home surveillance cameras

[adrianna!!]

Anyone out ther know about purchasing/installing a surveillance camera for outside of my home? I have no idea what it would cost or if it is even feasible.

I live in a townhouse, so the area to be "surveyed" is a small area. I am so tired of someone letting there dog carp on the patch of grass in front og my place. I have a dog and I walk around like an idiot with a baggie, scooping up her poo, so I do not know why this person is too good to do it!

Ok, let me calm down...don't want this to turn into a vent...does anyone know what type of camera I would want, and what the costs and set up would be like? TIA!

[yorkshirepud]

Hi Adrianna,

I have no clue about the costs of setting up such a system, but I imagine it would be somewhat expensive. If you're just setting it up to see who's allowing their dog to poop on your garden, I'd seek out another method.

Perhaps you could put up a temporary sign asking owners to please 'scoop'.

I can imagine your annoyance. When I walk Bosco, I don't really allow him on peoples gardens. I typically make him do his business in 'my' garden before we leave. Of course, he goes on occasion, but I make sure it's on government land , but I still scoop.

[adrianna!!]

Thanks Adele...I just want to find out for other reasons too. My neighbor has had his car broken into 2 times (his driveway is right next to mine) and after an altercation with some teens I had my car keyed once.

A gal down the street had one of those cute "no poop" signs in front of her house and someone (probably those same teens) bombed her house with dog turds in the middle of the night! I know you probably think I live in a slum...but I swear I don't!!!

[RunnerKim]

Adrianna - I don't know much at all but look in to a web cam. They're cheap actually. I'm not sure about a recording device though but I'm sure something exists. Hopefully someone with more knowledge than me can help but maybe that'll give you a direction to look in to.

Kim

[Cherise]

I don't know how helpful this will be, as DH did most of the research on these when we bought ours, but it depends on several factors. There are wired cameras that have a wire that runs directly between the camera and the monitor that it attaches to inside the house. If the camera is to be placed outside, this will require drilling a small hole to the outside for the connection. We bought one like this at Home Depot, it included everything we needed to hook up, and it cost around $100-$150 I believe. There are also wireless cameras that can be mounted outside and don't require drilling holes. I "think" they have a receiver that can be hooked up to a tv for watching what's going on. Only problem with these is that generally they use the 2.4 GGHZ frequency, which is what a lot of cordless phones now use. If you have a 2.4 gig phone, then the camera won't work well with this. You also can choose between black and white or color cameras, color being more expensive of course. Some have like a night vision capability so they can work even if its dark out, again more expensive. I just checked the home depot website, and don't see the model we bought, maybe it was discontinued as we bought it almost a year ago. DH did a lot of the research on the internet before we bought ours, so that might be the best way to get better info. HTH.

[adrianna!!]

Thanks runnerkim and Cherise! Cherise, you had a lot of cool info, so thanks. I guess I would need night vision but anyway, you gave me a start. Thanks!