Home Security / Ideas?

[Steven D]

So, I got home from work yesterday around 5pm to notice that someone had stolen in mid day the 10 landscaping lights from the front of my house. They were there when I left for work in the morning, gone when I got home.



Now, I am looking at exterior day night cameras to install to monitor the front of the house, motion activated and recordable. Anyone have any ideas on what I could do to a new set of lights to prevent this from happening again, with or without security camera.



I live in a nice ungated neighborhood, have lived there for about 2 yrs now and this is the first sign of criminal activity i have noticed in the neighborhood, or heard about. Pretty quiet neighborhood, which is why I was shocked about it so much. I have only had the lights installed for about two weeks. they were wireless solar lights, so they only needed to be pulled out of the ground. The fact that someone had the balls to do it during mid day surprised me the most, could have been my neighbor who then took them to the recycling place or pawn shop and sold them. I did have the brevard county sherriff come out and write a report incase others in the neighborhood started experiencing the same problem.



I heard last month on the news of people tying in some sort of electrical current to x-mas decorations, as people were getting those stolen, how hard would this be to do, so when someone grabs them they get a bit of a shock?



Any ideas on exterior security are greatly welcomed.

 

[Dreman]

Anything that is easy to install is usually easy to steal as well. Regular wired lights hooked up to house current are much less likely to be stolen.



One of our jobsite superintendents set up an automatic motion-sensing camera on our jobsite, one that was designed to take pictures of wild game on the trails to see where they were travelling. He just set it up in a tree nearby and let it run. He was looking for anyone trying to steal equipment from the jobsite. He asked me why I stayed so late, since he was getting pictures of me leaving at 7pm! I think the camera was about $60.

 

[David Clary]

I purchased a outside camera a couple of years ago on E-Bay for arond $40.00, hooked to my tv, wireless. It has worked pretty well but with one camera I didn't get enough coverage so this week I purchased a two camera system. I haven't recieved them yet but expect them to also be satisfactory. Paid $ 118.00 on E-Bay. They are wireless and will hook to the input on the TV. Very simple to install, but need to have power to the cameras. Some will work with batteries. There are a lot of different ones availible and have many options. You can record or just watch. The more options the price goes up. The best part is you don't have to feed them, no doggy do in the yard ect. Check out E-Bay look under surveillance camera or spy camera. good luck

 

[Steven D]

Dreman, thanks for the input, I never thought about the "easy to install, easy to steal aspect".



Itybitybob, thanks for the info as well. the camera I have looked at specs that it would cover the areas I am looking to cover with one camera, although its about 400 bones total cost, but easy to install. I have dogs, unfortunately they are two basset hounds, so not much for defense or guarding, as they usually just play with anyone I let come in the house.



I will keep searching online for something, thanks guys for the quick replies.

 

[TomT]

Sounds like the work of juveniles. The camera might be the best option. Either that or Claymores.

 

[Todd Cloutier]

I set up an inexpensive IP camera at work. It was originally purchased to replace a regular video we had placed in a remote location, but after we were done with the work, I moved the camera to monitor the entrance to our facility. IP cameras are nice since you can save the motion detect snapshots to a NAS device without having to keep a computer running all the time.



As you can see, the picture quality from a $80 camera isn't the best. I'd spend more on a dedicated security camera to get better quality, and get one with an auto-iris that can adjust to changing light conditions.



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