Home Invasion in my Neighborhood

[TheGrey]

I've been debating it for a few years, but this thread and recent activity in MY neighborhood is driving me to get a multi camera system myself.

I know myself well enough that I know I won't be getting my @$$ out to buy & replace batteries so it'll be a hard-wired system for me. I've terminated hundreds and pulled tens of thousands of feet of Cat6 cable, at work. Been looking for an excuse to buy my own set of tools (EZ45 crimpers & EZ45 connectors [my personal favorite for terminating Cat6], glow-in-the-dark fiberglass push rods, fish tape, & Cat6 continuity tester...I've got the rest already), this will be the excuse I need.

I've been considering how many cameras I want/need all this time as well. Proper cverage of the exterior of my home/drive will take 5 or 6 cameras; too many protrusions/corners to use less. How to route the cable through existing walls is the tricky part. I'll figure it out.

My neighborhood, which is also formerly WillysWagon and Nogarheli's neighborhood, has seen a huge uptick in car break-ins and home invasions. We have a limited actual neighborhood watch but an active Neighborhood Watch Facebook page. On Thursday morning, at about 0530, a neighbor 1 street behind me and up the block a bit chased down and caught someone who'd tested his car doors and attempted to force entry into his home. The bad guy had broken into and attempted entry into several other neighbors cars that night as well. It took the police over an hour to get there while neighbors kept the bad guy detained. That was Thursday morning, bad guy locked up and neghborhood safe and sound, right? Not so much. Last night, a house on the corner 2 streets behind me (I'm on a corner lot) had someone try to break in. Another neighbor saw this and called the police but the bad guy got away.

I have and actively use a home alarm system (every night at bed time and every time we leave the house unattended) as well as alarm systems on my vehicles. These aren't 100% deterrents, but buy me a little more piece of mind; tthe cameras will help double that.

Yikes. Welcome to the club of "Neighborhood Blues." I'm sorry to hear your corner of the world is dealing with this.

I think the peace of mind cameras can bring, as well as actual deterrence, is worth the price and pain-in-the-butt-edness.

[brutal]

I'm telling you guys - (with a lot of camera experience) if you are even 10% of a tech person, go with blue iris. You have 99% compatability with any type of POE or USB camera including webcameras, top end motion detection, and mobile access. Range of settings is impressive. Because you can use webcameras, you can also add high definition with almost no cost - just get 50' USB extension cables off of amazon. POE cameras are of course, slightly better in most applications. I've always used a mixture of POE and USB cameras in my systems. If you go with USB cameras, then you're talking plug and play and anyone who can figure out how to install a program and type on a keyboard could pretty much figure that out.

Any type of 24/7 recording system in comparison is nearly useless. Hardware motion tracking (e.g. DVR/CCTV) is also near useless unless you want to review hours of leaves moving. The PC/software combinations are a sweet spot, you can store months worth of video without making a dent, and review every *real* motion event quickly and with ease, so for instance, you could easily review a video of everyone who walked into your yard in the past seven days..... and only occupy perhaps 5-10 minutes of your day doing it. It's not recording leaves, and it's not *missing* anything. It leads any motion event with pre-and post footage so you can see what happened before and after it "detects" issues if you like.

24/7 videos are only useful when something happens, then you have to go back in time, watch it all, and save that clip. But unless you have no life, you're not going to be able to review the bigger scope and answer questions such as: Were they ever casing my place previously.

Old Android phones too... Good advice.

[gnihcraes]

As an added deterrence, use these driveway alerts from Haborfreight.

http://www.harborfreight.com/wireles...tem-62447.html

One on porch, one on back porch/deck/driveway. I've caught several folks wandering around before. One on my porch has the volume on HIGH and it's outside. Scares the crap out of whomever comes to the front door. Poor UPS guy. It makes them look up and usually right at the camera. Smile.

[Doc45]

I've had the doorbell camera since last October, birthday present from my sons. Been very pleased with it's function, haven't added any other cameras yet but will probably by summer.

[Great-Kazoo]

As an added deterrence, use these driveway alerts from Haborfreight.

http://www.harborfreight.com/wireles...tem-62447.html

One on porch, one on back porch/deck/driveway. I've caught several folks wandering around before. One on my porch has the volume on HIGH and it's outside. Scares the crap out of whomever comes to the front door. Poor UPS guy. It makes them look up and usually right at the camera. Smile.

You need to put tape over the sides to narrow the "beam" if not it has a tendency to pick up the neighbors cat. or other moving object

[Brian]

Yep, again Blue Iris +9 or whatever we're up to.
And while it might be a challenge to configure for a first timer / non-computer person, I've done several systems now and have my default config changes/settings written down and would be glad to share them as a quick start for anyone going that route that isn't a super computer geek. Pretty simple to set up and be off and running.

Also, next time I'm at the store, I'll try to snag whatever's left from the old system and take inventory.

[Joe_K]

UPDATE:

I was home alone the other night watching a Walking Dead episode, and at about 10:30 someone starts pounding on my door ringing the doorbell. I get up go to the door, pull open the curtain and there are 2 teens not from my neighborhood, a white male and a black female (who I have never seen before in my life) standing there on my front porch. The girl is covering her face with a hoodie.
I ask,
"What's up?"

And the boy starts talking frantically a mile a minute,

"Let us in man, we need water, she's been pepper sprayed in the face!!!"

(I highly doubt that she was pepper sprayed, she was calm as could be just covering her face)

I tell them both,

"Call 911."

The guy gets more insistent and repeats his earlier demands with the addition of referring to me as "Bro" multiple times, then starts leaning against the glass panes of the door.

I tell them to leave a few times but they both just ignored me. I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the situation. After one last command to leave I produced my 9mm Glock 19 and informed them they were seriously not welcome on the premises. They immediately fled into the night.

I called A.P.D. and US Law Shield. I haven't seen the "Yutes" since and the Police never even came to the house.

That night as I was talking with dispatch I watched 5 patrol vehicles drive by with searchlights on, scanning the public spaces.

U.S. Law Shield Defense Attorney Stan Marks called me the next morning to follow up and get the story. After listening to me he said I was 100% good to go.

Tactically I wish I had instead interacted with the idiots from my second story and had my AR-15 & phone on me and gotten pictures of them.

I do not believe the girl had been pepper sprayed, but rather what they had been involved in some form of illegal activity, knew the Police were on the way and wanted to get off of the street.

Velocitas, Opprimere,
Violentia Operandi

[davsel]

Time to move to a less exciting neighborhood.

[TFOGGER]

Time to move to a less exciting neighborhood.

Or get a recording surveillance camera on the front door, so it can be posted to youtube.

Seriously, I don't ever answer the door without a firearm either in my hand or on my hip. And we live in a very quiet neighborhood.

[hurley842002]

Or get a recording surveillance camera on the front door, so it can be posted to youtube.

Seriously, I don't ever answer the door without a firearm either in my hand or on my hip. And we live in a very quiet neighborhood.

And to think my wife used to question the idea of me carrying a gun at all times, even in the home. Glad it was one issue that wasn't up for discussion.