Driveway Alarm

DampCat

DampCat

DampCat

Soldato
Joined
26 Feb 2007
Posts
14,162
Location
Leafy Cheshire
We have a very nice young man who drops by once a week between 2am and 5am to steal things out of every car on the estate. The police are "looking into it" but obviously there's very little they can do.

He walks down our drive and tries both cars and front door. He caught me out once where someone (wife) didn't lock my car and he got our camera with all our wedding photos on.

Wife won't let me do all nighters with a baseball bat in case he "has a knife, and I'm not dealing with your whining if you get cut".

So I've repurposed an indoor nest cam looking out of the kitchen window, it's set to give me notifications but it only does so silently which is of little use. I can't for the life of me figure out how to make it be an actual alarm. I've caught him on this 3 times so far.

Does anyone know of a fast, easy solution to get alarms when someone comes down the drive? I don't care about it being set off by a cat, I will deal with that for a few weeks if it means I can catch the poncing scumbag in the act. At this point I would set fire to the cars if I thought I could catch him in the flames.

Edit: to be clear I'm happy to purchase a new solution
 
My Arlo camera's send notifications but there a small delay so he most likely be gone by the time you get them

I maybe wrong but i think the delay is due to e-mail is not instant
 
You could also get a battery PIR like Mr beams, might deter and allow a clear picture of their face?

We have also had this sort of thing but not a regular occurrence, and car doors only
 
Wire 240v to your car door handles and then post the video obviously. Or string wire across your drive at shin height.

Your indoor camera and anyother camera motion sensor wont work thru a window as the glass blocks the ir sensor.

if you're cucked by your missis, im
Amazed no one on your entire street has ever challenged him if this is an ongoing thing.
 
Should talk to a few neighbors and all wait up for him, catch him red handed and pin him to the floor phone the police. Likely get away with it but might think twice about targeting you're area.
 
Look for a 'shed alarm' with battery sensor and mains plug receiver inside the house; IME surprisingly cheap and effective. Sensor positioning needs to be careful or you'll get no sleep, but simple solutions are often the best.
 
My recommendation, I have 4 of them:

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You want a Dahua TiOC camera. The Intrusion Vision System(IVS) lets you map an area and if someone goes in or out of that area it sounds a siren and flashes blue and red lights. I have a demo camera I could lend you if you promise to send it back once you’ve caught the person concerned.
 
Look into those glitter parcel bombs people have been setting up to catch thieves who take parcels from doorsteps.

Serious answer. Stick a poster up on your car saying you know what they are doing and you have CCTV and have contacted the police. That should at least move them on to a different area
 
Thanks all. I kind of want the scrote fully caught and prosecuted, I have plenty of video evidence. I worry if I have a deterrent he'll just avoid my cars but still target everyone else (I mean not my problem really I guess but I'm taking this personally).

WJA96 said:
You want a Dahua TiOC camera. The Intrusion Vision System(IVS) lets you map an area and if someone goes in or out of that area it sounds a siren and flashes blue and red lights. I have a demo camera I could lend you if you promise to send it back once you’ve caught the person concerned.
Click to expand...

That's very kind, I've just watched some videos. Can it be set up to wake me up without letting him know I know he's there? I just want to be awake to call the police. I'm at the back of the estate so it'd take 10 minutes for him to get out.
 
So what if you catch him on cctv? Police do nothing these days. Personally I think ur bang on the money with the baseball bat. Of course then the law goes against you when you whack him one.
 
DampCat said:
Thanks all. I kind of want the scrote fully caught and prosecuted, I have plenty of video evidence. I worry if I have a deterrent he'll just avoid my cars but still target everyone else (I mean not my problem really I guess but I'm taking this personally).



That's very kind, I've just watched some videos. Can it be set up to wake me up without letting him know I know he's there? I just want to be awake to call the police. I'm at the back of the estate so it'd take 10 minutes for him to get out.
Click to expand...

Yes, it will ping you an alert without setting off the lights or the siren. But that’s not what you wanted in the original post.
 
Funnily enough, we have a guy in our village doing the same.

We have like 7 cameras on our house looking onto the road, the drive, the garden etc

we’ve caught the guy 3 times i believe trying various cars, vans etc and the police have not been round to look or take a recording.

Been over a month.

My only advice is to be careful. If you do him in, he’ll know where you live.

I’d do an all nighter with a mate in a car where he comes past. ;) then he won’t know it was you specifically !
 
MadMan-JaMeS said:
I’d do an all nighter with a mate in a car where he comes past. ;) then he won’t know it was you specifically !
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That’s not a good idea. Let’s say you get the guy and “do him in”. If you do anything like a decent job of it you’ll hospitalise him, at which point it will be a police matter and they’ll have a decent idea where to start looking for the criminals who beat him up because if you’ve done a proper job beating him up he won’t have gone very far before he was taken away by the ambulance. And now you’re a criminal too. Because beating people up is criminal.

And then, the entire criminal fraternity of wherever you live will likely know it was you, because you’re highly unlikely to keep your mouth shut about it. And then having your car broken into will be the least of your worries.

Criminals won’t come back if a) You make it hard for them and b) there is nothing to steal. So empty your car. Make sure the alarm on your car is set. Just lock the doors. Surveillance cameras are a nice deterrent but any professional criminal knows the difference between a £300 Swann system that you’ll see nothing in the darkness and a proper colour night vision system. Most of them won’t be going out without some sort of idea of what they want, who has it and where those people live. And if they’ve been somewhere that lights flash and sirens blare, they won’t come back because there are easier pickings elsewhere.
 
MadMan-JaMeS said:
Funnily enough, we have a guy in our village doing the same.

We have like 7 cameras on our house looking onto the road, the drive, the garden etc

we’ve caught the guy 3 times i believe trying various cars, vans etc and the police have not been round to look or take a recording.

Been over a month.
Click to expand...

So what have the police said? Did you get Crime Numbers? If you’ve had 3 thefts (or attempted thefts) and you have evidence that identifies the thief then there is a complaints procedure to get the police to do something about it.
 
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