Home surveillance question

[Nancy]

If anyone uses a security camera for home surveillance can you help me?

We are considering setting up a wireless surveillance camera outside our front door to find out who is ringing our doorbell everynight between midnight and 4am, sometimes twice a night. This person also throws something against the house at times as there is a loud boom. We are fairly certain we know it's the druggie neighbor that difficult child was staying with when we kicked her out but we need proof.

If I use a wireless outdoor camera can I connect it to a vcr inside to actully record who comes to the door? Obviously I don't want to have to stay up all night watching a monitor and I also want proof so we can file a police report.

Nancy

 

[DaisyFace]

Nancy--

Yes and no...

The camera will record, but VCRs are outdated. Many cameras are designed to record directly onto your computer. And they can often hold weeks worth of footage!

If you're trying to ID someone in the dark - make sure you get a camera that can "see in the dark" - otherwise your footage will be pretty useless.

Hope this helps!

Good luck!

 

[AnnieO]

Actually - if it is wireless, you won't need a VCR. You can record it to your computer or laptop.

If it's dark, though... The picture may not be that great. If you leave a porch light on, do they still come to the door?

 

[Fran]

I don't have any suggestions but I'm sorry to hear you live with this sort of hell.

 

[KTMom91]

Hubby set up a camera that records night vision and also has a motion sensor, so it only records when it sees something. He set it up for Internet access and it sends alerts to his phone. I don't understand any of it, but if you would like to ask him about it, PM me.

 

[DammitJanet]

Nancy...yes. Oddly enough we have a deer camera that records animal wildlife that does that...lol. Night vision too.

But you can get a fairly simply system from many places. Do you have a security system on your home? If not, my recommendation would be to go to radio shack and they have the camera's that can record to your computer. You can either get one that is night vision or you can put lights that are motion activated in your yard. I have motion activated lights in my yard...on my front door and at both ends of my house and one out by my dog pen which lights up the driveway. If you want to talk to Billy about the radio shack system just pm me, I will send you his number.

 

[Star*]

I'm so in the wrong business - I would love to sit in your yard with a cup of coffee and a pit bull ------doing recon work........I SWEAR I'd use a bolero.....and not a gun.

AS far as the footprints? My best suggestion would be to DUST your sidewalk and front porch every night -----with either corn starch or flour.....sand makes too much noise when it's walked in and baby powder blows away....flour will leave foot prints. You can also use lime......but it's not safe for dogs.

And as far as the loud boom? Why don't you get motion detector lights and have them set to highly sensitive - so that whenever someone even walks on the property? They all go off? You're asking the wrong person - We had someone sneaking around our property when my Uncle was still alive (the one who never came back from Vietnam completely) and I left for work. When I came home? He had rid my tackle box of all it's contents - and hung fish hooks face high on stringers all over the woods, and put trip wires in just feet before them. Scaries thing I'd ever seen. However in his defense - he put up signs with warnings that said how the property was booby trapped adding in he was a Vet - and they would be there when he came out to get them. Some neighbors laughed, chuckled - or just got a nod - but whomever was roaming around in our woods? Stopped. I guess fishhook in the face will stop anyone from messing with your back door. After that? I decided where ever I moved? I wanted a dog.

 

[Nancy]

KTMom and Janet do you have to plug the camera into an electric outlet outside?

Nancy

 

[DammitJanet]

Nancy you probably need a swan night owl or nighthawk camera to do this and you can hook it up to the vcr and that will be cheapest. use 6 hour tapes. Receiver is inside and cameras either plug outside or can run off 9volt batteries. Got this info from Billy. Hope this helps. Can get it from radio shack.

 

[TerryJ2]

My neighbors did this and caught another neighbor.
But that was 8 yrs ago when VCRs were still in use. They used 24 hr tapes. (Whatever you use, make sure you don't have to change it every 3 hrs or you'll die of exhaustion.)

Best of luck! Wish I had some ideas. I'd just walk into a warehouse store and tell them what I need.

 

[DammitJanet]

Billy said that if you have the vcr it will be much cheaper for you and is totally fine to use. The one above is what he told me would work for what you need and wouldnt cost an arm and a leg.

 

[Nancy]

Thanks Janet, I'll check into it.

Nancy