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Surveillance Systems - Need Some Pointers


Rokkaholik

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So... This is the lowdown...

 

We bought our house in March of 2014. It's an odd type of neighborhood where there are houses only on one side of the street. Our house faces the back of the house that's a street up, etc... About a year ago, some people moved into the house 3 down from us. Since they moved in, I've noticed that the traffic on our street has been like an airport. An obnoxious amount of cars/people stop and go rather quickly from that new neighbors house. The thing I am NOT liking is the fact that multiple cars stop in front of my house, and then a passenger will get out and walk down to that neighbors house on foot. As they walk, they are texting and stopping and then going, etc... I was in my driveway watching one day and the lady stopped completely and wouldn't proceed until I was gone, although I watched her from the kitchen window. Then they walk into that neighbors garage and are back out and into the waiting car within 5 minutes or less. Many times it's the same crackhead looking lady, but she arrives in different cars. I currently have 7 different license plates as well as descriptions of drivers, etc... 

 

Then...

 

I started calling the local police last spring to report suspicious activity. I tell them what's going on, give them plates, etc... They do confirm that it sounds very suspicious as to what they are doing because if these people were "friends", they would just pull into their driveway or in front of the house. By the time dispatch sends a squad, the people are long gone. This has happened 7-8 times now. I did have a guy I used to work with that's a cop now call me back and neither confirm nor deny (hint hint) that they know who lives there, or neither confirm nor deny that they are familiar with several license plates I have provided. He would also neither confirm nor deny that they used to live in a certain house downtown that had a "mysterious" kitchen fire a little over a year ago and the house had to be torn down... but that's all he could say. My parents were over one day and my mom noticed the neighbor and knew exactly who he was because he is apparently banned from several stores in town including hers due to excessive shoplifting and other things...

 

But even with all the phone calls to the police, they've basically done nothing...

 

Today...

 

I came home from work and as I'm driving up the street, the silver Malibu is in front of my house AGAIN and the bald neighbor guy was in the passenger seat along with the driver. As I drove by slowly, they both glared at me and the neighbor got out and the silver Malibu took off and the neighbor guy walked up the street back to his house. He has a bad hip or knee and has to use a cane. Now... why didn't the nice driver drop him off at his own driveway? As he walked up the street, he kept looking back at me as I was on my phone. I kept an eye on him all the way up his driveway.

 

My 10-year-old daughter gets home before we do from work my 35 minutes... so she was alone in the house. She knows something is going on with the neighbor as well. She always asks why they park in front of our house and not their own, etc...

 

 

So.... Because of all this, I'm looking for something simple to use as far as surveillance equipment. I don't want to hardware the entire house and have 50 cameras or anything. Basically something I could put in the Windows and plug in (not battery operated) inside the house with maybe 4 cameras that feed wirelessly into a central box or something along that line.

 

Has anyone here used something like this or had luck with them?

 

 

 

 

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Maybe something along the lines of this  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078HBQTNW/ref=s9_acsd_topr_hd_bw_b3liQ_c_x_2_w?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-4&pf_rd_r=VZ8PBGXGNRQ2CVB8BGTT&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=e6113570-e3b0-518c-bee2-582bc2978bbc&pf_rd_i=898406

 

Something to keep in mind though is the cameras will only be useful through the day unless you mount them outside.The reason for this is the IR light will reflect off the window and all you'll get is a bright light.each camera will also need to be near a power outlet. 

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I really think you should run at least one surveillance camera outside, and place it somewhere that everyone can see it. Low enough to capture great videos of trespassers, high enough that the camera can't be messed with. You will see that people will begin to avoid the areas when they see a camera. People absolutely hate being watched. I purchase a few of these cameras and mounted them outside the house. They work great in the daytime, and at night. They are POE cameras so you will need a POE switch, and just run an ethernet cable to the camera outside. I have a few of these cameras connected to a 5 port POE swith (Trendnet). One other awesome thing about these cameras is that you can install a micro SD card and have it record footage through the day. You can go back and replay footage and all that stuff. They also provide a phone app so you can view the camera from your phone. They have 3 camera types, bullet, dome, and turret style. I like the dome style type since it's difficult for the person to know if the camera is pointing at them.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Hikvision-DS-2CD2142FWD-I-Network-Dome-2-8mm/dp/B017Y4CD9U/ref=pd_sim_421_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B017Y4CD9U&pd_rd_r=T2PXK5QQQH935WED5RMT&pd_rd_w=rLBoM&pd_rd_wg=W0d7M&psc=1&refRID=T2PXK5QQQH935WED5RMT

Edited by uneedav8

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Thank you for the responses thus far. We may even look into the more professional installer type places like ADT or Brinks. We just have to see what is in our area and available to us. Needless to say, my wife was not too happy when she got home from work and had heard what happened when I was coming home from work today.

 

The plus side of having a simple system, is that if we move, we can take it with us. We have been considering moving for a little while now, but we have to wait to see where my wife's new degree will take us when she finishes school. Until then, I guess I just need something for a little peace of mind.

 

The thing that really irritates me about this, is the fact that I have called it in numerous times about the suspicious activity, and the police talk to me for a little while to calm me down and then they do nothing. Sure I will see a squad car drive by once or twice in the next 20 minutes, but it is far too late since the suspicious people are already gone. It's hard to explain, but if you saw this neighbor guy in person, I don't think you would trust him either. He just has that look about him. On top of that, the people that stopped in front of my house to go all the way down to his house and come back, have an extremely Shady look about them as well. I'm not usually a paranoid person, but these people in the last year have really made me question that. It's just something about them that I do not like whatsoever. And it ticks me off that all the police will do is tell me to continue calling and if I notice anything suspicious. Isn't that why I've called you several times already about the same type of situation?

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Hey Rok, moving past your need / desire for a surveillance system..............

 

You might consider asking the friend that's currently serving on the police force to put you in touch with a Detective assigned to drug enforcement in your city or county.  It sounds like you might live in a metro area so the regular patrol officers on duty are usually stretched pretty thin and don't have the bandwidth to do any effective investigating or crime prevention.  As you have noticed, they are usually late to the party and present only after a crime has been committed. 

 

I can't help but think that you and your family may be living in or near a dangerous situation.  Your story shouts illegal activity and to me illicit drug sales or use are the primary suspects here.

 

If you can't get any help from the local police department, I'd recommend you contact the county sheriff's office and run it through the chain of command there.  In the event none of the local or county law enforcement agencies will get the ball rolling, your next step would be to contact the DOJ and DEA.  Depending on your locale, there may be field office nearby that can investigate the situation.

 

It's worrisome to me that your neighbor seems aware that you are monitoring their activities.  If this guy is indeed selling drugs, especially harder stuff like meth, heroin, coke, opioids etc. there is a real danger to you and your family's safety.  Either from him, or those "customers" frequenting his "business".

 

My main point........  I don't think that surveillance monitoring is the only solution you need here.

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Believe it or not, I live in a small town of 16,000 people. We have the occasional small crimes here, but usually nothing too huge. I'm not too worried if I'm home because I have a few small toys that'll deal with asshats. It's when we're not here I don't like. This guy is just plain shifty. I've been in touch with a few friends on the force and expressed my concerns again. I do know and understand that they can't really discuss police business. My assumption is that this idiot is small time and they are looking for bigger fish. I really don't even care if he's doing whatever he is doing. I just don't want it in front of my damn house.... We are also 1 block from an elementary school too, so you'd think that the police would be upping their game a little bit.

 

Aside from that, some of the "pro" places want north of 2 grand for a system... Apparently they missed the part where I told them I don't want some monthly plan and the cloud thing, because as both places went into detail. monthly plans came up as well as cloud. Both salespeople were baffled when I had to reiterate to them I am just looking for 3-4 cameras that feed wirelessly to some central device that has a connection to send me notifications to my phone. I don't need the 5 alarm foghorn on the house and an army of ninjas waiting in the trees to attack.... just a deterrant for the most part. Guilty people don't like being watched. 

 

On top of all this, there have been package thefts increasing in my town in the last few years as well as break-ins... So a visible camera may help deter that as well.

 

 

On a side note, I used to work with a guy that had bought FAKE cameras and put them outside his house because neighborhood kids were screwing with his cars and lawn decorations, etc... He said that immediately stopped once he had them up.... The ultimate psych-out...lol

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Get a system with a DVR that uploads to the net via WiFi that is Poe to cameras with lg hard drive and is 4k and night vision, paranoid yes but it doesn't mean someones not out to get you or your daughter or anything else you own or your life .So images arn't blurry at all.Put cameras all around the house, drug addicts don't come in the front door if they want something of yours to get their fix they will get in any way they can.. WiFi Ethernet phone option lets you monitor every camera from your phone.4k video will hold up in court better due to better resolution.Got my eye on a 16 camera one that does just that.

 Lorex brand seams to be hard to get images or video off of but this is just from the reviews of ppl that own them.Could be operator error an not RTFM ppl. 

 They more than likely have a police scanner so they know exactly when the popo is coming.Take videos of it for a while to establish frequency and participants send to DEA DOJ And every other alphabet soup acronym you can think of.See if they think this is odd behavior also. To me it sounds like a front for making meth.The mysterious fire was a batch of meth torching itself and the house. 

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oops.had a dbl post.

At some point, cause they are criminals, prolly dealing drugs it will escalate bad.Your daughters bedroom in front of the house on second floor?She could easily be wounded or killed by stray gunfire that scum or the scum  they are selling/working for when they have a dispute.Since they do park in front of your house right?Could be sitting there with the wife watching the tv minding your own business and her head will explode from the large caliber hand guns they use today to shoot at each other.

Edited by wildman2

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I really think you should run at least one surveillance camera outside, and place it somewhere that everyone can see it. Low enough to capture great videos of trespassers, high enough that the camera can't be messed with. You will see that people will begin to avoid the areas when they see a camera. People absolutely hate being watched. I purchase a few of these cameras and mounted them outside the house. They work great in the daytime, and at night. They are POE cameras so you will need a POE switch, and just run an ethernet cable to the camera outside. I have a few of these cameras connected to a 5 port POE swith (Trendnet). One other awesome thing about these cameras is that you can install a micro SD card and have it record footage through the day. You can go back and replay footage and all that stuff. They also provide a phone app so you can view the camera from your phone. They have 3 camera types, bullet, dome, and turret style. I like the dome style type since it's difficult for the person to know if the camera is pointing at them.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Hikvision-DS-2CD2142FWD-I-Network-Dome-2-8mm/dp/B017Y4CD9U/ref=pd_sim_421_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B017Y4CD9U&pd_rd_r=T2PXK5QQQH935WED5RMT&pd_rd_w=rLBoM&pd_rd_wg=W0d7M&psc=1&refRID=T2PXK5QQQH935WED5RMT

 

I use the same brand but the bullet cams POE and blue iris software..  There are some clones also that are cheaper but will brick if you try to update the firmware.

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Is there any chance of getting some of your more honest neighbours to form a neighborhood watch program and put up signs on the street, I'm sure you are not the onle one bothered by all this activity. At least that way the scum would know people are keeping an eye on things. Also for now even 2 dummy cameras might stop them from parking in front of your house and maybe a video surveillance sign.

Edited by SpikeSoprano

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