We recently had a home burglery in our neighborhood. The wife (lady of the house, female significant other, mother, however it is PC to describe her) walked in on the burglery. Fortunately she immediately left via the front door and the perps left by by back door. She never saw them.
This has generated a lot of interest in home alarm systems and surveillance cameras. Not interested in home alarm systems at this time. Cameras-maybe.
Does anyone have any experience/expertise in installing and making use of such a system. The major purpose that I can imagine for such a system is to collect evidence for the police. One is likely to know that one has been robbed without the use of cameras. Recording the fact that someone came to the front/back door and then left might be interesting, but of marginal use unless a crime is reported. Perforce, this means that the recorder has to be placed in such a location that it can’t be stolen along with the other property. It doesn’t look practical to hide the cameras, so the idea is to hide the recorder so well that the perp can’t find it even after a determined and focused search. Installing a set of cameras and a recorder such that the recorder can’t be found after a detailed search of the home seems possible but not easy.
This is easier than ever to do through wireless cameras. You don’t even have to worry about the cameras being stolen. The data gets broadcast and stored via Wi-Fi technology. It is probably better to make them plainly visible to defer thefts in the first place. You can buy complete kits that do this for a few hundred dollars.
Google “wireless home security cameras” for a list and review of options. There are a bunch of prepackaged kits and options out there. You could have the video streamed off-site if you really wanted for not much money but that takes a little technical savvy but still isn’t difficult.
Burglars don’t do that. They are usually in and out in less than 10 minutes, and only take things that are obviously available, and fence-able. They will look in common hiding places, like bedroom jewelery boxes, top desk drawers, bedroom drawers under underwear, refrigerator vegetable drawers, etc., but then they will just quickly get out of the place.
A friend set his house up with cameras, about a third of which are “real”, the rest are decoys that run a flashing red light off of a small battery. His system is wireless, with the brains of the system located in his attic. When he showed me the system, I was impressed.