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Neighbor of mine just found this in her logs, thought it was educational:

Just your typical 'car hop'er. They cruise the neighborhoods hopping from car to car to see if someone left an open door. If not unlocked and nothing of value visible, they usually hop on to the next car and leave yours alone. I have had several of these on my security camera over the years.

As the signs say, Hide your valuables, Lock the Car and Take the keys.

There is a real deterrence value of cameras. I helped a friend install fake cameras at his place of business that was getting vandalized repeatedly. As soon as the "cameras" went up the vandalism stopped. (real professional camera system installed $3000, fake cameras $300)

I know it might be only ancedotal evidence but it's also true that It's hard to prove a negative that's why it's easy to say based on the minuscule number of time that it has happened that OC makes you a target more than it deters people from attacking you (which you will probably never know since nothing happened when it does deter). It may not stop crime, but rather crime against you.

I am sure thieves and vandals will not stop being thieves and vandals but rather just move on to the next target when they see the camera, for the most part, it's the same principle with OC.

Alarm company signs and window stickers can be a deterant also. Barking dogs as well.

Keith B wrote:Just your typical 'car hop'er. They cruise the neighborhoods hopping from car to car to see if someone left an open door. If not unlocked and nothing of value visible, they usually hop on to the next car and leave yours alone. I have had several of these on my security camera over the years.

As the signs say, Hide your valuables, Lock the Car and Take the keys.

I've seen plenty of car hoppers in my neighborhood over the years; what's different about this video is that he didn't take the time to scan the car's contents. The second he looked up into the camera, he spun around and walked away.

RHenriksen wrote:
I've seen plenty of car hoppers in my neighborhood over the years; what's different about this video is that he didn't take the time to scan the car's contents. The second he looked up into the camera, he spun around and walked away.

Yep, have had the same thing happen. They cruise up, grab the handle then see the cam and move on quickly. Here is one of mine with a group of young kids

Question regarding videos like this: Is there any issue with posting something like this online? In the community I live in, multiple of us have cameras, but we had been lead to believe that posting our video if it showed teenage thieves, vandals, etc could get us in trouble. Personally, if someone's kid is stupid enough to vandalize my property, I don't quite see what leg they have to stand on, but I figured it was worth asking.

madwildcat wrote:Question regarding videos like this: Is there any issue with posting something like this online? In the community I live in, multiple of us have cameras, but we had been lead to believe that posting our video if it showed teenage thieves, vandals, etc could get us in trouble. Personally, if someone's kid is stupid enough to vandalize my property, I don't quite see what leg they have to stand on, but I figured it was worth asking.

Not sure who you talked to, but if they are trespassing on your property then any privacy issues are out the door IMO.

I am not a lawyer, but think I am 99.9% on this.

Not that it couldn't happen to me, but man oh man, am I glad I live in the country.

Keith B wrote:

madwildcat wrote:Question regarding videos like this: Is there any issue with posting something like this online? In the community I live in, multiple of us have cameras, but we had been lead to believe that posting our video if it showed teenage thieves, vandals, etc could get us in trouble. Personally, if someone's kid is stupid enough to vandalize my property, I don't quite see what leg they have to stand on, but I figured it was worth asking.

Not sure who you talked to, but if they are trespassing on your property then any privacy issues are out the door IMO.

I am not a lawyer, but think I am 99.9% on this.

I'm with Keith on this. I don't know if there is a law on it, but many of my friends and neighbors post their videos all the time on "Facebook" and "Nextdoor".

Didn't deter the gun shop robbery in Houston but I hear that they caught a bunch of those guys, probably because of the cameras. I don't have cameras but I do have a Corgi and absolutely nothing gets by that dog.

LSUTiger wrote:There is a real deterrence value of cameras. I helped a friend install fake cameras at his place of business that was getting vandalized repeatedly. As soon as the "cameras" went up the vandalism stopped. (real professional camera system installed $3000, fake cameras $300)

I know it might be only ancedotal evidence but it's also true that It's hard to prove a negative that's why it's easy to say based on the minuscule number of time that it has happened that OC makes you a target more than it deters people from attacking you (which you will probably never know since nothing happened when it does deter). It may not stop crime, but rather crime against you.

I am sure thieves and vandals will not stop being thieves and vandals but rather just move on to the next target when they see the camera, for the most part, it's the same principle with OC.

As a rule, fake cameras are a really very bad idea for anyone to have installed. There is much liability to be had if something really does happen. False sense of security and such ...

ere is much liability to be had if something really does happen. ???? Liability? Are you going to sue yourself?

PBratton wrote:
As a rule, fake cameras are a really very bad idea for anyone to have installed. There is much liability to be had if something really does happen. False sense of security and such ...

Wait, what???