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Topic starter
2021-11-10 3:57 am
Your thoughts and suggestions are welcome
I'm just beginning to put the idea together. We have a neighborhood crime problem where kids drive through the neighborhood, get out, check for open car doors and either steal the contents and/or the car, jump back into their car and drive away. Always around 4AM. Lots of RING doorbell video available, but it's never at a good angle to catch the license plate or accurate car mfr/model. Floodlight video footage usually creates so much glare that you cannot read the car tag. They randomly hit different neighborhoods.
My thought is to assemble two cameras to a battery powered device that can be programmed to record all motion occurring between 1:30am to 5:00am to an SD card. A plus would be for remote access via wifi connection. Mount the device low on the mailbox post where it's out of sight. One camera facing in each direction, up and down the street from the mailbox. With just a small amount of IR light, it might be a perfect angle to catch the car type, color, tag, and possibly face of the perpetrator.
I guess I could get a small, commercially available trail camera but that wouldn't be as much fun. Anyone have any suggestions?
2021-11-10 4:20 am
@peterpoggi
How about putting the cameras inside an innocuous looking McDonald's bag left untidily on the dashboard and/or rear window shelf. That'd get a closer and raised view and might catch a face or license as they prowl along testing locks.
Even if they break into the car, who'd steal an abandoned McD's takeout bag.
Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're talking about.
Topic starter
2021-11-10 4:30 am
@peterpoggi
How about putting the cameras inside an innocuous looking McDonald's bag left untidily on the dashboard and/or rear window shelf. That'd get a closer and raised view and might catch a face or license as they prowl along testing locks.
Even if they break into the car, who'd steal an abandoned McD's takeout bag.
Cool thought! Although luckily, my cars are garaged. My purpose here is to be able to offer video if it happens to my neighbors nearby.
2021-11-10 4:40 am
Too bad, another advantage of it being inside the car is that it takes care of the battery problem, since the car will already have plenty of juice.
Instead of continuous coverage, you could also consider just taking a picture every second or so. That would allow you to take higher resolution pictures but reduce the chance of catching a face or plate number in frame. A continuous high res movie for 3.5 hours would consume a huge amount of storage.
That could be reduced by using I/R or a "radar" detector to only activate the camera(s) when they are triggered. It's questionable whether either would be fast or reliable enough for such use, I don't know enough about either to offer a definitive answer (but I'd opt for the radar or maybe both - PIR detectors are dirt cheap 🙂
Anything seems possible when you don't know what you're talking about.