<p>Hi All,
Among all hightech parents on this cafe, can anyone advice me as to which security videocameras are reasonably priced/worth buying to secure the outside of our house?</p>
<p>I think just last Summer, some roudy (not sure if racist) kids have moved into our neighborhood. Have lived in this house for last 13 years peacefully and now its the 7th time my house has been egged. The siding of my house is ruined and it’s a complete eyesore.</p>
<p>I am getting it replaced (thanks to the insurance!) but would like to catch the thugs who are destroying my property and my peace of mind. </p>
<p>Checked with ADT but their cameras are way too expensive. One videocam is $1500. Add to that the recording system and the labor for installation and it gets close to $4000 rapidly. </p>
<p>Advice from any of you high tech parents would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>H had a cam installed in our front yard after a bunch of punks smashed driveway lampposts in the entire neighborhood a couple of years back. He bought a Sony camera with extra low-light sensitivity and hid it in a piece of landscaping facing the driveway (important - not the neighbors property!). He buried the cable in a conduit in the ground, and has a “monitoring station” in the garage (HD recorder with time and date stamp and old TV monitor). He called the local police department and discussed some CC TV issues with them. He was told that no sound recording was allowed, and time and date stamp was important for the images to be used as evidence. In our neck of the woods cops are too busy to mess with video unless the crime commited is really serious. Total cost was under 1K.</p>
<p>Thanks so much. That’s very helpful to know. Does this camera withstand low temps outside? I live in NJ. But the ideas you have provided are extremely helpful. </p>
<p>Where did you get the Sony from? Do regular electronics stores such as RadioShack or Best Buy carry such cams? Or did you have to buy it from a Surveillance tech type store?</p>
<p>Pharmagal, H is wining and dining some chichi clients, so he “can’t be reached at the moment”. As I recall, he got our cam from a specialty store for contractors who install intercoms/secutity systems/sound wiring. A couple of months ago we were at Fry’s Electronics and saw a whole mother lode of security cams, some better than ours. Most cameras are rated to operate from -10oC to +50oC, and should be installed in a special casing rated for outdoors. H actually bought a dummy cam with realistic-looking casing and attached it in plain sight on one side of the house. His thought was that if some crooks were determined to get into the house or into the backyard, they will enter from the other side where our real cam is going to catch them. I think the dummy cam serves as good deterrent, because we have not had any punk attacks since its installation.</p>
<p>Two points for BB. We do security stuff for people. I just had a small shop with a small budget come to me asking for advice on a security problem they were having. My first suggestion was a dummy camera and a couple of ADT signs. Good dummy cameras (and real ones) are available at <a href=“http://www.smarthome.com%5B/url%5D”>www.smarthome.com</a>. (I am not affiliated with this company in ANY way). I am an independent installer.<br>
You can buy security signage on ebay. Whole project would be less than $100.<br>
I might try that first before the second option.
Second option would be a real camera hooked up to recorder. Most expensive is a real camera with a security company monitoring. The question is: if you put in a real camera what are you going do to with the information? Take the recordings to the police? I’m not sure they can do anything if they don’t see it themselves. You could record and then go talk to the “parents” but it might not do any good.
If your real goal is to make it stop, I would try the dummy camera option first.
If you have other questions, PM me and I’ll try to help.</p>
<p>These punks egged my house 7 times and caused a lot of damage. It’s $18K to replace the siding (Thank God, I have insurance coverage!)…all this is happening while my DH has just recuperating from a triple bypass! The Police came by and said if we catch them in the act on the videocam, they might be able to identify these punks and file charges. </p>
<p>Being a Gandhi follower, I was thinking I could stake out and turn these kids into friends with Brownies and Chocolate milk… but my DS and DH won’t let me.</p>
<p>Cameras come in many types: color, IR, vandal resistant, wired or not. If the nature and direction of attack can be anticipated (or directed by lighting or obstacles), camera configuration will be simpler and cheaper.</p>
<p>If the attack comes from the street, a motion activated camera in a vehicle might work.</p>
<p>my$0.02 makes good suggestions. You can buy your security kit at Costco, check out its performance in low light conditions, and return if you do not like it. Costco takes back almost anything, electronics stores have very strict return policies. You’d be surprised how bad images form actual “field” installation could look! Distance from cameraXlow light=poor image.</p>
<p>I’m glad the cops are looking at this seriously. In our case, everyone’s damage was around $200 (cheap brass lamps from Home Depot), so the cops did not even bother to look for more evidence. If my H had to do such major repairs due to vandalism, he’d be camping out in the front yard leading nocturnal lifestyle just to catch the punks. He is a very nice guy, but he’d be waiting for them with a baseball bat, not a plate of brownies!</p>
<p>Actually, I would not recommend approaching vandals. A safer solution would be to call the cops right away.</p>
<p>Thanks so much to each of you for your advice. Costco option sounds really good. I am going to check out their DVRs this weekend. Will let you know how things work out.</p>
<p>Just a hint to watch your wiring… our neighbor invested a bundle to find out who was clipping the wires to their big Christmas display. Got footage to the squirrels chewing away on all the wires - lights, security cameras, they didn’t care. The seemed to get a charge (no joke) out of it. Might be worth putting the wires into a conduit if you have critters.</p>