Theft --- Someone STOLE one of my cameras! *VIDEO INSIDE*

On 8/16/2011 at 5:20am, some guy, who looked like a homeless bum, walked by the back of my building, caught a glimpse of my bullet camera mounted on the back of the building... A few seconds later, you see him pulling himself UP to get the camera, I'm assuming he used the gas line (or whatever that pipe is). The camera was about 8.5ft up (give or take). He pulled the mounting and ended up BREAKING the camera, because he couldn't get the wire through the tiny hole in the cement wall, the connectors were too big. So he ended up pulling the wires OUT of the camera, because they're still connected in the back.

Because it was NIGHT TIME, never got a real good look at him - but even if so, I doubt anything would come of it. I'm thankful he didn't pull and damage the cable feeding the camera, or manage to pull the cable far enough to drop the DVR it self... It was a cheap $40-$50 Clover camera, which like I said - he totally F'd up anyway! IDIOT LOSER!

Click anywhere on the jerk's face to watch the 42 second video.

View My Video

WOW! What makes people decide that they are going to do stuff like this??

Happy you got it on video at least!

BTW - This is why I like vandal domes!

I've learned from this... and I'll share to help others who may happen to read this.

I mounted the camera on the left side of the building, as this is a 2 space building of which I have about a 1/3 and my neighbor has the other 2/3's. So I mounted it basically at the dividing point of our businesses... Not to be mean or anything just because. Well, under where I mounted the camera was some electrical wires in pipe, and what I'm guessing to be a natural gas feed pipe... It never dawned on me that someone would casually walk by and jack the camera! And you can see from the video - it was pretty darn easy for him too... Getting up there was not a problem for him.... So long story short: Mount camera's in the most REMOTE/UNACCESSIBLE PART OF YOUR STRUCTURES.

When I replace the camera (which I have not done yet, because where we are we've had like 63-64 days & counting of 100+ heat and its just tooo damn hot!) I will mount it on the TOP of the roof (instead of the wall) the roof is about another 6 inches to maybe a foot higher (again, give or take - I'm not actually measuring, I'm eye balling it), I'm going to put it at the corner top edge where underneath is NOTHING BUT WALL AND SIDEWALK. So unless you've got a ladder, you aren't getting up there.

My son said we should use DOME CAMERAS too... I've never used them or installed them so I have no idea what to expect... are they harder to pull down or something? From the looks of the video, I don't think it would have mattered what was mounted back there - he was all cracked up and just wanted to steal my freakin' camera.... Probably got 50¢ for it.

oh dang. you almost get a pretty good face shot too. Chances are, he'll walk by that again I bet. What you should do is put up a dummy cam as a decoy in good reach and have another camera aiming right at that camera. PM me if you want a good dummy cam, you can have it as long as you pay shipping.

Domes are really easy to install. If you put up a Vandal Dome, it will be practically impossible to take off. 4 screwholes mount it to the wall (only accessible from the inside). The whole dome is then locked up with security bit screws (rather rare type!).

There is no way to pry it off, nothing accessible except for the security screws.

So short of maybe a huge sledgehammer, it will not come off!

^That applies to MOST domes, anyway... depending on the surface, and/or what the screws are actually anchored to, a crowbar under the camera might get it off. Some cheaper designs are pretty easy to get open.

We had one that was closed up with security screws, but someone actually took the time - over an hour in total - to remove them with some sort of needlenose pliers. Those were pretty basic pinned hex heads, though, so it probably wasn't hard to get the pliers in there. Something like a Torx would be harder. AND in this case, there was an ice machine right under the camera (added by the site AFTER we installed the camera), so they had super-easy access to spend the time on it.

One of the most robust designs I've seen are the old Extreme domes - they're tapered right to the base, so you can't toss a rope over a wall-mounted unit and yank it down, and the bubble is held in with an inch-deep ring that screws in around it, and then is locked down by three very, very tiny setscrews which require a very, very tiny Allen key to remove them (I had to go to three hardware stores to find one that would fit properly). THESE things are the very definition of "virtually impossible to steal".

But yes, in general, most vandal-RESISTANT (not PROOF - nothing is ever completely vandal PROOF) domes are very hard to damage or steal without a lot of effort.

oh dang. you almost get a pretty good face shot too. Chances are, he'll walk by that again I bet. What you should do is put up a dummy cam as a decoy in good reach and have another camera aiming right at that camera. PM me if you want a good dummy cam, you can have it as long as you pay shipping.

That is a seriously good idea and I would do that for sure because you know now- he's just waiting for the new one to go up. May take a week, may take a month, but the moron will be back. And unless it's unreasonably high, he'll get to it. They have all the time in the world to figure out how much more of a moron they can be. So I would use a vandal proof dome for the real thing, capturing him swiping the dummy. Either that or just install a good dome with no IR for him to see, coupled with a security light to provide the vision for the non-IR dome.

Dan

oh dang. you almost get a pretty good face shot too. Chances are, he'll walk by that again I bet. What you should do is put up a dummy cam as a decoy in good reach and have another camera aiming right at that camera. PM me if you want a good dummy cam, you can have it as long as you pay shipping.

I'm sending you a PM

10 years and never had my bullets stolen .. but then I dont have crack heads walking past them, if they come in the yard they come to kill or break in ... but yes in the ghetto I use domes, not for fear of them being stolen though but for vandalism ... had only 1 bullet partially destroyed in the night club in 10 years also.

Also I have 2 mini straights that at least one of them can twist off the security screws from most domes.

BTW dont go too high, or you loose alot of the FOV, plus remember the cameras need to be cleaned.

diff between domes and bullets? IMO as I use both.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=26891&p=164167#p164167

Not much you can do with that video, IR glare on face when it would have been a good shot, and its low res and blocked. If the guy is known surely the cops can use this image though, but then again, for a $50 camera they probably dont care.

Not much can do with the video either, I tried all kinds of filters.

View Modified Video

but then again, for a $50 camera they probably dont care.

Exactly. It'll come down to you just figuring out how to keep a camera out of reach of a crack head and still be useful.

Dan

a bit of grease on the outside casing of the camera will give the thief a nasty slip and fall.

He was probably stealing it to sell, I don't think he'll bother agin once he finds out he can't sell

a wrecked CCTV camera. A dummy with another camera looking at it is a great idea. but what about a dummy with 120v ac running through it? That'd be worth seeing.

but then again, for a $50 camera they probably dont care.

Exactly. It'll come down to you just figuring out how to keep a camera out of reach of a crack head and still be useful.

 

Dan

That's exactly the problem. Ignore the "minor" inicidences. Mayor Rudy during his term instructed his police force to enforce all the laws including quality of life issues. Crime drop drastically. Rapists were caught jumping subway turnstyles. All criminal activity dropped because the scum buckets knew it was not going to be tolerated. Guess you can call it appeasement on the most basic level. It gets worst, never better when you bend for those who want to take advantage.

a bit of grease on the outside casing of the camera will give the thief a nasty slip and fall.

He was probably stealing it to sell, I don't think he'll bother agin once he finds out he can't sell

a wrecked CCTV camera. A dummy with another camera looking at it is a great idea. but what about a dummy with 120v ac running through it? That'd be worth seeing.

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10 years and never had my bullets stolen

I know this is funny and sad all in the same sense, but the thing that KILLS ME about this, it was done SOOO CASUALLY... like walking passed a news paper stand and then deciding yeah I'll take one.

EDIT: To address the criminal aspect, I never bothered calling the cops. I know I should have, but.....

You know, I bet he had walked by before and saw it. After being annoyed that he was being watched, he decided to take it later. Maybe go through some video of the past few nights at that time?

Figure he was maybe drunk walking back from a bar and woke up not even remembering what he did . see that big smile on his face ...

What I need to do is add some security lighting back there, to help the camera's see and lighten up that whole back area.... Overall I'm grateful and consider myself lucky.

He only took a $h!tty cheap camera, so I'm out $50. No damage to my store, windows, doors, etc. Thankfully he didn't (or couldn't) pull the cabling out and risk pulling the DVR off the shelf its sitting on, causing damage to the computer underneath and whatever else was on the desk. I have since tethered the camera feed cables against the wall just before the DVR in a zig zag pattern, so IF in the future this happens again, the chances of damaging, pulling or dropping the DVR are slim(mer).. I would think the cabling will tear first.

I know someone at work that uses internet notification of alarms for his house, and was worried about someone cutting the cable (thus losing internet). He wired up a cable (completely accessible) that was hooked to the alarm system. I wonder if you could do something similar with the camera, wired into the alarm so if it was removed it would go off.

Yep, in the city they would not care about a $50 camera. Don't go overboard on the booby traps or the idiot may sue you...

Parapet mounts are ugly but work great.

If it's not a gas line, you could apply some voltage to it so nobody hangs on it. If it is a gas line, grease it up.

I guess I'm the opposite of everyone here, I only use bullets when the camera won't fit in a dome because the lens is to big.

Parapet mounts are ugly but work great.

They're also a lot easier for someone to toss a rope over and yank the camera down. A dome bolted straight to the wall... not so much.

I guess I'm the opposite of everyone here, I only use bullets when the camera won't fit in a dome because the lens is to big.

I haven't used a *new* bullet cam in an installation in about 6 years (although I have repurposed a few that were removed from other sites).

Put posters of his mug shot all over town lol!

Could turn into a good viral marketing campaign!!

Put up another camera... maybe one of those obnoxious fake ones with the blinking LED light. That ought to be practically irresistible.

THEN grease up that gas pipe... but only start the grease about halfway up, so he's well off the ground when he encounters the grease

Make sure you have a real camera off to the side, so you can watch him bust his ass on the ground.

he sure is awful clean shaven for a bum.