Caught an Intruder

[Bird]

If all occupants do not have some understanding of self defense / training - it may be time for a discussion. But I cannot get my own wife to understand this importance. She thinks it is just my job to take care of that.

Sounds like my wife of 47 years.:laughing: She fired one round from one of my .38s before we were married and with me also holding her hand. That's the only time she's ever fired a gun. But she did sleep with a .38 under her pillow many years ago when I worked nights, and if I was going home before I knew she'd be up, I called first to tell her to put that gun away.:laughing:

 

[Tororider]

Tons of good suggestions on here. Just wondering if you have a budget for security upgrades? That might help guide suggestions. For example a new Kel-Tec PF9 might cost a few hundred bucks whereas a few battery powered security lights might cost $50. I would suggest motion lights, and if you can swing it a camera system. I am still trying to figure out which one to buy myself, but Costco and Sam's club run deals on them relatively frequently.

Are your dogs mostly inside or out? An electric fence for them so they could be out more might help immensely.

Good luck.

 

[Barry 1]

Sheriff: 92-year-old's home targeted 3 times in August | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com
Check this out.

 

[aczlan]

Sheriff: 92-year-old's home targeted 3 times in August | Cincinnati.com | cincinnati.com
Check this out.

Intresting quote from that article:
Bruce McClure, director of the legal studies department at Northern Kentucky University said:

When threatened by an intruder, "The statute does not require you to retreat even to the telephone (to call 911)," McClure said.
The law doesn't contemplate that you would have to sit there and interrogate the intruder," McClure added. "His defense is that he had a right to presume that they meant to cause him harm. He's got the presumption in his favor."

Aaron Z

 

[MasseyWV]

The worst part about this is you feel violated.

Absolutely and it's strange feeling anger and fear at the same time, to say the least. Although I mostly feel anger and if I could get my hands on the guy...

Just wondering, have you mentioned this incident to the owner of the neighboring property where the man seems to have come from and ran back to?

Ordinarily, I might be inclined to mention it to the man who owns the adjacent property, but I have reason to believe that the mysterious man may have been connected to the property owner in some way. Granted, I can't be certain, but in this case I feel that it's better to say nothing.

How far from your house was the guy on the "edge of the property"?

My home is about 50-75 feet from the area where the intruder was seen. Needless to say, it was much too close for comfort.

Just wondering if you have a budget for security upgrades?

Are your dogs mostly inside or out?

Unfortunately, money is a little tight right now so I'm going to have to get creative until I have more money to spare. We have two dogs, one inside and one outside.

If the guy was there after dark, that is a big concern. Most residential burglary's occur during daytime hours when they know no one is at home. For him to be there when he knew you were there most likely means he has ulterior motives. I'm not trying to scare you, but non burglary/theft motives are extremely dangerous. Deal with this quickly and thoroughly, get recording cameras up high and black out their "red light" if equipped. Put dummy cameras down where he can see them. Motion lights are always good. Arm yourself even in the house and make frequent unscheduled patrols of your property.

Go out during the day and take a real slow walk along his suspected path. Don't only look for foot prints, look at the vegetation, grass bent over or crushed, dislodged rocks....humans leave a trail. When and if you find his entry point smooth out some dirt so any future track will be left and easily seen. An camouflaged game camera watching this area would be a good idea. You will have to get creative to keep any camera hidden, but it can be done.

I know you want to chase him off and not have a confrontation. But....this type of guy will move on only to find another victim. At least if you can identify him in a photo, then LE has a chance to catch him.

The intruder was seen in the daylight around 6:00 PM and I've since walked the area in question several times, both in the daylight and at night. I wanted to put myself in his shoes and see things from his perspective. His advantage was having the ability to hide, an advantage I intend to remove and/or exploit to my own benefit.

My first priority is to cut back the undergrowth along the tree line which I've allowed to become somewhat overgrown in recent years because I've been busy with other things. Doing so should go a long way towards making it harder for someone to hide. I'm also considering cameras and sensors which might alert me to someone's presence, but that could take a while due to budget constraints.

Next, I plan to improve the nighttime lighting around my property. Most of it is lighted, but there are a few dark areas, including the area where the intruder was seen. The only problem with improving lighting is that I may to have to run buried power cables to a couple of different areas which will take time, and money. In the mean time, I have a few spare motion sensing flood lights that I can temporarily attach to the underside of my deck as a stopgap measure.

They say that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure so I'm going to do everything I can to deter and/or detect a would-be intruder, but if someone decides to invade my home they will suffer the consequences. The funny thing is that I was always on high alert at night and never really considered having to worry about this sort of thing happening in broad daylight. No more.

 

[Lebneh]

You asked for suggestions about securing your perimeter. I can offer assistance with IP based cameras if you like. Feel free to PM me for more info. (For IP based security it doesn’t matter if you have an “outside” internet line or not, if all you want to do is view from within your home).

Here is just an idea. You place a couple of these wireless cameras along the outside of your house (maybe near the entrances and big windows). Maybe even put one inside the house. I believe all the cameras I listed allow you to turn off the recording light. They use IR for night vision and have motion activated alarms (if you setup a computer monitoring station it beeps). You can record video or upload pictures (1 per second) to an internal/outside destination. You can view all the cameras via smart phone\computer within your local network or anywhere in the world if you have internet setup at your house.

For the tree line I would put POE cameras… How many would be up to you. The POE allows you deploy the cameras without worrying about an electric source. Ethernet has a max distance of about 100 meters. So you can get some cameras out there pretty far.

I listed cameras from a company I like. There are cheaper options but I do not know how well they work.

This can get pretty expensive, fast, but you could always do it in phases. If you like the idea do one or 2 on the outside of the house and next year put one in the trees.

Wireless cameras for around the house. These cameras are wireless so all you will need is electric.
Wireless Camera Options:
Wireless Outdoor Camera (does not look around):
Amazon.com: Foscam FI8904W Outdoor Wireless/Wired IP Camera with 15-20 Meter Night Vision and 6mm Lens (67° Viewing Angle) - Silver: Camera & Photo

Wireless pan/tilt/move (this camera can look around, but you will need to buy Outdoor Housing & External IR light if you put them outside) (they come in black or white): Amazon.com: Genuine Foscam Fi8908w Wireless Ip Camera Network with Pan & Tilt,night Vision,2 Way Audio,black: Electronics

Outdoor Housing & External IR light: (from a distance the housings look like light fixtures) Waterproof Outdoor Enclosure Dome Clear Case For Foscam IP Camera US Stock on eBay!

Amazon.com: 48-led Illuminator Light Cctv Ir Infrared Night Vision: Electronics




Now for a perimeter I would do POE (power over ethernet) cameras:
What POE gives you is power over the Ethernet cable, so all you have do it is run the 1 cable. IMO, it’s much easier to string up some CAT 5 than worry about getting some electric way up in a tree. The way it works is you use the injector (listed below) to send some power through the line and just run the line to the tree or post you have stationed on your perimeter. You probably have phone/electric/internet lines running to your house already, you can disguise this one leaving your house by exiting near those cables. Or you can bury the cable if that makes more sense.

Pan/Tilt (Again, you would need the housing & IR light) (they come in black or white):
Amazon.com: Foscam FI8918E PoE Pan & Tilt IP/Network Camera with 8 Meter Night Vision and 3.6mm Lens (67° Viewing Angle) - White: Camera & Photo

Outdoor camera:
Amazon.com: Foscam FI8905E Power Over Ethernet Outdoor IP Camera with 6 mm Lens, Night Vision Up To 30 Meters: Camera & Photo

Networking equipment:
A little explanation on the networking equipment: What this wireless router will allow you to do is create a Local Area network for your home. It will allow all the cameras to communicate with viewing computers\ smart phones that are on the same network. Now if you have an internet connection at the house you can view the security camera from any smart phone or internet connected computer. All you need to do is adjust the firewall on the router a little. If you already have a wireless router you can probably use that (assuming it has some basic firewall port forwarding)

Wireless Router (1 total):
Amazon.com: TP-Link TL-WR841ND 300Mbps Wireless N Router: Electronics

POE injector (1 per POE camera):
Amazon.com: TP-Link AC TL-PoE150S PoE Injector: Electronics

Outdoor Ethernet cable (1 per POE camera):
Amazon.com: 100ft Cat6 Outdoor Waterproof Ethernet Cable Direct Burial 100 ft (600 MHZ) Shielded: Computers & Accessories

Phase 1: Example setup (assuming you need everything):
Router $ 32
Wireless Outdoor camera: $95
Wireless Pan/Tilt Camera (placed inside the house looking out a window): $80
A computer that will always be displaying/recording/alerting (completely optional): $200
Dell Latitude D820 Laptop Core Duo DVD/CDRW XP WiFi 15.4 LCD Notebook Computer 837654219140 | eBay

Done. You have 2 cameras watching your house with a dedicated recording monitoring station. Add/ Modify as needed.

Phase 2: if needed add a pan/tilt camera to the exterior of the house… Or throw a POE camera in the tree line.


I think the computer might be over kill. You can always just have it upload pictures on movement to a folder on your current computer, so you have them saved… And you can flip open your phone can check out the cameras whenever you want. I have no idea but you might be able to lower your insurance if you tell them you have security cameras

 

[aczlan]

POE injector (1 per POE camera):
Amazon.com: TP-Link AC TL-PoE150S PoE Injector: Electronics

One comment, if putting in more than 2 cameras that run from the same location (ie: 3 cameras that run out of the house vs one from the house and two from a shed), you would be money ahead to get a POE switch (Amazon.com: TP-Link TL-SF1008P 8-Port 10/100M Desktop PoE Switch: Electronics) which does the same as the POE injector, but it only takes one plug to power them all and at $50 to power up to 8 items it is cheaper as well.

Aaron Z

 

[Lebneh]

Aczlan is 100% correct. Good tip!
Note: Just make sure the switch has enough power to do what you want. Not all POE switches are created equal.
IE: distance and number of cameras.

 

[aczlan]

Aczlan is 100% correct. Good tip!
Note: Just make sure the switch has enough power to do what you want. Not all POE switches are created equal.
IE: distance and number of cameras.

Good point on the power capacity.
Also, for those who might be wondering NEVER plug ANYTHING into POE switch unless it was designed for POE. 48v to a network card will do Bad Things(TM) to it.

Aaron Z

 

[dmccarty]

....
My home is about 50-75 feet from the area where the intruder was seen. Needless to say, it was much too close for comfort.
...

The intruder was seen in the daylight around 6:00 PM and I've since walked the area in question several times, both in the daylight and at night. I wanted to put myself in his shoes and see things from his perspective. His advantage was having the ability to hide, an advantage I intend to remove and/or exploit to my own benefit.

My first priority is to cut back the undergrowth along the tree line which I've allowed to become somewhat overgrown in recent years because I've been busy with other things. Doing so should go a long way towards making it harder for someone to hide. I'm also considering cameras and sensors which might alert me to someone's presence, but that could take a while due to budget constraints.

The more you cut the back the undergrowth, the harder it will be for you to see him deeper in the woods, assuming you have woods. It is likely that your lights wont go deep into the woods in any case. Dang if you do and danged if you don't. I have the same concern and I try to keep the brush cut for security as well as fire control. Once you leave the forest edge it is not too hard to hide a few feet into the woods. We will be putting up a tall fence at some point to keep the deer out of the orchard we will be planting soon and the garden. But that fence is not around the entire house and in any case would not stop someone from watching the house.

The fence however will be useful in obstructing anyone from getting to one part of the house...

Trying to stop someone from watching the house is danged near impossible. On the other hand, if you want to know if someone crosses a certain line, then things are more possible. You can use fences, downed trees, brush piles, etc, to form choke points someone would have to use to approach the house. At those choke points is where you plant cameras and other sensors.

Later,
Dan