Trespassing, destruction of property and attempted theft

puff2ice

puff2ice

n3wb
Jul 17, 2018
2
17
Miami, FL 33185, United States
As the title states, someone drove into our drive way Tuesday morning @ 2:40 AM, covered from head to toe, wearing gloves, was able to disable one of our cameras before casing our home/car. Luckily, except for the one camera, nothing else was taken or damaged. Sadly, this has become all too common in our neighborhood. The system is a Lorex 4K Ultra HD IP 16 channel NVR System from costco with active deterrence and the recording the system was recording @ 1080p, not 4k. Any advice on either camera placement or other equipment to deter this type of activity or to better ID is appreciated.

Video here:


Description of vehicle involved – Color: Black, Make: Nissan, Model: Murano, Year: 2019, Type: Suv
Description of subject - A ninja; Covered from head to toe, has arm tattoo
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Just looking at your driveway and video, he'd covered his own plate up using a jumper., which also says he's using his own car(!). However, his front plate was exposed as he turned into the lane outside of your house. I'd suggest putting a camera on your gate post looking back along the lane to the junction (provided this is legal in your state), to capture his number plate as he turns the corner. This could be disguised inside a casing such as bird box, or house name plate etc or could be something as simple as a trail cam if mounting a CCTV camera was impracticable).

Another solution would be to gate off your driveway to make access more difficult and lock the gate. You can buy alarmed padlocks that sound if they're tampered with if you're not fitting automatic gates. eg: 10 Best Alarm Padlocks For Heavy-Duty Weatherproof Security

Another solution would be to mount fold over or telescopic anti ram bollards to prevent the removal of your cars when parked. eg: telescopic ram parking posts These would make the cars less attractive to steal as even if they broke in, there's no way to get them out. These bollard locks can be protected by using Krytponite locks instead of normal locks to defeat bolt cutters.

If you do gate your driveway, a beware of the dog sign (it bites variety), and a selection of the biggest dog toys / chews / bowls you can find strewn around the yard can also be a deterrent.

Finally, good lighting, I notice the car was covered well when he went up to it, but it looks as if the part of the drive where he parked and walked up to the camera, was poorly lit. Maybe another sensor and a huge LED flood - the latter is also useful because if you're inside, you will usually see the light come on through the curtains.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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puff2ice said:
As the title states, someone drove into our drive way Tuesday morning @ 2:40 AM, covered from head to toe, wearing gloves, was able to disable one of our cameras before casing our home/car. Luckily, except for the one camera, nothing else was taken or damaged. Sadly, this has become all too common in our neighborhood. The system is a Lorex 4K Ultra HD IP 16 channel NVR System from costco with active deterrence and the recording the system was recording @ 1080p, not 4k. Any advice on either camera placement or other equipment to deter this type of activity or to better ID is appreciated.

Video here:


Description of vehicle involved – Color: Black, Make: Nissan, Model: Murano, Year: 2019, Type: Suv
Description of subject - A ninja; Covered from head to toe, has arm tattoo
View attachment 40708
View attachment 40709
Click to expand...

This is some serious stuff. First, if you dont already have one, get an alarm system with panic buttons placed throughout the house. Were the cameras set to activate the alarm on motion? Replace the damaged camera asap.
You may want to consider paying for live monitoring service of your video at least for the next few months. @bababouy runs such a service and happens to be in Florida as well Remote Video Surveillance Monitoring - CCTV Security Cameras - Florida
 
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Probably a serial burglar who targets a different house every night. Hopefully he will move on and not be back again.

But after watching the video, I think this is one of those situations where the camera system provided some deterrence. From the very start, the perp keeps looking at the cameras. My guess is that he's thinking to himself: "I wonder if that camera has already sent an alert to the police or the homeowner?" And then later: "How many cameras does this guy have?" He probably deals with Ring and Nest cameras all the time (hence the disguise), and wasn't expecting a more sophisticated setup.

My other guess: this guy has been to @puff2ice's house before, during the daytime. I'll bet if he checks his recordings, he'll find some footage of that same car driving by his house during the daytime, sometime within the past few days.
 
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bigredfish said:
Agree

What was he looking at/for under the fender well of the car?
Click to expand...

That was odd. Having watched too many spy movies I would say tracking device.

The whole thing seems odd and not a typical smash and grab type burglar. Did he think he had disabled both cams and then went to the car to plant something in the wheel well?
 
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maybe checking the wheel well for a hide-a-key holding a HOUSE key?...

if anything, the way you have the cams aimed, you have too much soffit and/or wall reflecting IR.
if you can either lower the cams or at least aim them lower or further from walls to minimize that
reflection and get a better picture of what's out beyond the soffit...
 
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This looks real sketchy. I agree with @wtimothyholman - this guy has been to your house recently and has seen something that he wants. If he was looking under the fender or on the tire, he may have been looking for keys. A lot of times people will leave their car keys on a tire, in the gas door, or in the tailpipe for someone else. What comes to mind is a detailer or a mechanic might of left keys out when this guy was on the property. When we see guys dressed up like this and they cover their tag in advance, they are after something big and valuable. Spend some time going through video of the last couple of days before this.
 
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All good analysis, suggestions and ideas above.

All I have to add is that if my BI server got motion for that length of time on 2 different cams at 2:36 AM, yours truly has already been awakened by a push notification with attached image well BEFORE 2:40 AM......and I'm VERY cranky when awakened out of a deep sleep in that manner for such an event. :angry:
 
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TonyR said:
All I have to add is that if my BI server got motion for that length of time on 2 different cams at 2:36 AM, yours truly has already been awakened by a push notification with attached image well BEFORE 2:40 AM......and I'm VERY cranky when awakened out of a deep sleep in that manner for such an event. :angry:
Click to expand...
... which leads to this question: Was @puff2ice at home that evening? Because if not, that may also indicate that the perp was watching the home, and knew the residents were gone that night. So yes, a very deliberate burglary attempt that may have only been prevented by the perp's concern about the cameras that were recording him.
 
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Hello.

Florida does not have front plates, just rears. Me, wife and two kids were home at the time and besides close family, we do not get visitors....we don't have friends over. We moved into this area about a year ago which is a nice part of town but in an unincorporated part of Miami, police patrols in our area @ night is very rare. We have had a rash of rim thieves and unlocked car door checkers(zombies) in the area. Have a home alarm with all entry ways, windows and garage doors linked to the alarm system. Because there is no gate from the street into our driveway, we have a driveway alarm but it was off because it kept going off due to poor placement/aiming :banghead:. My families safety is my priority, second is to protect property and also to try to keep our "sense of security". I replaced the damaged camera and lowered it, got ride of the pallets, moved and fixed the driveway alarm and I am reviewing the past few days NVR footage as we speak. I believe my wifes car was the target because i noted he looks at the tires/wheel as walks past it and then takes a closer look a moment later with a flashlight. Maybe he saw that every lug nut was replaced with a wheel lock(yes, all 5) or that tire tread was low, who knows. As a result of this incident, we are considering installing a gate and finally connecting the IPC-HFW5231E-Z12E to use as LPR and the two starlight camera's i bought from andy, never gotten around to installing them on a dedicated computer running BI. I appreciate the feedback and the forum as I feel like i learn something new everyday on here.
 
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I bet if the police really wanted to they could track that vehicle both before and after he got to your property. There are loads of cctv cams everywhere these days but certainly in the uk for house robberies like this the police don’t allocate any time to investigate.
 
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I'd alarm the gate as well either with an alarm padlock (don't know how good these are) or a sensor attached to the gate that alarms when opened, if you're leaving it unlocked. Hopefully the CCTV will alert you with a push alert to anyone who climb it.

If you still have issues, I notice that your perimeter fence is low. Unless snakes are an issue, it might be worth considering planting a thorny hedge such as Berberis around the perimeter of your entire fence. It won't be cheap, but will both make your garden look nicer and prevent people coming over the hedge, (or at least get a DNA sample if they do!). the Berberis family are just one family of shrubs that are very spiny and sharp and are not something you'd want to jump over a fence into. There are other species of plants that have the same function suhc as Pyrocanta and many others:

Berberis X stenophylla (Berberis): Information, Pictures & Cultivation Tips

Obviously I don't know what grows in your locale.

There are numerous websites on growing plants as security barriers.
 
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Interesting video. He proofs to "know" how to dismantle the first cam, however he "forgot" to completely disable the second set? The unplugged UTP cable intriges me: was that from another cam/floodlight/ir beamer?

In any case, if I was you, I'd grab a couple of additional cams, or, if wiring is a challenge, you could throw in a couple of dummy cams in the corner of your garden. Don't take the ones with these flashy red leds, but some light glowing "fake" IR leds. And add some motion trigggered flood lights. Not only your intruders can be "flashed" and "surprised", your footage might be better too (except if you aim the beam into a cam). And last but not least: if the border/gate contains a mailbox, you can hide a cam in it facing your house, so when the intruder jumps into his car, he might take off his disguise, and you might have a better view.

Oh, and buy this:

61FgL8kmJBL._SY450_.jpg
 
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