Advice to stop car burglery

[knuckles]

We've had a rash of people (probably kids) getting into our cars here in the neighborhood and taking whatever they deem valuable. They aren't breaking windows or jimmying locks. They are just checking the door and if it's unlocked, they are helping themselves.

I know the obvious answer is to lock your car doors and not worry about it, and as diligent as we are about doing that, sometimes it gets overlooked. Now I thought a lot about how to put a stop to this and considered many different scenarios, but I am having a hard time coming up with something that is a viable solution.

I am not about draw down and shoot at some kid even though he is probably a future BG, so what does one do? I considered arming myself and couple of neighbors with paintball guns and lay and wait. At least, even if they get away, they will have something to think about. But then I thought, what if they are packing? Even a knife or something. It goes without saying that a paintball gun is no match for a real weapon. So then I thought about bean bag rounds for my 12 gauge, but again, I may be crossing the line into something that may be too extreme and if the kid is packing, bean bags would not necessarily do the trick.

Just to give you all a little situational intel; the neighborhood I live is relatively crime free with these infractions being the only real ones we have, and they have only been recently. For the most part, the neighborhood is a quiet one. The houses are close together making the density high (i.e. we don't live in a rural setting at all) and the neighbors are mostly friendly to one another. One last point is that we have a few 'suspects'; kids we believe would be willing and capable of doing such a thing that live in the neighborhood, and I think I speak on behalf of the neighbors (and the kids parents) that we'd rather see them face a judge then the business end of some 00 buck.

Suggestions?

 

[FTF]

Wow.

Well, of course, just like you said, the most obvious solution is to lock your car doors etc... Those that are too lazy and/or forgetful to do so won't get my sympathy... especially considering it seems to be a known issue.

Get your neighbors together and form a neighborhood watch. Write an email to your CLEO and you'll likely get participation from a few city officers or sheriffs.

I definitely wouldn't begin patrolling the streets with a shotgun and less-than-lethal rounds. Probably a better thing to do is cruise the neighborhood, alerting residents to the problem and offering legitimate solutions like locking doors, securing valuables out of sight and leaving on lights and/or having motion lights in the driveway. The neighborhood watch with a couple subdivision members walking the streets during peak crime hours would probably help. Probably help more if they had cellphones and legally concealable firearms... just in case...

 

[knuckles]

The neighborhood watch with a couple subdivision members walking the streets during peak crime hours would probably help.

I guess I am going to have to figure out how this neighborhood watch thing works. I have always heard about it and seen signs posted but have never really gotten the low down.

The peak hours, as have been reported by neighbors who have apparently been able to deduce a time frame appear to be 0400 to 0700. I am not sure who would be willing to volunteer for that and how long it could be kept up even if there are those that are willing. Although I do a agree that's a good idea. What I am not sure of is, let's say, during one of these patrols, one were to stumble upon the perps, what do you do? I mean aside from getting a good description and noting which way they went. What if they notice you and you are confronted?

And for the record, I wasn't trying to infer that I would be up to patrolling the streets with a shotgun (which I am pretty sure would end up with me facing a judge), just that if I came out in the middle of the night suspecting something was up, there is a very real possibility that I might do that armed.

that are too lazy and/or forgetful to do so won't get my sympathy

I understand that, but I am sure you have done it yourself. Just so I understand where you are coming from, if you were a victim of this scenario would you accept 100% of the blame for it happening?

 

[Ricebrnr]

I think the best course of action is instead of spending money on items that would get you in as much trouble as you are trying to avoid is to spend it on a decent video camera such as those used to monitor babies and hook it up to your vcr. Some of those operate remotely and have infrared illumination.

A full length tape can easily last a night. So bait a car with a $5 bill or something. Catch them in the act and report them with the tape to the cops. If necessary, pass the camera around the neighborhood and get these jokers multiple times.

 

[knuckles]

spend it on a decent video camera such as those used to monitor babies and hook it up to your vcr.

Yeah, that's a good idea, but my dad sells premise security equipment and I can tell you that a baby monitor camera won't come anywhere close to getting a conviction in court. Probably won't even result in an arrest. What you are talking about is mostly a high resolution camera, capable of low light, or even night vision operation. Systems like that sell for well over $1000, I know because I have helped him with estimates. It's unreasonable to think that I could spend less, bathe the location in plenty of light and still expect the perp to show up even for a $5 bill. Plus a high dollar solution would need to be secured properly, preventing participants from 'passing it around'.

Like I said, you have a good idea, but it might be a little cost prohibitive.

 

[hso]

If you're dedicated and focused enough to organize a less lethal vigilante "posse" you should be able to set up a neighborhood watch and a daily alarm clock to check your car locks before you go to bed.

Contact your local Law Enforcement organization and ask them for the information on how to set up a neighborhood watch.

 

[knuckles]

Contact your local Law Enforcement organization and ask them for the information on how to set up a neighborhood watch.

This is, indeed, already on my list. After FTF mentioned it, it occured to me that I haven't seen the signs around our neighborhood and haven't really heard anyone mention it...

Whatever happened to the good old days of 'a less lethal vigilante "posse"'? <sighs>

 

[Ricebrnr]

If a baby monitor won't cut it how about a decent home video camera, like my Sony Handicam with the nightshot option? Point it out the window hooked up to the VCR for all night taping...?

I understand there is a lot of video vigilantes out there doing just this and you see the footage on tv all the time. In fact that footage is usually far better than the dedicated store cam footage.

 

[DoubleTapDrew]

Is it too cold for people to sit out on their porch for some fresh air (AR15 optional )?

 

[WESTTX357]

Motion lights

WE had a similar problem in my neighbor hood and several neighbors and myself installed motion lights that faced our driveways and that has done the trick for us and the price is hard to beat the price for my light and instalation was less than $80.00 .

 

[Jeff White]

Don't leave valuables visible in your car. Last year I had a rash of these motor vehicle burglaries. The two common things were the victims didn't lock their cars and they left things like, cell phones, wallets and purses visible to anyone who cared to look in their cars.

Take your valuables inside the house and lock your cars. It's really pretty simple. I don't think you need a neighborhood watch to walk past and check to see if everyone locked their car.

For heavens sake, people should be able to take a little responsibility for themselves.

I once had a friend ride to town with me. We got out of my truck and I hit the electric lock button. "Why are you locking your truck, you're a cop here?" he asked. "That is precisely why I lock it." was my reply.

It's not such a big deal to get in the habit of doing those little things that help keep you from becoming a victim.

Jeff

 

[4D5]

Bait with junk and alarm

Get an old VCR that is junk and set it up as bait. Hook up an alarm system to the VCR so when it's snatched a circuit is tripped and a screeching alarm goes off, you and neighbors are alerted and a capture is almost certain.

 

[BSlacker]

I have a pretty extensive set up with low light cameras and digital recording system. I have caught kids vandalizing and other weird stuff, checking the door handles and stealing Santa etc.
I have a background in video so it was easy to set up a cheap camera and VCR and did catch the guy that was driving through the grass next to my house and other stuff. As things happened I missed some stuff like having a car stolen when the tape ran out and I was out. So I keep going adding low light high resolution cameras and a digital recording system(Geovision GV800).
It is more important to ID the people and find out their pattern and then some effort will have to be expended on the details of who they are before a "crime" is committed. If you play it right you will have IDed the trouble makers and when they strike you will be ready. To do this you must review the video every day, overnight and when you are away you must review those times. It is time consuming and a drag but I do it, motion detection and fast foward are your friend. I recently had a talk with the Cheif of Police in my town about video evidence and he said the evidence locker is full of videos of crimes but they don't include name and address of the perp. I can't stress enough that unless you have a perfect set up like a narrow space to watch or up close shot is possible it is difficult to know who it is unless you already know them then a pretty crappy picture will do. Then again we were able to ID shoes and clothes of some of the perps and check them out in the daytime and get a location on them so later we were able to tell the police where they were and they could compare the video and ID them.
Here is a sample of an early morning incident. Because of multiple cameras I was able to burn a good face shot and found him nearby.
http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j50/BSlacker/?action=view&current=BSlacker.flv
The cameras you see for 100 bucks can be useful if you have a good strong light system if not forget it at night. Good Luck

 

[cnk]

Another option is to get an alarm installed that will passively arm/lock your doors. If you have an alarm on your car already, it may be able to be programmed to behave like this. Usually, when the alarm is set to passive mode, it will lock the doors about 30 seconds after you close the door.

 

[highlander 5]

this is a no brainer LOCK YOUR CAR and don't leave valuables in plain sight. you wouldn't leave the doors and windows on your house unlocked would you? also willing to bet when they file a claim with their insurance co. it will be denied for the same reason there are times that I wonder what the hell seemingly inteligent people are thinking when they do stunts like this

 

[sm]

Jeff's Post #30 needs to read again please.

Kids, are kids. Sometimes a dare, sometimes an initiation for something. I once lived in small town, and the kids from bigger city would come down and get into cars, later on some bigger kids started getting lawnmowers and other lawn equipment.
Folks starting going on about getting "neighborhood watch signs put up everywhere.

I knew the local police, and asked if we could do a ride through, and if it would be okay to take Polarids. Okay was given and we did. We made notes, and took pictures. Come the big Meeting for this Neighborhood Watch, and I / we just rattled of, with Pictures, names and addresses of folks that had left garage doors open. I mean all the time. I'd go toss the picture to the owner and "nice Mower" , or "nice woodworking set up and tools".

" I couldn't get near your house Steve, [mine] dang dogs look thru that partially raised window and started barking"

Yes our dogs liked to see out the front, just raised the blind just enough for them to do so, they were going to "nose it" up anyway. Yes my house was checked like everyone else. My gargage was down, and my gate to back was locked with a padlock.

Folks just starting taking responsibilty for themselves. Putting down garage doors, not leaving things in vehicles, locking the vehicles, gate locks, adding motion lights and raising the stupid blind on a window so the dog could see out and bark.

We did NOT put up signs or start a patrol. Kids quit coming to our neighborhood...they went elsewhere...

Kids. Car Alarms got to be the big deal. Nobody paid attention to one going off. Kids would skateboard , ride bikes and set of car alarms in town.

So, I got this bright idea, and asked the Police what he thought about folks NOT using these aftermarket alarms. If the kids don't set off alarm, they will give up that fun thing, find something else to drive folks nuts with.

Yep sure as the world we got enough folks to quit using the alarm at a business. Kids moved to another office strip center, again no alarms going off skateboarding by...

Another small town starting having problems, they got the signs for Neighborhood watch. Still left garage doors up, no motion lights, just that "magic talisman" of a Neighborhood watch sign. Actually those signs caused resentment, so the kids starting driving by with baseball bats and bashing mail boxes.
One resident, got stupid. He was going to teach them a lesson by golly! He filled a new mailbox with cement. Kid broke a wrist and sued the guy. Premeditated something or another.
Sue Folks? Cool, now we had kids coming to that other small town, finding ways to get parents to sue.

Back at the Ranch...they left us alone. We just had folks take personal responibilty. That other town just made matters worse for themeselves.
Of course I was wrong, when I went down with others to share how stopped our problems...

I like simple.

 

[knuckles]

Listen, posting stuff like 'just lock your doors' and 'take responsibility for yourself' is completely useless. If you are just looking to bump your post count, then feel free to make all the painfully obvious, already covered in the OP, posts that you want.

Honestly, some of you all act like it's completely beyond you to make a mistake or overlook something. Video surveillance, motion detectors, neighborhood watch and the like help to cover one's ass when us mere mortals forget to do something. That is all useful information. Telling everyone how great you are and how you would never forget to do something is not.



Flame on...

P.S. - this is NOT directed at any one particular individual...

 

[Manedwolf]

One resident, got stupid. He was going to teach them a lesson by golly! He filled a new mailbox with cement. Kid broke a wrist and sued the guy. Premeditated something or another.

This post shows what's wrong with this country. WHY was he stupid? He filled a mailbox with cement, yes. That's his prerogative. Private property. The kid decided to smash it, so it's HIS fault.

I'd heard of someone else doing this in a case where kids were driving along with an old car running over mailboxes. Sank about a 20-foot concrete post with a rebar core using a well digger and pumped cement. Car came along...car lost, post embedded in engine block, kids had to explain why they drove into it.

 

[brerrabbit]

My suggestion, might not be the best, and I am not a video specialist but I have installed a few systems.

I am assuming most of you posting here have computers. Yup I am being Mr Obvious. Do you have a large hard drive with decent capacity with lots of free space installed already? Any freinds that geek freinds with lots of spare older computer parts? If not, get one off of ebay. Bigger is better, 40 GB is about right.

Again, ebay, video capture card with software. Most of these will handle straight video. Cheapies run around 15 bucks, decent ones run around 40, look in product reviews to find a good one.

A cheap industrial video camera with motorized auto iris and auto iris settings on the camera. It should come with its own lens. I have used RCA and panasonic and they both work good in pretty low light. Not total darkness mind you, just low light.

You will need to get a power supply for the camera also, usually 24vac or 12vdc is common, many can run on both. Check the power usage on the camera, odds are, especially if you have kids, you probably have a small plug in power supply that you can use for the camera.

You will also need a type "F" to BNC cable adaptor, Hit your local radio shack for this. and a spare TV cable while you are there.

You now have everything you need to watch and record video for long periods of time depending on the video quality you use and the size of the hard drive. If you had some of the parts on hand, you might just get away making this system for under 150$.

If you are using your current hard drive, just skip this step, if you had to get a bigger hard drive, have someone show you how to set it as slave and your primary hard drive as master.

While the computer is open, install the video capture card as per the instructions. Install and configure the software, set it to record somewhere you have room to save it and set it to use a decent video quality. Test it out using your television feed, and if succesful, set the tuner for video.

Mount and wire up the industrial camera in the strategic location of your choice. Read the manual. The camera will have a funny looking video connection on back, this a BNC connection, plug your BNC to F adaptor into it and plug the F side of the connector into a standard television cable. Run the other end of the cable to the back of your computer and plug it into the video capture card you installed.

Start up the software that came with your capture card, If you have everything right, you now have video from the industrial video camera displayed on your moniter.

I use powervcr, it came with the video card, I can set it to record at anytime just like a regular vcr, only I can record at a decent quality at the rate of 650 MB an hour for as long as I have room on the hard drive.

I hope this was some kind of help, or at least in the line of what you are looking for.

 

[knuckles]

Thank you brerrabbit! That is the type of info I was hoping to get in response to my OP. I appreciate you taking the time to include specific instructions on how to implement such a thing. Thanks again, I will definitely take it into consideration.

 

[Sawdust]

You can get a whole video system here:

http://www.ezwatchstore.com/index.php

I have one and it works very well.

Sawdust

 

[beardxxxd]

Lock your doors.
I am able to remember everytime.. im sure they can too.

Aside from that..
1. Remove items from your car you dont want stolen.
2. Keep a closer eye on things.
3. Turn on some more lights.
4. Thats why you have insurance.

Bean-bagging a kid will get you jail in pretty sure.

 

[BSlacker]

We have Neighbor Hood Watch here, of all the vandalizim and vehicle thefts and it has only caught one kid who was shooting paint ball all over the houses and wall and even shot the person reporting the kid. He confessed to a vandalizm at the same persons house a few months before. No action was taken even though he stole the paint ball gun. So much for just watching crime. The one I caught is on probation. You must go thru with the action or the kids will rule.
For many years I recorded and keep my mouth shut. We used the info to ID the trouble makers and keep an eye on them. If I noticed one on live video I went and stood around and just watched, they get the idea soon. My advantage was I could be anywhere in the house and see them near my house and respond most folk would not even know they were there.
All this is to make a point. You can have all the video you want but is still up to the person to take the time to respond and check out the kids. Get to know the people in your area, without them knowing you saw them hide drugs over the wall and go get it and flush it just drives them nuts or smoke pot next to my neighbors house with her baby in the stroller is very valuable. It stopped a person from letting their 100lb pooch poop in my yard. I had to follow her several times to get her address but I did it and now she is gone. I know mostly who to watch. When video evidence is presented against juvies mostly they get a stern word and let go. I showed the video below to the Chief of Police and asked what he could do as I knew who they were. His response was he would give them a good talking to. No nothing really. But if you watch the video the car at the end is the Mother of one of the kids. They did not come out of their houses for 60 days and the small one moved right away. Proper parenting is the key not police. Later the two larger boys were caught in a sexual act by the mother with an older boy over the wall on city property and both of those families moved within three weeks. With the very young just embarass the parents by showing the video around to the neighbors, that works. With the older ones just stand firm and charge them.
http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j50/BSlacker/?action=view&current=softliteboys.flv
I have a few CDs full of stuff and very little is actionable it just lets me know who the players are.
I have shown some video at Watch meetings and they still won't lock their cars at night or, believe it or not, leave there homes windows open when they leave home. Telling and showing people doesn't work with lots of people. Video is not a lock on perps.
I have 200 gig of hard drive on a dedicated system and it ain't enough.

 

[Holtzman]

How to convert a webcam into infrared

A webcam converted to infrared should work in darkness and should be pretty cheap. You may need some IR illumination if the picture is too dark, but that will not be visible to the thief. If you get some motion-activated capture software, you could have a pretty sophisticated setup for just a little money. I have used a similar setup before, without the infrared, and it worked wonders. Lately I am seeing more webcams appearing on the outside of houses in my neighborhood.

 

[Technosavant]

The motion-sensitive lights will help, a game camera might not be a bad idea either- the sort of thing you put out in the woods to take pictures of whatever critters come by. Works on deer, it will work on two legged miscreants- you'll get some fun flash photos of them.