Catalytic Converter #5 today!

Flintstone61

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Well at 8:14 this AM one of our fine citizens of Maplewood Mn, with a red Mitsubishi ( GXN-612) stopped by for a Ford Escape Catalytic Converter. Once the resident phoned it in, it took about 15-20 minutes to roll back and forth thru overnite videos, and I was like, where is this joker?
Maybe a daytime theft? ( It's happened before at 5:15 PM out front last fall)
So I found a car stopping outback near the Ford escape at 8:11 but did they not get out. So I switched to the front exit cams, and I saw him stop out front ( too far away for an ID) and then he doubled back to do the deed.
But today, unlike his previous visits, he had obscured his plates with a Smoke color plate covering. But the "ye olde 5442 6MM" saw through that and captured a 95% readable plate capture out back.
THAT and I had his plate from a previous visit where I thought his actions/lurking/ door checking, were suspicious.
I recognized the car as a previous suspicious visitor to the lot. ( I had saved his plate and an overview video of the red car entering our property on at least 2 different occasions in January.) Maybe even another daytime visit in February that I blew off cuz they hadn't done anything wrong before.
I was so busy today that I could not use company time to upload video to Youtube. I need to get a USB thumbdrive at work to sneakernet the video home. I posted a few pics in PM to @wittaj.
Maybe i can copy a few here. They don't show the crime, as the car was blocked by a Utility Box truck obscuring my view and good light. ( every new crime presents another weakness) Everytime.
One lady on the board who doesn't live here, thinks we have too many camera's. and You guys know better. (1 is too many and a thousand is never enough) Oh wait thats Booze. :)
The lady/Condo owner who thinks we have too many has the one my most offending tenants! Drug deals in the parking lot, hit and run in the back lot, Weed smell in the hallway....driving too fast with people complaining, blah blah blah, ( working on your vehicle inside the Condo garage) not permitted. yet they do it when ever they want.
So here is the car. I did not have time to upload 211 MB videos to You tube today. Perhaps tomorrow.
Screenshot 2022-03-02 145418 (1).pngScreenshot 2022-03-02 145418.pngScreenshot 2022-03-02 145518.pngScreenshot 2022-03-02 145659.pngScreenshot 2022-03-02 145915.png
 
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Flintstone61

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Anyway, the plate came back to a crook with priors, like receiving stolen prop, domestic assaults blah blah blah-- priors. Known to Law Enforcement was the phrase the Ramsey County Sheriff used. I'm glad he kept the same plates on the same car for all his visits. Tells me it's his daily driver or only car. Nice trick with the smoked lens plate covers. But I got him anyway.
 
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wittaj

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It is amazing how these people have no problem doing this in the daylight. Just saw on Nextdoor someone had their stolen around noon in the Kroger parking lot. How bold is that. Basically they do it because they know the consequences of getting caught are low.
 

Flintstone61

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ok here are some video links. Nothing here says caught in the act. I don't have under car cameras. but we have the guy going in and out by that car followed by a pissed off resident calling me 3 hours later with a loud exhaust.
Additionally, he has been visiting our lot over the last couple of months. And I got the same plate # then, although it wasn't covered with smokey lens plate cover.

Screenshot 2022-01-17 090758.png
 

NightLife

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So how could we energize the cat? Bait car, live cat waiting to short out his weapon of choice, repeat. Maybe the thief would be so kind as to complete a short circuit while he lays on his back .. it's nearly spring. Have to be puddles on the ground sooner or later ;) :idk:
 

Nunofya

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I just thought…maybe i need a junker parked in the middle of the lot with 4 under car cams in each direction. Lol. And like 12 Diehards stuffed in the trunk. With a Ubiquiti nano Loco Air station 2.4 ghz to talk to my current Ubiquiti set up.
Thinking about setting up remote cameras at my sister in-law's that lives next door, cameras would be about 150' to my tower. Read about people using Ubiquiti nano Loco Air station to transmit their signal. What would be the equipment needed and how would it be set up?
 

SpacemanSpiff

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So how could we energize the cat? Bait car, live cat waiting to short out his weapon of choice, repeat. Maybe the thief would be so kind as to complete a short circuit while he lays on his back .. it's nearly spring. Have to be puddles on the ground sooner or later ;) :idk:
Forget energizing, too many questions afterwards. Rig some sensors to the cat area an have them trigger the dump valves on the air assisted suspension. Not looking to flatten anyone, but simply hold 'em until LEO arrives. It's not unusual for them to deflate, especially when the car is not run very often to re-fill 'em.
 

The Automation Guy

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Thinking about setting up remote cameras at my sister in-law's that lives next door, cameras would be about 150' to my tower. Read about people using Ubiquiti nano Loco Air station to transmit their signal. What would be the equipment needed and how would it be set up?
I think you are on the right track if you want to do this. There are plenty of "outdoor" rated wireless access points (like the Ubituity Flex HD or TP-Link Omada EAP225-Outdoor). 150' isn't that far - especially outside where line of site is much more likely. The larger question is if there is power for the camera at the desired location or if you will have to use a battery powered camera.
 

Nunofya

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I think you are on the right track if you want to do this. There are plenty of "outdoor" rated wireless access points (like the Ubituity Flex HD or TP-Link Omada EAP225-Outdoor). 150' isn't that far - especially outside where line of site is much more likely. The larger question is if there is power for the camera at the desired location or if you will have to use a battery powered camera.
I'd likely install one of the ones from Andy that they're always recommending around here (5442 series) powered by a Poe switch. What would I need on my receiving side to be able to pull up the ip address of the cameras to add to nvr and BI?
 

sebastiantombs

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You need a link at the cameras to get to the tower. From the tower I'd use the same method to get back to my network so there is total electrical isolation, or as close to total as possible, to mitigate any lightning surges or other differences in ground potentials.
 

The Automation Guy

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@Nunofya

I guess I misread/misunderstood your initial post. You are are thinking of installing cameras at your sisters house which has power, but is about 150' away from your system. If she has internet, it could be as easy as creating a full time VPN connection from her house to your house. This will make her cameras available on your network. If you are using BI for example, you would just add more IP cameras like normal, they would just be at her house.

If there isn't any internet service at her house, then you will need to create a wifi bridge between her house and your house. You'll likely need two of those outdoor wireless APs. You can google "wifi bridge" and find a lot of tutorials on how to set one up.

I have done this on a small scale inside my house where I had a media streaming device at a TV location without a hardwired network plug (it was not a wifi streaming device). I simply used a old wifi router that had a "bridge" mode. I plugged my device into that old router, turned the "bridge mode" on, and entered my home's main wifi credentials into the settings. It worked great. You'll effectively do something similar except it will take advantage of the outside wifi devices to ensure a good reliably connection over that long distance.
 

Flintstone61

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I cant say enough about the stability and set it and forget it experience that Ubiquiti Loco Nano 2.4GHZ pair have provided.
100% uptime. Whether it was hooked to an NVR, XVR, or POE Switch, it just worked. rain or shine.
In my inexperience and lack of product knowledge I felt I was at least providing a service to My Condo with an Amcrest XVR and 2 Analog Amrest 2-4 MP camera to cover the shenanigans in the back lot.
Thanks to @sebastiantombs I was given a possible solution via RF. At the time there was an Amazon seller selling a 2.4 Loco nano Pair preconfigured as sender/receiver ( whatever they call it).
Looks like I purchased them on November 2020.
It's the clear deal.
It was too far for a single run of underground CAt5e. And too many obstacles like 200 feet of Asphalt and shit loads of tree roots.
 
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