Author Topic: Home security cameras etc.  (Read 9103 times)

ian

Home security cameras etc.
« on: 11 January, 2017, 10:37:32 pm »
So, some miscreant attempted to burgle a house somewhere up the road. They weren't very good and they only managed to break the door handle. Even I can do that. But it turns my mind to the fact that the Asbestos Palace is defended only by an alarm-shaped box that isn't connected to anything. Everyone ignores alarms, so I regard them as effectively pointless devices that serve only to alarm and then enrage the neighbours. But as frequent travellers, I wonder what the panel has to say about those internet home security camera things (I saw one advertised on the train, Canary, though having googled, it seems real canaries are far cheaper if likely less reliable). I'm intrigued by the ability to peek into the house and garden while I am away and check if the cats are disemboweling more expensive electronica. Anyone have any of these marvellous devices (there seems to be numerous brands) to recommend or condemn?

Not that I expect the police to do anything with any footage, but there's reassurance value from being able to check the Palace remains unbreached while we are away.

Re: home insecurity
« Reply #1 on: 11 January, 2017, 11:58:54 pm »
Caught a cleaner going through pockets and drawers, then nicking a tenner after my pc speakers went missing from my office - that was via supervisioncam freeware in about 2002.

I've now got nest and smartthings, which gives me various options. I really like the smarthome monitor in Smartthings, which has never missed a beat. I don't know if the video works as well as in this video, but the various door sensor, humidity, temp, motion and proximity stuff does.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyk8JFYkxGE

hellymedic

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Re: home insecurity
« Reply #2 on: 12 January, 2017, 12:19:55 am »
We have paid through the nose for a system from http://www.actresponse.com which includes fire/smoke/CO detectors, PIR CCTV detectors at strategic locations, intruder detectors for the outhouses and a personal pendant alarm for if I hit the deck.
The system is monitored 24/7 from Middlesbrough and they can see if there's anyone visible on the CCTVs.
David has the app on his iPhone and could spy on this if he so wished.

There is an alarm that sounds only in the house on actuation, and connects to the monitoring centre. We've had a few false alarms due to the hypersensitivity of the sensor in the garage.

I am not sure this is money well spent for the pennies it saves on the home insurance but I was persuaded to upgrade from the previous non-CCTV system by their sales/service staff...

Re: home insecurity
« Reply #3 on: 12 January, 2017, 07:51:45 am »
I'm like DrMekon, I have Nest & Smartthings. I originally used Smartthings when my sons started walking home from school by themselves so I knew when they were in the house but also found out that the cleaner was only in the house for 45 mins to 1 hour when she was paid to clean for 2 hours.

Smartthings is easy to set up & the sensors are battery operated so no need for wires.

Re: home insecurity
« Reply #4 on: 12 January, 2017, 08:09:22 am »
Back in 1999 when we moved into Ham Hall, I was travelling a lot for work and decided for peace of mind for Mrs Ham to have a NACOSS professionally fitted alarm installed, which is monitored and works perfectly.

There are two reasons for doing it. The first is for the box with flashing lights that should mean that the scrotes go to the next house without alarm. The second (and why it was installed) is that you can (and we do, every night) switch the downstairs on while you are sleeping upstairs and the alarm would be expected to scare off any intruder. The idea of waking to find an intruder rummaging m'drawers is not one I wish to experience.

Along with that, if it is activated, the police will attend as an emergency call, which is the best that can be expected. There are only two parties who need to take notice of the alarm: yourselves and the police and both are guaranteed.

I struggle to see the absolute value of CCTV beyond the vicarious thrill of watching the rummaging from afar, and potentially aiding the boys in blue tracking down the culprits (still not a high probability) (obv Helly has a very specific purpose)

(ETA: Maintenance cost is £20/month)

woollypigs

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Re: home insecurity
« Reply #5 on: 12 January, 2017, 08:47:20 am »
Moats, sharks and landmines only way to be sure.
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Re: home insecurity
« Reply #6 on: 12 January, 2017, 08:55:02 am »
Moats, sharks and landmines only way to be sure.

Think of the Yeti!

PaulF

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Re: home insecurity
« Reply #7 on: 12 January, 2017, 09:01:33 am »
A dog, a big dog. If you leave it alone when you're away it will be hungry when the intruder breaks in and they'll stand no chance.

Plus it will keep the bears at bay.

Re: home insecurity
« Reply #8 on: 12 January, 2017, 09:14:07 am »
You don't need a REAL dog.  Just something that makes barking noises when noise-activated. 

Basically you don't want them to try to break in. 

Sadly we lost our (elderly) nosey neighbours opposite recently, gone to a sheltered home.  Hopefully their replacements will be nosey once they've done the house up.  We are getting a new front door altho' the quotes people say it's the back that matters.  Fortunately it's very hard to get round the back.
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Re: home insecurity
« Reply #9 on: 12 January, 2017, 09:19:24 am »
For CCTV like functionality I use a couple of old smartphones (acquired from kids when upgrading) and an app called 'Arthur' which works remarkably well. (I'm sure other similar apps are available). The phone can be left almost anywhere and no-one really notices a phone.
It's only been useful for seeing what the cat is doing while we're on holidays.
I've got a door activated Seimens alarm and linked PIR in the garage, but I'm generally of the opinion that a) you won't beat the professional bastartds, b) nasty scrotes are likely to cause more damage than is worth the goods they are stealing if you get too clever.
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Re: home insecurity
« Reply #10 on: 12 January, 2017, 09:34:00 am »
Fort Larrington, located in leafy Surrey, has an alarm.  And when I triggered it inadvertently while trying to gain access a couple of years ago a couple of nice gentlemen in a silver Astra with stripes on the side turned up inside ten minutes.
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ian

Re: home insecurity
« Reply #11 on: 12 January, 2017, 09:49:22 am »
We did contemplate having a proper alarm system fitted (there was a ancient PIR-based system already in the Asbestos Palace but other than the ringer on the front of the house we had it ripped out as part of the refurb). We had one in the last place but it was just a bit of an expensive palaver (not to mentioning the monitoring company went bust and no one knew for months).

The odds of getting burgled (burglarized for pedants, though they probably don't like the z) are pretty low, and a violent robbery very low. The issue up the road sounds like the usual speculative knock-on-door and if no one is home have a go at the lock, which is most likely scenario. The back of the Palace is secluded which is my main concern, anyone back there can't be seen, so can work on the doors at their leisure. There's a couple of fences to climb to get there. And the yetis. I'd do the shark moat but given the hill I'd expect the water would leak and I'd be forever collecting sharks from the bottom of the hill.

I suspect CCTV is just an excuse to see what the cats are (or more likely aren't) doing and so my wife can check I'm not sitting in front of the internet wearing just pants. Or worse.

frankly frankie

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Re: home insecurity
« Reply #12 on: 12 January, 2017, 11:18:14 am »
Cats?  If it were only cats.  Most of the activity in my back garden is badgers and foxes, and very welcome they are too.

My home was burgled twice a long time ago (once while out shopping and once at night while we slept upstairs) and has not been touched in 30 years since I fitted a very basic (just door sensors) alarm system with an obvious (and obviously connected, ie little winking lights) box.  In fact ours was the first house in our street to have an alarm.  And yes, one of those burglary incidents was almost certainly cleaner-related.  We also stopped having an agency cleaner.

However as a frequent traveller my best investment by far has been motorised curtains on the front windows.  These open on a timer in the morning and close on a light sensor in the evening.  We've had these for 20 years now and they are a great asset, the more so since we lost our very good neighbours a few years ago and are now surrounded by relative strangers.

The main benefit of having a house alarm is at night, you don't have to lie there listening to odd creaks and bumps and wondering if there's an intruder - the alarm tells you there is not, very good for the peace of mind.
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

Re: home insecurity
« Reply #13 on: 12 January, 2017, 11:39:59 am »
The one time I've been burgled, I had a barky aggressive dog and a nosy neighbour. The burglers smashed a door panel in, beat the dog with a large stick (his head was swollen and bruised and he was found hiding under a bed). The neighour watched the burglars park up, and run into the house and come out carrying stuff.

There have been multiple news stories of burglers being caught after they were filmed on webcam. Just make sure the webcam sends the pictures to a web server. The police do use the pictures.

Helen's system sounds like the business, if you can afford it. I personally wouldn't like something that someone else could spy on. I wouldn't even like the idea of cameras that someone else might be able to hack into. But heyho that's modern life. Like my stepdaughter says "If I'm getting dressed or anything, I throw a towel over my webcam and I always assume my microphone is live."
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hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: home insecurity
« Reply #14 on: 12 January, 2017, 12:02:39 pm »
The sales droid that sold me my new system told me the police would only attend a burglary if there was definite evidence of an intruder, like CCTV. Activation of a monitored system in itself was insufficient.
Previous system was monitored but lacked CCTV.

There are a lot of burglar/car alarms that are ignored in the area.

Man next door had silent, opportunist burglary last month. Someone walked into his home through an unlocked door and helped themself to watches and a TV.

ian

Re: home insecurity
« Reply #15 on: 12 January, 2017, 12:04:45 pm »
To be honest I'd be pointing any cameras outwards, once they're in, they're in. Other than a couple of Apple computers and a Brompton, we don't actually have much worth stealing as we don't do stuff like jewellery and watches. I'd like to see someone lug our 13-year-old 45 inch Samsung projector TV over the fence. No really, I would. Anyway, I'm philosophical that it's just stuff and insured stuff at that.

I like the idea of motorised curtains (or blinds in our case). My modest anti-burglary strategy is to automate lights to go on and off in different parts of the house but the blinds are a bit of a giveaway. I figure most burglars don't want to meet the owners and there's no shortage of houses around where it's obvious no one is home.

I'd like something that can shoot electricity at Bad Cat when she gets her appetite for destruction.

Re: home insecurity
« Reply #16 on: 12 January, 2017, 12:23:33 pm »
Ring?

https://ring.com/

Works with IFTTT and smartthings, alneit not the smarthome monitoring aspect of STs

Like rusky, we got ours for the kids - my eldest has high functioning autism, and likes to go to the park and walk home alone after school. A combo of IFTTT on his phone with some geofencing and location monitoring, plus TRACKR for when he forgets to charge his phone, plus the ST presence monitoring means I can keep an eye on him. He'll still get himself in to trouble, but it means I can find him when he does.

Re: home insecurity
« Reply #17 on: 12 January, 2017, 12:29:44 pm »
The sales droid that sold me my new system told me the police would only attend a burglary if there was definite evidence of an intruder, like CCTV. Activation of a monitored system in itself was insufficient.


Hmmm.

If our system activates the monitoring service instantly calls as a false alarm trap, if answered within 30 seconds and responded with the codeword deactivates, otherwise places a 999 call to which the boyz in bloo respond.

If you activate the panic alarm it will go direct to 999 and cannot be cancelled. No matter if you accidentally punch in the code into the keypad with your shoulder at 02:00 while leaning backwards punching down connections onto a Cat5 patch panel with all the floorboards up and wife and daughter elsewhere other than. It was 17 years ago but I still remember the event clearly.

I call pants smouldering.

Re: home insecurity
« Reply #18 on: 12 January, 2017, 12:57:10 pm »
To be honest I'd be pointing any cameras outwards, once they're in, they're in.

An acquaintance was burgled a few years ago. He had footage of the yobs walking up to his front door, then, 15 minutes later, footage of them walking away from the house with their backpacks obviously fuller. The police refused to do anything with this because "there is no proof they entered the house".
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Re: home insecurity
« Reply #19 on: 12 January, 2017, 01:44:37 pm »
The main benefit of having a house alarm is at night, you don't have to lie there listening to odd creaks and bumps and wondering if there's an intruder - the alarm tells you there is not, very good for the peace of mind.

This.

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Re: home insecurity
« Reply #20 on: 12 January, 2017, 02:24:32 pm »
A friend in Poland had a simple motion-activated webcam thing pointed at the inside of the front door (no back door, fourth-floor flat, so no other access points) and sending images to his email. Didn't stop them getting burgled but caught the burglar and recovered their stuff. Whether your local police and courts would work in the same way I can't say.
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Re: home insecurity
« Reply #21 on: 12 January, 2017, 02:54:28 pm »
To be honest I'd be pointing any cameras outwards, once they're in, they're in.

An acquaintance was burgled a few years ago. He had footage of the yobs walking up to his front door, then, 15 minutes later, footage of them walking away from the house with their backpacks obviously fuller. The police refused to do anything with this because "there is no proof they entered the house".

Yep, tho to be fair to them that's all the defense brief would argue - and get away with, so CPS wouldn't authorise the charge anyway. A lad was found carrying stuff from my wife's stolen car. He was done for possession of stolen property, but they didn't even attempt to charge him for the car theft.
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Re: home insecurity
« Reply #22 on: 12 January, 2017, 11:39:42 pm »
Moats, sharks and landmines Tactical nuclear strike from orbit, only way to be sure.

 ;)
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: home insecurity
« Reply #23 on: 12 January, 2017, 11:46:23 pm »
Make sure that the darker recesses of the house have appropriate led floods with PIRs. Keep the hedges at a sensible level for not hiding scrotes. Dont leave keys in doors or .... teach your granny to suck eggs.  ::-)
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Home security cameras etc.
« Reply #24 on: 16 March, 2017, 01:12:03 pm »
Having trouble locally with scooter-gangs of thieves. Nicked my scooter last night from right by the front door - I recovered it this morning from outside their place on the local estate. I fear that means we are now a target.  Years ago a previous generation of this gang used to burgle the area at their pleasure and I am expecting a return to form.

Last time it ended when Horace the dog chased one of them down the garden and only just failed to bite his bollocks off as he scrambled over the fence - they left us alone after that. 

Bosun the new dog slept right through last night, having exhausted himself yelling at postmen etc all day. Didn't stop him having a poke at the plod though. Useless.

I am thinking of a cctv/lights system and wondered if anyone has experience or advice. Lots out there and I don't understand them.
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