looking for suggestions on detering/catching vandals. lately our neighborhood has been hit with graffiti several nights - occuring sometime between 2am and 5am I am guessing. tagging the street and cars on the street. police have been notified several times by several househoulds and are stepping up night patrols but I doubt that will do much. I assume the perps are on bikes or foot as I have not heard car doors or motor noise the nights it has happened. one of the neighbors is putting up a deer cam somewhere, I have one of my slr's shooting on time lapse every minute between 1 and 6am. what else can we do to try and catch the perps? I'm not going to sit up all night since it doesn't happen everynight. maybe brian shorten can come sit in my yard with his arsenal? this is in golden valley, typically very quiet but close to north minneapolis. two of our cars have gotten tagged (including the fxt) so this is personal. please keep the stupid comments out, I'm looking for serious ideas as this needs to stop now.
That sucks. I know someone who uses this system. http://www.geovision.com.tw/english/3_1.asp?stable1=Pro&sfiled=pgid&pno=29 seems to have had pretty good luck with it, but it is kind of pricey.
that really sucks. your neighborhood seems nicer than that. there really isnt much you can do unless you actually see them doing it first hand. cops in st. louis park are NUTs when it comes to catching these kids. they are out like roaches everynight catching vandals it seems like.
most web cam software has some sort of motion sensor stuff. you can setup one by a window and tip it to record video when motion is greater then threshold of what you set it to. we had some kids busting into cars for change.. I've had my car under cam since.. just crank up the light threshold.. and you'll get video.. not the "best" but video. or if your really gonzo, you can use my night vision goggles
http://www.simplehelp.net/2006/09/27/how-to-use-your-pc-and-webcam-as-a-motion-detecting-and-recording-security-camera/ I've been looking into this also, we've been having the same problem on our street with the kids breaking windows.
Do you have motion lights on your garage? Those always seem to deter unwanted people somewhat. It's cheap, easy and at least adds to the "security" of your house.
Meh, not much else you can really do without being a crazed vigilante, I say just wait for the police to stop the morons. I mean you already got cameras set up which is a great idea, dunno what else can really be done. Is there a certain pattern to when the vandalism occurs? Only on weekends? Only on Wednesdays? Anything?
I've had the same problems in my area of Rochester - usually a pretty quiet area. But, my GF's car was broken into a couple months ago and had her student ID and candy taken. Then last week my cousin's car had the window smashed and golf clubs taken. Not much police can do or will do. I'd like the game camera idea, but it'd capture every car that goes bye not neccesarily the perps.
which is fine, not many cars go by. better than just shooting my cam on time lapse. I had to sift through 300 pics before heading to work today. one neighbor has a game cam up, i may considering putting one up too but I like the webcam idea. recommendations on one? I don't own one other than the one built into my laptop
for me i would buy a pitbull...and have him trained to guard the house in-case these kinds of situations happen...
Have someone that usually works nights take a night off, provide him with entertainment of some kind and have him watch
I have a cheap digital game camera. The resolution is only 640x480, so not that great. But it's better than nothing. The flash would also probably give away the location of the camera, make sure it is secured or it might dissappear. You could rewire a motion sensor to trigger something else, like have it trigger a light inside your house so you can maybe catch them in the act. Otherwise you'd probably have to get a camera with infrared lighting to get any decent video.
Can't help, but odds are about 75% chance they're not from N. Minneapolis, but some suburb, possibly your own. Only about 25% of the taggers I see are from Minneapolis or St. Paul, but from Edina or something (read: ******* suburban white kids). Christ the last kid I had in for that was a St. Thomas student (from Edina) tagging his own school.
Ten bucks a night on service call and I'm here. I'll bring the paintball gun, roman candles, and some M80's to shoot them with. 10 bucks a night. No joke.
i want that. its so bad ass! just hook it up to a home network and you could have tons of these things running around your house!
