Attempted Car Breakin - Spokane Valley

darsmith

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Reviewing footage this weekend and found this from Thursday morning 2:35 AM. Put up cams after my car was broken into in October. We've been having trouble again in the neighborhood lately. Anyone from the Spokane area recognize this person? Excuse me if I didn't post this correctly; first try at posting a video.


 
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Larebear

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Nope, don't recognize that person. Can't really tell if it's a guy or gal. I don't live in the Valley area but do live north of Spokane.

Nice capture. Hope the cops catch the low-life.
 

dalepa

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If you have nextdoor.com in your community, I sure would be posting the vid there... The vid is clear enough to recognize the perp
 

Kawboy12R

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I'd find a Spokane Facebook newschaser or chat group and put that video up along with a blown up enhancement of the prowler's face. Don't accuse him of being a thief (he didn't steal anything in your video), just a prowler. The cops here like seeing blowups of prowlers in their shift briefings so they know who to look out for so give it to them even if you didn't lose anything.

I had a guy steal from my car when I forgot to click the doors locked one night when bringing in two armloads of groceries. Posted a pic and the video and the next day I and the police had his name and home address. He was an habitual thief and got 2 years for that and a few other robberies that he was tried for at the same time.
 

blake

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If you can, place a cam on the other side closer to your vehicle. That will help in identifying someone coming in your driveway.
 

darsmith

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Nothing taken this time, but I forgot to lock it and back in October someone did get a few hundred in tools from the car. Last Thursday, several neighbors did lose stuff from their cars and I'm pretty sure this perp probably knows something about that. I'll be ordering another cam for the other side of the driveway. There is a another cam about 30' further back on that side to watch our truck and travel trailer, but it didn't trigger. This person jumped into a car that pulled up on the street with the lights off, but I couldn't make out a model or color. I'm thinking about an infrared cam concealed around the lightpost at the end of the driveway looking up the street so I can possibly get a plate number next time. We live in a nicer neighborhood and every few months our neighborhood blog reports another breakin of cars that are left unlocked.
 

darsmith

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Sheriff stopped by a few minutes ago to collect the footage and pics I captured. Hope they find it useful for nailing these perps.
 

erkme73

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These kinds of crimes make my blood boil. Once every few months, the same type of car door checking happens in our community. Most neighbors have become conditioned to lock their doors. I'm too scatter brained to remember, so I installed a cheap aftermarket car alarm (neutered to only lock the door - no siren, etc).

Anytime I find a perp checking my doors like in your video, I call the cops to find out if anyone else has reported any vehicle burglaries. I'd LOVE to catch them in the act. I know, careful what you wish for.

To that end, I've just ordered this proximity sensor for my truck. I'll use the relay output to drive a wirless window/door sensor for my DSC home alarm system. The DSC ties directly to my VERA home automation. Thus, I'll be able to script an action. For example, if between the hours of 9p and 7a that sensor trips, turn my bedroom lights to 100% and push-notify my phone with an alarm sound. That means within 5 seconds of the guy getting within a foot of my truck, I'll be awake and bolting for the door.

Nearly every light, outlet, fan, door lock and garage door connected to my Vera. How neat would it be to have the garage door pop open automatically when he touches the truck. Bet he'd need a change of shorts.

I'm using the same wireless sensor/DSC/Vera combination to notify me immediately when my mailbox is opened, or when someone breaks the IR beam on my garage door or front porch. Works great.
 
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Hoog23

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These kinds of crimes make my blood boil. Once every few months, the same type of car door checking happens in our community. Most neighbors have become conditioned to lock their doors. I'm too scatter brained to remember, so I installed a cheap aftermarket car alarm (neutered to only lock the door - no siren, etc).

Anytime I find a perp checking my doors like in your video, I call the cops to find out if anyone else has reported any vehicle burglaries. I'd LOVE to catch them in the act. I know, careful what you wish for.

To that end, I've just ordered this proximity sensor for my truck. I'll use the relay output to drive a wirless window/door sensor for my DSC home alarm system. The DSC ties directly to my VERA home automation. Thus, I'll be able to script an action. For example, if between the hours of 9p and 7a that sensor trips, turn my bedroom lights to 100% and push-notify my phone with an alarm sound. That means within 5 seconds of the guy getting within a foot of my truck, I'll be awake and bolting for the door.

Nearly every light, outlet, fan, door lock and garage door connected to my Vera. How neat would it be to have the garage door pop open automatically when he touches the truck. Bet he'd need a change of shorts.

I'm using the same wireless sensor/DSC/Vera combination to notify me immediately when my mailbox is opened, or when someone breaks the IR beam on my garage door or front porch. Works great.
Keep us posted!
 
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Kawboy12R

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I like everything except automatically opening your garage door. Why not have something automatically play your voice saying "Step away from the vehicle. Step away from the vehicle now! Now run! I said run!". Use your imagination.
 

TechBill

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These kinds of crimes make my blood boil. Once every few months, the same type of car door checking happens in our community. Most neighbors have become conditioned to lock their doors. I'm too scatter brained to remember, so I installed a cheap aftermarket car alarm (neutered to only lock the door - no siren, etc).

Anytime I find a perp checking my doors like in your video, I call the cops to find out if anyone else has reported any vehicle burglaries. I'd LOVE to catch them in the act. I know, careful what you wish for.

To that end, I've just ordered this proximity sensor for my truck. I'll use the relay output to drive a wirless window/door sensor for my DSC home alarm system. The DSC ties directly to my VERA home automation. Thus, I'll be able to script an action. For example, if between the hours of 9p and 7a that sensor trips, turn my bedroom lights to 100% and push-notify my phone with an alarm sound. That means within 5 seconds of the guy getting within a foot of my truck, I'll be awake and bolting for the door.

Nearly every light, outlet, fan, door lock and garage door connected to my Vera. How neat would it be to have the garage door pop open automatically when he touches the truck. Bet he'd need a change of shorts.

I'm using the same wireless sensor/DSC/Vera combination to notify me immediately when my mailbox is opened, or when someone breaks the IR beam on my garage door or front porch. Works great.

I been looking into home automation too. Vera whuch you mentioned in you post, is it very customizable? my wife and I are both Deaf and I know basic C++ programming but we would like to install monyion sensor aiming at our front yard and driveway to flash lights and alert us whenever there a large size motion


Do you think that is doable with Vera?


Bill
 
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erkme73

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I been looking into home automation too. Vera whuch you mentioned in you post, is it very customizable? my wife and I are both Deaf and I know basic C++ programming but we would like to install monyion sensor aiming at our front yard and driveway to flash lights and alert us whenever there a large size motion


Do you think that is doable with Vera?


Bill
At the risk of hijacking the OP's original thread even more than I already have (my apologies to him), the short answer is yes - vera is extremely easy to configure. What your describing is known as a 'scene'. It's a set of triggers, conditions, and actions that accomplish what you want. It requires no programming or scripting skills, per se, as everything is done via webpage wizards that walk you through each step.

For example, in you case, let's assume you have a z-wave motion sensor at the entrance of your driveway (or an IR beam connected to a z-wave relay). You would use that as your 'trigger' device. When it's tripped (or triggered), Vera checks to see if the conditions are right to activate another device (say a horn, or strobe light inside the house).

Trigger: motion detected at driveway
Condition: motion detected between the hours of 5p and 7a
Action: turn on zwave strobe light for 60 seconds, turn lamp in living room on and off 5 x in 1 minute

These three things create a 'scene'. You can create any number of scenes, utilizing any number of triggers, conditions, and actions.

If your driveway alert warning system is all you need, then I think zwave will be overly complex/expensive if you compare it to commercially available products from Amazon or Harbor Freight. But, if you intend on getting into home automation, then having Vera do what you want is certainly easy.
 

MR2

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you guys need some choke point cam's..

I'm attempting to set this sort of thing up for the street I'm in... except I'm not made of money lol
 

darsmith

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Don't worry about hijacking my original thread. I, also, have a Vera Edge running that currently only turns on the outside lights at sunset and off at sunrise plus anytime the garage door is opened after midnight it alarms me. I'm very interested in how you are working with home automation and cams. I have lots of other ideas for home automation. One person posted that they installed a Z-Wave outlet for their garage door opener that disables power to the unit during the wee morning hours so if someone did get their door opener it wouldn't work. They can also turn off power to the door opener while on vacation and remotely turn it on if someone legit needs to get into the garage. Other ideas? Am I thinking about something else or does Blue Iris have a plug-in that somehow ties into the Vera home automation hub?
 

marid2apterbilt

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Don't worry about hijacking my original thread. I, also, have a Vera Edge running that currently only turns on the outside lights at sunset and off at sunrise plus anytime the garage door is opened after midnight it alarms me. I'm very interested in how you are working with home automation and cams. I have lots of other ideas for home automation. One person posted that they installed a Z-Wave outlet for their garage door opener that disables power to the unit during the wee morning hours so if someone did get their door opener it wouldn't work. They can also turn off power to the door opener while on vacation and remotely turn it on if someone legit needs to get into the garage. Other ideas? Am I thinking about something else or does Blue Iris have a plug-in that somehow ties into the Vera home automation hub?
Vera and Blue Iris are both zwave controllers/Hubs. I may be wrong but Blue Iris is web based or dependant on having internet to function where Vera can be run in a closed network type of environment. Basically, No internet connection and Iris will not work
 

darsmith

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I was just searching and found the Vera has a plugin allowing Blue Iris system cams to be viewed in the Vera app and used as triggers for Vera's Z-Wave devices and scenes. Hmmm. Oops, it was a plug-in referenced in the Blue Iris third party software.
 
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LittleBrother

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Not bad footage but you need the cam in a better location, as you now realize. I would post a pic like that to my neighborhood facebook group.

Years ago I bought a mailbox alert. If it detected light from the box opening it would wirelessly alarm the inside of the house. Used it for years, it cost very little. I've sometimes figured something like that would work on a car, too. It would detect the light from the cabin light if the door is pulled open and then alarm you in the house. At that point you call the cops and break out your DSLR camera for some nice pictures. Although if you lock your doors it stops all that. I often don't lock my car doors in the driveway. It's my damn driveway.
 

darsmith

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I have another cam on order to cover that side. If they try again I'll have a head on and side view pic. I posted the pic and video to our neighborhood group and passed it on to local law enforcement. Maybe something will come of it... maybe not, but it's out there now.
 

erkme73

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Don't worry about hijacking my original thread. I, also, have a Vera Edge running that currently only turns on the outside lights at sunset and off at sunrise plus anytime the garage door is opened after midnight it alarms me. I'm very interested in how you are working with home automation and cams. I have lots of other ideas for home automation. One person posted that they installed a Z-Wave outlet for their garage door opener that disables power to the unit during the wee morning hours so if someone did get their door opener it wouldn't work. They can also turn off power to the door opener while on vacation and remotely turn it on if someone legit needs to get into the garage. Other ideas? Am I thinking about something else or does Blue Iris have a plug-in that somehow ties into the Vera home automation hub?
My Blue Iris and VERA installation are run as independent systems. Any communication between the two has been (so far) limited to one-way - VERA sending BI commands.

I've installed these mini switches and dimmers behind the normal wall switch (inside the gang box, tucked behind the switch) for virtually every switch in my home. Ceiling fans are a bit trickier and require their own special 'fan' version of a switch if speed selection is desired. I also have several appliance control switches and dimmers that can be used to control things like window AC units, heaters, table lamps, etc. Finally, I have the Kwikset zwave motorized deadbolts and lever locks. VERA can lock/unlock these - and more importantly, VERA knows immediately whether the lock state was changed, and what code was entered.

Because VERA has a huge community support forum, many developers have created plugins that allow it to communicate with ethernet-enabled devices on the LAN. So my Onkyo receiver, smart TV, wifi thermostat, Harmony hub, my DSC alarm (using an ethernet module), etc - all devices which don't have internal zwave capability - can actually be controlled by VERA via plugins.

Using a dry-contact isolated zwave relay, I'm able to send pulses to my garage door to open/close it with VERA. Since my DSC Alarm is LAN aware, VERA has access to all of the wireless door/window sensors on the system. That allows me to use $20 wireless alarm sensors/contact as VERA triggers. So, for example, I put one in my mailbox at the street. When the box is opened, my alarm sees that "zone 26" is opened. Because VERA is tied into the alarm, it immediately recognizes the change in state, and executes a 'scene'. That scene tells an RGB LED bulb in my house to strobe blue for 1 hour. It also sends an http command to the BI server, triggering a 30-second record even for the camera that is zoomed in on the mail box. When that camera is triggered to record, BI also sends a "push notification" alert to my cell phone (which is running the BI remote app). So my bulb flashes blue in the living room, and my phone makes a unique sound letting me know mail has arrived. Since the zoomed in camera only records with this mailbox opening (and not with motion detection), all of the recorded clips are explicitly of my mail carrier delivering mail, or me pulling it out of the box. Motion detection is nice too, but any car that drives by, shadows that move, or bugs that fly in front of the camera would trigger false alarms.

So how do I use all these switches and things? Here are a few examples:

1) When I enter my code on the keypad of my kwikset deadbolt, it unlocks, and tells VERA what code was entered. Since it was an authorized code, it tells the DSC alarm to disarm. Thus, when I come home, simply by entering my code on the deadbolt, my house unlocks.

2) I've added DSC wireless alarm sensors to all interior and exterior doors (and windows). When a door is opened to a room, the alarm system tells VERA which door was opened. VERA the turns on the light for that particular room. When the door is closed, the light goes off. I've added timers as well, so the lights shut off after x hours if the door is left open.

3) I've installed a lever lock door knob on my 3yo's room. I've reversed it so the keypad is on the inside. Effectively, I lock him in his room at night. Since locking and unlocking the door sends a signal to VERA, I have VERA turn on his black light and noise maker for 20 minutes when the door is locked. It's funny, because my 3yo now knows that to turn on his black light, he has to lock his room door. Likewise, any room he enters, the lights come on automatically. He doesn't know what it means to turn off a light. That's probably not good for his future wife :)

4) When the garage door is opened, VERA turns on the utility room light, garage light, and dining room light.

5) At sunset, the lights on the front of my house (all LED) come on at 10% (uses about 5 watts total). It creates nice ambiance, and provides just enough light in the driveway to see where you're walking. When either the front door or the garage door is opened, the lights go to 100%. As soon as they are both closed, the lights dim back to 10%. At sunrise, they go off. VERA is sunrise-time aware and will adjust throughout the year.

6) I've added a relay to the messenger wire of my existing smoke detectors (they're AC and battery powered, and all tied together so if one goes off, they all do). When one goes off, it trips the relay, which is tied to a DSC alarm sensor. VERA is immediately aware, and sends me a text message within seconds. Same thing happens with the alarm.

7) My side gate has a DSC alarm sensor. When it is opened, VERA tells BI to record the cameras trained on the gate, strobes RED light in my living room, and BI sends a push notification and email with a snapshot and 5 second video of the action at the gate.

8) When my back door or porch door is opened, the DSC alarm sensor tells VERA, and VERA turns on the outside lights for 20 minutes.

I can't tell you the last time I touched a switch :)

Finally, ALL of these things, from door locks to lights, to stereo, to thermostat - all of them can be controlled via app from anywhere.

Note: all of my links are to Amazon products. While I did buy many of these things from Amazon, some are cheaper on eBay and alternate sources - so don't assume what you see at Amazon is the best price.
 
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TechBill

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My Blue Iris and VERA installation are run as independent systems. Any communication between the two has been (so far) limited to one-way - VERA sending BI commands.

I've installed these mini switches and dimmers behind the normal wall switch (inside the gang box, tucked behind the switch) for virtually every switch in my home. Ceiling fans are a bit trickier and require their own special 'fan' version of a switch if speed selection is desired. I also have several appliance control switches and dimmers that can be used to control things like window AC units, heaters, table lamps, etc. Finally, I have the Kwikset zwave motorized deadbolts and lever locks. VERA can lock/unlock these - and more importantly, VERA knows immediately whether the lock state was changed, and what code was entered.

Because VERA has a huge community support forum, many developers have created plugins that allow it to communicate with ethernet-enabled devices on the LAN. So my Onkyo receiver, smart TV, wifi thermostat, Harmony hub, my DSC alarm (using an ethernet module), etc - all devices which don't have internal zwave capability - can actually be controlled by VERA via plugins.

Using a dry-contact isolated zwave relay, I'm able to send pulses to my garage door to open/close it with VERA. Since my DSC Alarm is LAN aware, VERA has access to all of the wireless door/window sensors on the system. That allows me to use $20 wireless alarm sensors/contact as VERA triggers. So, for example, I put one in my mailbox at the street. When the box is opened, my alarm sees that "zone 26" is opened. Because VERA is tied into the alarm, it immediately recognizes the change in state, and executes a 'scene'. That scene tells an RGB LED bulb in my house to strobe blue for 1 hour. It also sends an http command to the BI server, triggering a 30-second record even for the camera that is zoomed in on the mail box. When that camera is triggered to record, BI also sends a "push notification" alert to my cell phone (which is running the BI remote app). So my bulb flashes blue in the living room, and my phone makes a unique sound letting me know mail has arrived. Since the zoomed in camera only records with this mailbox opening (and not with motion detection), all of the recorded clips are explicitly of my mail carrier delivering mail, or me pulling it out of the box. Motion detection is nice too, but any car that drives by, shadows that move, or bugs that fly in front of the camera would trigger false alarms.

So how do I use all these switches and things? Here are a few examples:

1) When I enter my code on the keypad of my kwikset deadbolt, it unlocks, and tells VERA what code was entered. Since it was an authorized code, it tells the DSC alarm to disarm. Thus, when I come home, simply by entering my code on the deadbolt, my house unlocks.

2) I've added DSC wireless alarm sensors to all interior and exterior doors (and windows). When a door is opened to a room, the alarm system tells VERA which door was opened. VERA the turns on the light for that particular room. When the door is closed, the light goes off. I've added timers as well, so the lights shut off after x hours if the door is left open.

3) I've installed a lever lock door knob on my 3yo's room. I've reversed it so the keypad is on the inside. Effectively, I lock him in his room at night. Since locking and unlocking the door sends a signal to VERA, I have VERA turn on his black light and noise maker for 20 minutes when the door is locked. It's funny, because my 3yo now knows that to turn on his black light, he has to lock his room door. Likewise, any room he enters, the lights come on automatically. He doesn't know what it means to turn off a light. That's probably not good for his future wife :)

4) When the garage door is opened, VERA turns on the utility room light, garage light, and dining room light.

5) At sunset, the lights on the front of my house (all LED) come on at 10% (uses about 5 watts total). It creates nice ambiance, and provides just enough light in the driveway to see where you're walking. When either the front door or the garage door is opened, the lights go to 100%. As soon as they are both closed, the lights dim back to 10%. At sunrise, they go off. VERA is sunrise-time aware and will adjust throughout the year.

6) I've added a relay to the messenger wire of my existing smoke detectors (they're AC and battery powered, and all tied together so if one goes off, they all do). When one goes off, it trips the relay, which is tied to a DSC alarm sensor. VERA is immediately aware, and sends me a text message within seconds. Same thing happens with the alarm.

7) My side gate has a DSC alarm sensor. When it is opened, VERA tells BI to record the cameras trained on the gate, strobes RED light in my living room, and BI sends a push notification and email with a snapshot and 5 second video of the action at the gate.

8) When my back door or porch door is opened, the DSC alarm sensor tells VERA, and VERA turns on the outside lights for 20 minutes.

I can't tell you the last time I touched a switch :)

Finally, ALL of these things, from door locks to lights, to stereo, to thermostat - all of them can be controlled via app from anywhere.

Note: all of my links are to Amazon products. While I did buy many of these things from Amazon, some are cheaper on eBay and alternate sources - so don't assume what you see at Amazon is the best price.

Thank you for the detail explanation! It will help me get started on it.

Bill
 
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