Very Small Cameras to cover barns

[warren5421]

I need some small cameras to put around the out buildings. I keep having gas taken and also the cameras covering the buildings with the gas. I need some small cameras easy to hide as the ones I use are to big. I can't set traps as the state has laws against the use of traps for humans. Insurance would not like the gas can turning into a fire ball and burning down the barn.

[Hannibal]

Put the cameras inside something that looks like it belongs there, like a birdhouse or plastic oil bottle. Also helps if you place cameras to watch the cameras.

[Scorpion8]

Also put up- broken or dummy cameras so those nefarious varmints won't know what is real or not. Old dead game cameras are perfect. And wire a small 9V battery to a red LED to make it look active.

[farmbif]

if you have a cell phone and wifi, the Reolink cameras for about $70 will make your phone ring or make some other noise to alert you and display in real time every time something walks in front of it. while at the same time recording to a tiny memory card and is maintain ace free having a small solar panel to keep it charged. and unlike other brands you dont have to pay any monthly or yearly fees to sign up to a service to activate, set it up and use cloud memory. other than that there are all sorts of camouflaged game cameras. I saw some on a neighbors property that blended into the tree �� bark that they are nearly impossible to spot unless you are very close to it these ones are probably very expensive and they have antennas so they probably work with cell signal as well as recording to a chip which makes sense because those folks spent millions building on their property.
ii like the idea of putting up lots of cameras for people to see, some can be dummy and some can be active.
ii got the Reolink thinking that it would be perfect because it records to a chip but the auto messaging and viewing on phone turned out to work extremely well for less than the cost of a decent trail/game camera

[firefly1957]

I hate to say it but with people getting used to wearing masks criminals put them on and could care less about cameras .
I hard wired a alarm to my car because of gas theft once I caught the kid kept his gas can. He believed I was crazy so he spread the word around town and I had less trouble for the next few years .
I do not know what is expensive to you some systems and 4 or more cameras do not cost a lot . I have a night owl system with 8 cameras it records for 25-35 days then starts writing over old video . It is 7 years old now everything is hard wired I did it myself.

[Snakeoil]

"He believed I was crazy so he spread the word around town and I had less trouble for the next few years."

The "crazy factor" cannot be understated. Kids know that the cops hands are tied. If they have already been in trouble with the police, they probably have zero fear. But if you make them believe that you'll put them in your wood chipper, chances are, they will never bother you again. My buddy Dave had a similar conversation with some kids that were doing just silly destructive things like destroying mailboxes. Dave saw them out one day after they'd hit his box. He's a big feller and never smiles. He told them that they were personally responsible for the wellbeing of his mailboxes from now on. Doesn't matter if a car hits it or a tornado tears it out of the ground. He's coming for them, regardless. Told them he never calls the cops. His way works better and he never has to do it twice. Said he watched the color leave the kids' faces. He just walked away. Pretty much all the problems in the area came to a halt.

[HWooldridge]

"He believed I was crazy so he spread the word around town and I had less trouble for the next few years."

The "crazy factor" cannot be understated. Kids know that the cops hands are tied. If they have already been in trouble with the police, they probably have zero fear. But if you make them believe that you'll put them in your wood chipper, chances are, they will never bother you again. My buddy Dave had a similar conversation with some kids that were doing just silly destructive things like destroying mailboxes. Dave saw them out one day after they'd hit his box. He's a big feller and never smiles. He told them that they were personally responsible for the wellbeing of his mailboxes from now on. Doesn't matter if a car hits it or a tornado tears it out of the ground. He's coming for them, regardless. Told them he never calls the cops. His way works better and he never has to do it twice. Said he watched the color leave the kids' faces. He just walked away. Pretty much all the problems in the area came to a halt.

When my sons were in middle and high school, they told their friends not to come around our house after dark, because dad didn't have the best eyesight in the world and generally shot first then asked questions later. Unfortunately, we now have a new middle school directly across from our house and my kids are long gone from home - I'm concerned about the new crop wandering in when they should be elsewhere.

[jsizemore]

I put a trail camera 12' up a tree beside the shed. Caught 2 different vehicles come and go. Gave the local police the tag numbers. Police said one was a known thief and got put in jail by the county sheriff and recovered items from his stash house. The other I saw drive by while I was eating breakfast outside at the local grill during the covid thing. Chased him to the next county. His excuse was he was looking for the fella that leases the pasture who wasn't there when he visited. It shouldn't have taken 10 minutes to find he wasn't around. He's never returned. It's also helped me pattern varmints who come to visit.

[jonp]

Cell game camera's. I caught a guy on my lease who had walked by a couple of No Trespassing signs from 800miles away. Saw him and the next time I was up that way I saw him again near there and told him I had him on camera. Next time he stepped foot near my place I'd press trespassing charges and have him banned from the entire property. He blustered a bit but 1 yr later he hasn't come back

[Gator 45/70]

I use Spy-point flex cameras, Sends the pictures to the phone with-in minutes also has GPS features that's accurate within 30 feet.

Not associated with them at all but there you have it.

[Land Owner]

What thieves in the night want the least are lights, cameras, and noise. There are quite a few DIY noisemaker boobytraps on the Net. Some cost a penny or two (tripwire & machined metal firing a primer). Others are free (tripwire mouse trap firing a primer or firecracker). The report of a boobytrap in the dead of night is probably both startling and loud. Coupled with motion detection, lights ON, and concealed trail cameras with "black flash" IR (no white or red light), a few strategically placed tripwire noisemakers could be a part of your "wakeup alarm" and theft deterrent system.

I also recently bought four (4) Hawkray Trail Cameras, 30Mp, 0.2 to 0.6 sec trigger, black flash IR, includes 32 GB micro-SD card, and four (4) AAA batteries, now under $40 ea. They are small, hand sized trail cameras, mini-versions of the larger format trail cameras, and more easily concealed. Read the good and bad reviews. Mine are all 5 out of 5. Overall, the Net says 4.5. Nothing is perfect. ymmv.

[GhostHawk]

I was having some problems with things "walking off" my property.

A year ago I put up a couple of these. One on the garage, one on the back porch roof. Because they are Solar there is no wiring involved.
No more troubles.

I like that they have different "modes"

Such as a dim glow at night until motion is detected, then it flashes to bright for 30 seconds.
I also have one in my dinning room window on S side of the house.
Its mode leaves off the dim glow. Just flashes on the high beams when motion is detected.

You can't leave my kitchen without tripping it.

Handy at night for when I take my final walk around the house, securing doors, ensuring basement is quiet, lights all off. Gives just enough light to let me navigate safely.

Ohh and anyone invading my home at night is going to be caught like a deer in the headlight. While I hide back in the hallway in the darkness with a perfect illuminated target.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077BFM2W5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm a firm believer that if you are ready for Murphy he picks on someone else.

[Somebody]

Why are your current cameras too small to use? Visible cameras can have a deterring effect that hidden ones cannot. If you are worried about the cameras being disabled after being sighted, there are plenty of cameras that operate on cell networks with cloud storage.

[firefly1957]

Last week in the morning I took the dog for a walk in the snow I could see someone had pulled in drive about 100 feet then backed out .
Checking the security cameras I found at 2 am the guy (S) pull in passenger gets out and it looks like he has a night vision optic he holds up to his face .I assume this from the glow it made so he must have had the I R light on. He hops back in and they back out no lights no break lights either . In the snow I found what looks like some rusted rocker panel with a dark blue paint from when the door opened or closed.
I am guessing he saw the light from my cameras and went down the road ? I called the neighbor a 1/4 mile down and he was out in his sun room because of back pain and not being able to sleep . Says they had a loud muffler and went by real slow with no lights on .
It is getting worse out there as people use up any savings they may have had.

[gc45]

fill the gas cans, then add one pound of sugar to each can and mix..

[farmbif]

just this week I saw some ads for a couple new cameras that Reolink has come out with. the ones I have that a a couple years old and are fantastic, no extra cloud membership or connection fees. one of each of these newest cameras are definitely on my "to buy" list. from the ads I saw I'm guessing they were designed to catch details like clear facial features and easy to read license plates in daylight or night time.

[Froogal]

Electric fence placed about 2 feet or so above the ground.

If you live where you can do it, some regular target shooting will make the thieves a bit skitish.

[racepres]

Electric fence placed about 2 feet or so above the ground.

If you live where you can do it, some regular target shooting will make the thieves a bit skitish.
Target shooting is Best... leave some targets up, and if still problems... signs warning that "You are Entering an Active Target Range"
maybe even something about Night Training!!!! All In our little Corner of the County, know who Shoots!!!!

[kerplode]

So you get a grainy video, then what?

Even if you capture clear pictures of people's faces, the cops ain't gonna do **** about it.

Welcome to the new Uhmerikkah.

[MaryB]

I m a night owl, some out of town kids were raising hell until they came around the corner baseball bat out to smash my mailbox... I was standing there with my AR-15... they slammed on the brakes and headed for the other end of town, I had called 2 friends to watch for them and they were outside armed too. Sent a message and no trouble for a couple years. Sheriff/deputies are generally 45+ minutes away...

[kerplode]

You can't use lethal force to defend property...Those doing the stealing aren't necessarily constrained by those same rules.

The people doing these kinds of crimes around here are more likely to just open fire on you if you confront them then they are to run away. Charging out into the night in your undies to scare them away is a dangerous proposition.

They can shoot you dead and they'll be back out on the street before your corpse even makes it to the morgue...Assuming they even get caught at all.

[popper]

looked at the Reolink stuff yesterday, seems good but can't download a manual to see how it really works. Don't want to dig the old router out of the closet. Don't want a phone app, just use my computer wifi & browser. Don't know it the rotation or zoom is app controlled or not.

[Electrod47]

Also put up- broken or dummy cameras so those nefarious varmints won't know what is real or not. Old dead game cameras are perfect. And wire a small 9V battery to a red LED to make it look active.

I always save my dead cameras for just that. Keep em discombobulated. Plus on ebay there are a hundred fake CHEAP camera gizmo's to worry even the most die hard.

[warren5421]

I took an dissolved a Hershey's Bar with gas, put it in a 2 gal can of gas and left it by the tractor. It was gone the next morning, have not had any problems since. What ever they put the gas in lost it's motor as Hershey's is bad on motors. Will lock them up tight.

[Rickf1985]

I can tell you that the Hersheys bar did nothing to the motor. I have been a master mechanic for 50 years and I can't tell you how many cars I had in the shop with sugar in the tank. You want to know the extent of the damage? And this was weeks to months after the sugar was added, a clogged fuel filter. And a rinse out of the tank to prevent future clogged filters. Sugar is water soluble but does absolutely nothing in gasoline. It lays in the bottom of the tank just like sand. The smart vandals would get the filings from brake lathes and put that in the oil. Put enough in and it clogs the filter which then bypasses and the rest of the filings go through the bearings.

But back to the original post. Do you really want to try to catch these people or just stop it from happening? If you put something in there like the SimpliSafe system where the cameras are lit and visible then people will think twice about entering because they know they have been seen and the cops are probably on the way. This avoids confrontation and ends the problem. They will looks elsewhere for gas after that.

[ulav8r]

A couple of coworkers put a bar of soap in another's gas tank. The car just barely ran for less than a day before he had to put it in the shop. Not sure what it took to get it running.

[firefly1957]

Where the car stopped and someone got out and used a night vision device probably looking for cameras I found some badly rusted car sheet metal . I do not know if it was the bottom of the door or the rocker panel under the door Dark Blue Metallic paint was the color .
Found out a neighbor down the road herd them go by real slow no lights . They must be well prepped for this as no backup lights or brake lights when they backed out of drive . In town near here many people are having holes drilled in their car/truck gas tanks to drain gas one lady was at work in daytime when they did it to her.
Last Time I heard of this much gas theft and drilling gas tanks obama was in office!

[Rickf1985]

They can afford night vision but need to steal gas? That is fine, if they see the cameras they know they have been seen and will move on. Be sure to have well hidden cameras close t the road to get a good description of the car. Sounds a lot to me like the law really does not care out that way.

[Gator 45/70]

The battery operated night vision cameras don't show up worth spit with a thermal scope, only the hard wired cameras glow fairly well.

[firefly1957]

Just a guess but I suspect it was some kind of cheap night vision device or they could have turned off the illumination.
My night owl cameras have a glow all the time I did not have the trail cam out near the road as usual .
I have a $200 night vision device and it lets me turn on and select level of illumination at startup .

This county has little law enforcement the vast majority are jail or court guards it is rare to have more then two police cars on the road at anytime .

[45_Colt]

If I am not mistaken a cell phone camera will easily pick up the IR LEDS in trail cams and such.

45_Colt

[alfadan]

Fill half the jug with water and top off with gas.

[technojock]

I have 2 Wyze brand cameras I bought off Amazon. I plan to add a 3rd one but that's to get a better idea of what the 4 legged varmints are doing. They're hard wired for power but connect to my internet router for signal and store the videos on their cloud network. Then I can view them on my phone or tablet...

I let it be known to the neighbor that was causing the problem and hinted that I was looking forward to ambushing the gas thieves with a shotgun. I also put a mean looking locking gas door on my Chevy truck. For the past year or so they've left me alone...

Some years back Myth Busters did a segment on things that will screw up an engine and most were BS. If you want to go that rout, it would be worthwhile to look that episode up...

Tony

[warren5421]

What I would like is 2 cans of valve grinding compound in the gas and the dip not have a filter on the gas line. His motor blew because he ran it without oil ,it went the same time as my gas went missing, ie. Hershey's Bar.

[.45Cole]

Couple fronts-

for gasoline you can take two approaches, make the engine run poorly or try to over-pressure the head. The second is probably a slippery slope. Mixing diesel or peanut oil in gas will cause a pretty inefficient burn, as would a paraffin candle or just plain water. This would probably stop an engine or put it in a heavy limp. No real damage. To overpressure an engine could be catastrophic. If you salt the fuel they could come back and pour that fuel into your vehicles or worst - make their own mix.

I used arlo, it sends push notifications to your phone with ~5sec video. At night arlo uses IR so will pick up their IR sources. Can be made to trip on sound or motion and has sensitivities. Paired with an app called IFTT you can turn your smart systems into a "if this then that" statement. Example: I have simple smart 120V relays for household plugs (like $20 on ebay) and hive I think smart garden hose valve. I set an arlo camera on a patch of ground frequented by skunks with the relay on a work light and a sprinkler pointed at the entrance. IFTT was set to [IF arlo motion detected on camera #3 THEN turn on sprinkler AND turn on light] plus a timer [IF light turned on THEN turn off light AND sprinkler after 2 minutes]. With the smart outlets and hose valves you can get pretty clever. Turning on lights, stereos, hoses for air to actuate tons of stuff, water sprinklers, ect. Key is to be offputting enough to make the next guy down the road a better target while not offputting enough to instigate retaliation.