My first capture post! Petty and Political...

[Jessie.slimer]

I may make

I'm trying to figure out how to hide cameras in a post for post lights and haven't come up with anything reasonable yet.

You might be better off that way anyway, so they don't get damaged in mailbox baseball since you are rural. Mine got hit a few times, I will probably build something solid and back a few extra feet from the road.

 

[MrSurly]

But I'm still going to pursue them.

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement.
I intend to create another 'hide' that I will put on the left of the drive. I already ran conduit to the spot next to a bush. I have several bird feeders in the yard and i have one particularly large one that looks like a house or cabin. I'm going to put it on a post above the bush and hide a 'daylight' true color cam inside to provide an overview along the street. The mailbox cams are currently set up as half-ass LPRs so they are useless at night for anything else. I already have the true color in use but mounted on the house, so too far from the street.

 

[MrSurly]

Back to the thieves: I posted the info and a screenshot of the girls on our local neighborhood's Nextdoor.com page. I wrote there that I wasn't calling the cops in (yet) so that hopefully the girls would take the opportunity to correct the situation and avoid hassle for everyone.
~~I did not mention that I am about to go out of town for an extended period and that would likely interfere with my dealing with all this.~~

The girl (the driver) replied "yeah, that's me. Your sign is in your neighbor's yard" and left it at that.
I (being too accommodating of course) replied that if she fixes it by Monday, its over; but if not I will notify the cops. So, we'll see.

 

[BobRegnar]

The cops wouldn't have (couldn't have) done as much.

 

[TechBill]

I seen post here where folks hide camera inside a birdhouse on a pole in the middle of the yard. I plan to do something like this one day to aim it directly at the mailbox but keeping it at a safer distance away from the curb.

 

[MrSurly]

A little follow-up. My sign has not been returned and the girl has replied to other's comments on Nextdoor, essentially blowing it off as a joke. I talked with the cops this evening; they said they knew her and her history, she's had some minor interactions with them. The cops went and had a chat with her and both parents. Apparently, she was already in some trouble for taking the dirt bike out but they didn't know about the other things such as trespassing, riding the bike out onto the state highway, riding in the cemetery, etc.
I didn't 'press charges' on the theft but at the cop's suggestion, I DID agree to have them notify her that if she stepped on my property there would be trespassing charges. Sort of like a restraining order? The cop was squinting at the laptop screen as I played the video from camera 9... he said "I think i know who that might be...but I can't quite tell.
I said how about now, playing the video from cam 5, he was "wow', oh yeah, that's her." He was happy with the cams.

 

[CCTVCam]

I may make

You might be better off that way anyway, so they don't get damaged in mailbox baseball since you are rural. Mine got hit a few times, I will probably build something solid and back a few extra feet from the road.

Mailbox baseball. That's bad. If you can weld, how about some AR15 1/4 plate steel made into a mailbox and welded onto a 2 inch scaffold pole with a concrete filled centre into a large concrete base. Not sure they'd do it again when their wrists hurt like hell from something that doesn't give. Also proofed from those .22 calibre / 12 bore sign shooters. Bit extreme, but probably be the last mailbox you'll ever need. Apocalypse proof.

 

[biggen]

Trespassing them is always a good idea. I do that for every shoplifter I catch. Good for you!

 

[Jessie.slimer]

Mailbox baseball. That's bad. If you can weld, how about some AR15 1/4 plate steel made into a mailbox and welded onto a 2 inch scaffold pole with a concrete filled centre into a large concrete base. Not sure they'd do it again when their wrists hurt like hell from something that doesn't give. Also proofed from those .22 calibre / 12 bore sign shooters. Bit extreme, but probably be the last mailbox you'll ever need. Apocalypse proof.

I wanted very badly to to this the first time I found my mailbox 25 feet down the road, but after some research found it was not legal to do. If the idiots hurt themselves while destroying my property, I could be held responsible for maliciously reinforcing it. What a world we live in.

A new structure for cameras located a few feet in off the road, just out of baseball bat reach is my plan for next spring.

 

[CCTVCam]

Personally, I would call that a well amde structure rather than maliciously reinforced. AR15 might be justifiable if signs have been shot in the area and I'd argue the shaft and base were there to stop it being blown over.

However, one way around it, how about a brick name / number post with integrated mail box? Not sure anyone could call that maliciously reinforced. It's also not unusual for people to fill the centre of wall or gate posts with concrete to reinforce them although I would advise not setting you mailbox or cameras in like that otherwise if you ever need to remove...

Found quite a few US examples in both brick and stone:

 

[samplenhold]

Found quite a few US examples in both brick and stone:

In my old hood a lot of folks had these. Local teens would lasso them from the back of a pickup truck and pull them down.

 

[sebastiantombs]

Wonder how that would work out with a lolly column buried in the middle? Can anyone say "removed bumper" or "frame damage"?

 

[MrSurly]

A street at one side of my neighborhood, the newer section, EVERY house has a pedestal exactly like Number 112 above. There is ONE of them that happens to be in the lucky spot between two intersections and over the years, that pedestal has been taken down by cars at least SIX times. Different homeowners, different reasons such as texting/distracted by kids, dui, etc and not related to the hapless owner. The last time they planted a plain old post next to it and gave up. The only way to 'win' in that situation would be to spend a LOT of money building a concrete footing fortress that would stop a car without sustaining damage. You can buy a frigging LOT of mailbox posts for that.

 

[CCTVCam]

In my old hood a lot of folks had these. Local teens would lasso them from the back of a pickup truck and pull them down.

That's why i said concrete fill the centre although you guys really have problems if people can get away with doing that! Can't believe your society has really sunk that low that people lassoo brick mailbox columns and pull them down. Sounds like Mad Max out there!

If that's the case you want deep footings. You can mix the concrete yourself so shouldn't be too expensive for a low structure. Admittedly may get expensive on a taller structre although it's going to depend on the size of the gap down the middle. One way to minise that is to build it in stone or reconstituted stone such as Anstone if on a budget. Large blocks = less internal gap = les concrete required. All comes down to what you want vs how much you're willing to spend. On the same subject a wider lower structure like the middle one will be harder to pull down than a taller ones.

 

[biggen]

That's why i said concrete fill the centre although you guys really have problems if people can get away with doing that! Can't believe your society has really sunk that low that people lassoo brick mailbox columns and pull them down. Sounds like Mad Max out there!

This is why I have an el cheapo 4x4 post with a simple mailbox on the top at my business. A few weeks ago some kids were pushing a stolen Walmart buggy down the sidewalk and decided to pick up the buggy and throw it at my mailbox when they walked by and then ran off. We thought car hit it until I reviewed the footage. Damn kids...

 

[CCTVCam]

If you built something like the middle one without the lamp on top, there's nothing to break.

 

[Sparky19053]

I would REALLY like to have a mailbox camera, but the location of my box is surrounded by concrete with no way to get a cable to it.

Depending on the width of the concrete and your desire to have a cable on the other side it can be done. I recent tunneled two 4" PVC drain pipes under a 48" wide sidewalk. All in all it took us about 2 hours with two of us working at it,. Start with a hole dug about 2' x 2' x 2' deep on each side of the concrete. Then start pulling out the 3/4" modified stone until you can push a conduit under. You could also hammer a piece of steel conduit thru the stone. Utilities use a hydraulically feed ram to push conduits under highways.

 

[Xeddog]

Depending on the width of the concrete and your desire to have a cable on the other side it can be done. I recent tunneled two 4" PVC drain pipes under a 48" wide sidewalk. All in all it took us about 2 hours with two of us working at it,. Start with a hole dug about 2' x 2' x 2' deep on each side of the concrete. Then start pulling out the 3/4" modified stone until you can push a conduit under. You could also hammer a piece of steel conduit thru the stone. Utilities use a hydraulically feed ram to push conduits under highways.

Uh . . . no. (I'm on the right)

 

[reflection]

@Xeddog , Can you squeeze a cable between the concrete edge between you and your neighbor?

 

[MrSurly]

@Xeddog , Can you squeeze a cable between the concrete edge between you and your neighbor?

Exactly my first thought. Second thought is that grey pvc conduit could tuck into the corner of that conveniently square inside corner of the curb, pretty much unnoticed.
Code compliance is not going to be an issue with PoE cable, you could slip it through something even smaller, say... copper or plastic tubing.
Very doable