For the past few months, I've been mulling over the idea of getting a camera surveillance system for my home because of ever-looming threat of porch pirates, idiot teenagers damaging property and neighbor's animals leaving large, brown piles on my lawn for me to pick up. I want to catch their mongrel in the act, so I can leave it on their porch. I always see Ring systems when I go to Costco, but their cameras are kind of cheap-looking and a bit on the large side; I'm looking for discretion and quality at an affordable price, if there is such a thing. In another thread, someone recommended Wyze Cam (after another person had their packages either stolen or misdelivered), but I never heard of that brand. I read some reviews, but they were mixed. I've read a great many reviews on a myriad of other systems, but ultimately, I'd like to hear from someone, a REAL person, that actually has a surveillance system and not read a review from a fake person on a website that was probably planted for sales. Thanks in advance.
I've always been told to go to a legit security company to get one and not some shitty Costco or any other retail store kind.
I just bought a few Reolink cameras and I really like them. They're directly compatible with Google and Amazon devices, as well.
I have ADT home security but no cameras yet. My coworker who also has ADT but has cameras showed me what her cameras looked like on her phone with the app. Hers were pretty good, had night vision and you could talk through them as well. When I called them and they said I could add 3 cameras, and it'd only be an additional 15 bucks a month and no install fee I wondered out loud as to why the hell I didn't do that from the get go?
^This Obviously I'm jk (Sorta) but IMHO sure having a camera may be good and all to have footage of the thief or crime recorded but from what I've seen my friends go through with stolen packages in general and even having the plate # of the car pulling up on footage,Cops won't do shit. They'll ask you to file a report and it will be in their cabinet collection full of reports. @ the end of the day it is what it is but to me personally,the best weapon/deterrent against these assholes is just a neighborhood watch or in my case a "Block watch" where on my block we watch out for one another and trust me,on my block lots of old timers/veterans/OG's that you don't Fuck with lol. If a package is on my doorstep, they'll grab it and hold on to it for me and vice versa. Same goes for "Ppl w/o bags to pick up their dog shit" They'll see it and give that asshole a bag lol
Get a gun or a camera system of your own. I've read many stories of cars being stolen at apartment complexes and the landlords refuse to help those who got robbed by not providing video.
I bought Arlo cameras a few months ago. They're completely wireless and I bought solar chargers so I don't have to take them down occasionally to charge them. I use them to make sure my daughters get on the bus in the mornings.
I was thinking of getting 2 of the Blink cameras. But I really don't want to pay a monthly subscription for yet another service. It sucks that most of the good systems require one.
Yeah, I was going some research over the weekend and saw a Blink infomercial, and the cams look great and easy to install, but on top of a monthly subscription, it needs to be connected to Wi-Fi 24/7. If you have shitty AT&T or your internet craps out on you during an inconvenient time, you'll be SOL. I'm not looking for another monthly bill like ADT, but some good HD cams that provide decent coverage that aren't dependent on being hooked up to the internet 24/7. Not sure if there is such a thing.
I wish I could put landmines in my yard... but it's against the law to hurt and injure criminals. Regarding the dogs (and cats), most of the neighbors don't even have collars or tags for them, and they let them freely roam the neighborhood to piss and crap and mark their territory. Yesterday, I had to pick up 10 piles out of my grass. TEN!!! While I was doing that, somebody's mutt trotted into my yard to drop another pile and I had to chase his mongrel ass out. I sprinkled Cayenne Pepper to burn their snouts out of their heads and keep them out, but if that doesn't work, but I will resort to other methods that owners certainly will not like.
My wife bought me a Blink system for xmas. I like it so far. Super easy to setup and add devices. I bought a flash card instead of paying for the monthly cloud service. App is pretty easy to use.
I had Hikvision brand cameras at my previous house. I haven’t looked at prices for them recently, but the image quality was very impressive and they are built like tanks. The setup can be a bit involved, but they are worth it once you get them up and running. They are accessible anywhere you have an internet connection (including mobile).
^How bout this?? I know you watch some Pro wrestling and you know how effective barbwire or in this case razor is! Hahah,all jokes aside man I feel for you as I had the fun job of taking care of my friends baby pits awhile ago and picking that up sucked and I knew the owner. I can only imagine how pissed off I would be if I had to pick up other ppl's dog shit. Maybe if you see it happening walk and ask them "Politely" then if that doesn't work hopefully I'll see you on WORLDSTAR lol jk. (Worldstar still a thing?) But yea man,least thing you can do is walk up to them with a bag tell them to pick up after themselves.
I never see them do it. The neighbors are POS that let their dogs out at night and early morning. When I wake up early to do yardwork, I see a bunch of them trotting around the neighborhood, marking their territory and dropping bombs. I chased one mongrel out of my yard and the bastard growled at me like it was his yard. I was about to kick the shit out of it if he charged me... and it's not the dog's fault, the owners are irresponsible, reprehensible pieces of crap who don't deserve animals. We have a forum on FB and one time, I was fed up and posted each pile in my lawn with a carefully worded threat to keep their mutts in their own yards and people were outraged like I was committing a crime because I didn't want to pick up someone else's crap. Our area has become a drop off spot for people who no longer want their pets. Just last week, someone posted a photo of some jackass who left their two dogs IN THEIR DOGHOUSES on the sidewalk in the bushes. Along with a surveillance camera for the neighborhood miscreants and porch pirates, I might invest in an ultrasonic device to keep the dogs out of my yard because so far, nothing has worked.
So, crazy circumstances led me to hunker down and purchase a home security system. On Christmas night, while my family and I were eating Christmas dinner and I was watching A Charlie Brown Christmas, two jackasses involved in some idiotic dispute were playing chicken and one of them hit my parked car IN MY DRIVEWAY to avoid the other car. An SUV slammed into a sedan that used the sidewalk to escape and the sedan hit my car in the process. The sedan swiped the back of my car and their front fender fell off in my yard (because it's a POS) before they sped off into the night. It's a miracle they missed my tree! My neighbor, who texted me right after the incident just happened to have a Ring camera system and caught everything, but it was at night and drizzling, so it couldn’t make out the plates to give to the police… but I had a bumper!.. which the police said they couldn’t use after I filed a report… so I was just SOL. My neighbor gave me the footage to give to the police and I never heard back. I was incensed! After extensive review, I decided to get an Arlo system when it was on sale at Best Buy. My cousin has an older Arlo system and showed me all of its features and I was impressed, so I decided to give it a shot. The bundle comes with 4 cameras and I bought an extra to cover the blind spots on my home. It’s very easy to hook up and syncing it to Wi-Fi was quite simple, yet time-consuming. So far, it works well, but I need to adjust the settings because it doesn’t capture video long enough after the fact, like when someone walks up to the porch, it cuts out after 11 seconds post-activity. Easy enough to update. Arlo advertises that battery life lasts up to six months, but what they don’t tell you is if there’s significant activity, that will QUICKLY drain the camera’s battery incrementally. Thus far, my most active cameras last for about two weeks before I have to charge them. I haven’t had to charge the camera with the least activity since I installed it about a month ago and it’s still at about 70%. I'm debating getting a solar charger, but don't really want to drill any more holes into the wood to install it. Plus, it's kind of large, sticks out and looks like an eye sore. Something else they sneak by you is that in order to store your footage activity files in their cloud system, it’s a monthly charge (like $10 for the cheapest service). You can purchase a smart hub (for $100) and hook an external drive to it to avoid the monthly fee for cloud storage, but those are perpetually sold out; I set up an alert to notify me when they’re back in stock, but it literally sold out in minutes! Now, I think they have been discontinued… and a ton showed up on FeeBay. Overall, I like this system, it does what I need and the price is somewhat digestible when it’s on sale. Set-up is simple and the settings are easy enough to navigate, so that’s a plus. Footage is easy to view from my phone at any time, but if you want to add someone else to the account, it’s on another platform that’s not user-friendly. Additionally, there is no user support UNLESS you subscribe to their cloud service… and that is BS! 3 stars out of 5.
I don't know anything about specific types of Camera systems, though you should arm yourself and contact the authorities if criminal incidents occur. It is good that you have a security system now. I hope it works well for you in the future.
