on a processor of a computer system, said method comprising: analyzing a current frame and at least one frame occurring prior to the current frame in the sequence, said analyzing comprising performing a background subtraction on the at least one frame to determine a background image and a static region mask associated with a static region, said background image comprising the array of pixels and a background model of the at least one frame and not comprising any moving object, said static region consisting of a contiguous distribution of pixels of the array of pixels, said analyzing determining an existence of a static object consisting of either an abandoned object existing in the static region of the current frame and not existing in the static region of the background image or a removed object existing in the static region of the background image and not existing in the static region of the current frame; after said analyzing, determining a status of the static object, said status being an abandoned status if the static object is said abandoned object or a removed status if the static object is said removed object, said determining the status comprising executing an A/R algorithm that uses the current frame, the background image, and the static region mask as input and does not use any other information derived from the background subtraction as input; and storing the determined status in a data storage medium of the computer system.