I need to bust a car burglar

D

DennisN

n3wb
May 16, 2018
2
1
Winston Salem, NC
Hello everyone.
My name is Dennis and I signed up on this forum because I have an issue with a very regular neighborhood car burglar.
I know this guy is regular cause I only forget to lock my car once every, maybe, 50 times. And that 1 time I find my car has been searched thoroughly overnight.
Now my car is a busted 13yr old toyota rav4 and i don't keep any valuables in it, but this guy is persistent and keeps doing it for the past few years.
Well I had enough of it. I'm buying some Blink XT cameras and at least one of them will go inside the car to check road traffic after midnight. Police won't do anything so I have to somehow bust the guy in the act.
If you have any good ideas please let me know!
Thanks.
 
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DennisN said:
Hello everyone.
My name is Dennis and I signed up on this forum because I have an issue with a very regular neighborhood car burglar.
I know this guy is regular cause I only forget to lock my car once every, maybe, 50 times. And that 1 time I find my car has been searched thoroughly overnight.
Now my car is a busted 13yr old toyota rav4 and i don't keep any valuables in it, but this guy is persistent and keeps doing it for the past few years.
Well I had enough of it. I'm buying some Blink XT cameras and at least one of them will go inside the car to check road traffic after midnight. Police won't do anything so I have to somehow bust the guy in the act.
If you have any good ideas please let me know!
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Welcome
Don't buy Blink or any wireless cam, or any that depend on cloud services.
Do your research here and read the Cliff Notes in the wiki at the top of the page.
The best solution is to get yourself in the habit of locking the doors everytime you get out of it.
That will stop his motive to check it.
 
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looney2ns said:
Welcome
Don't buy Blink or any wireless cam, or any that depend on cloud services.
Do your research here and read the Cliff Notes in the wiki at the top of the page.
The best solution is to get yourself in the habit of locking the doors everytime you get out of it.
That will stop his motive to check it.
Click to expand...
Here is the thing. This guy hasn't been caught for years now. I'm just curious at this point. I don't want shady people walking down my neighborhood checking if cars are locked. I've got a family. I'd like my neighborhood to be safe for my family's sake. Making sure the car is locked is just too passive. It doesn't resolve the problem.
 
DennisN said:
Here is the thing. This guy hasn't been caught for years now. I'm just curious at this point. I don't want shady people walking down my neighborhood checking if cars are locked. I've got a family. I'd like my neighborhood to be safe for my family's sake. Making sure the car is locked is just too passive. It doesn't resolve the problem.
Click to expand...

Understood, but only a good camera with proper installation and positioning will be able to get an ID.
Again, please read the cliff notes at top of the page, in the wiki.
 
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I guess a decent dashcam with front and rear cameras may help, but problem will be drain on the main battery if you leave them running all the time the car is parked. Would need reasonable lighting around the car to be much use tho, and clear ID beyond 10ft or so likely won't be great. Note that a lot of the rear cameras probably won't be better than 720p. Avoid the ones with silly lights for "low light vision", only reflects of the glass I expect lol.

It might be possible to rig an aux 12V battery to drive the camera while engine is off, and rig a relay to link to the main battery once the engine is running to charge it back up. Would need careful planning and wiring tho
 
Aengus4h said:
I guess a decent dashcam with front and rear cameras may help, but problem will be drain on the main battery if you leave them running all the time the car is parked. Would need reasonable lighting around the car to be much use tho, and clear ID beyond 10ft or so likely won't be great. Note that a lot of the rear cameras probably won't be better than 720p. Avoid the ones with silly lights for "low light vision", only reflects of the glass I expect lol.

It might be possible to rig an aux 12V battery to drive the camera while engine is off, and rig a relay to link to the main battery once the engine is running to charge it back up. Would need careful planning and wiring tho
Click to expand...

They make dashcams with parking modes and power sources just for the purpose. They can either monitor your main battery's voltage and shut off before it drops too much, or you can add a secondary battery just for the camera. Korean companies seem to be the leaders in this area.
 
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true, I fitted an android-based one built into the mirror that has an OEM type mounting, so not too noticeable, the rear camera is in the rear window rather than outside. Could fit a LiPo cell into the housing with a little modification but no need for my purposes. Records pretty well at night, has even provided evidence to the law a couple times now too, incidents ahead of me not involving me, thankfully. Rear cam being 720P not so good image as the 1080P front but in one case lets you see where the can of coke thrown by an idiot ahead went after it bounced off the front of my car...

I have considered tho using a cheap 12v CCTV at the back tho they are a lot bigger than the dashcam one. The lo-cost starvis type I recently purchased have microSD (TF) so could be configured to continuously record once powered up and with a 2.8 or 2.1mm lens would do the job. Could potentially be accessed via WiFi too, but 3-12W draw wouldn't be so useful in the OP's application, I expect.
 
DennisN said:
Hello everyone.
My name is Dennis and I signed up on this forum because I have an issue with a very regular neighborhood car burglar.
I know this guy is regular cause I only forget to lock my car once every, maybe, 50 times. And that 1 time I find my car has been searched thoroughly overnight.
Now my car is a busted 13yr old toyota rav4 and i don't keep any valuables in it, but this guy is persistent and keeps doing it for the past few years.
Well I had enough of it. I'm buying some Blink XT cameras and at least one of them will go inside the car to check road traffic after midnight. Police won't do anything so I have to somehow bust the guy in the act.
If you have any good ideas please let me know!
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Welcome Dennis,

Do check out the cliff notes and other notes in the wiki which Looney2ns mentions, your answers are in there.

When planning you will need to determine how far the car will be from the camera, pay particular note to the Dahua OEM 2MP starlight camera models. They will most certainly be your #1 choice for night time imaging needs.
 
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