Learn Me simple home security

Last night my dog wanted to pee at 2:30am, so we walk out the front door. This guy strolls out of my side yard at the same time and walks down my driveway. I greet him with the usual "What the berkeley are you doing?!" and start following. My dog is orbiting him. He's saying something about being sorry and starts jogging down the street. We go back and I check for anything missing. Nothing. He didn't trip the side yard light, and it's quite sensitive, so he didn't even reach the cars.

We live in a safe neighborhood, but we are used as a loose corridor for people that have to walk. I want something to notify me on my phone when this happens again. I'm not gonna go Rambo or anything, I just want to observe and call the cops if necessary.

A motion sensor camera with an app? Maybe a system that is expandable? I know there is a blizzard of products available; what has the hive learned?

I'm not against a deterrent. Maybe an automatic sprinkler? A Nathan Airchime? Actually, that would be hilarious!

Motion-activated lights and cameras would be my go-to.  Don't go light on the light.  Make the guy think he's on the field at a Friday night football game.  Just don't aim the floods in your neighbor's window.

Motion lights, cameras, Great Pyrenees. 

I have Amazon devices in my house, yes I know they are always listening and no, I don't care. Amazon also owns Blink, which makes integrating Blink cameras and cameras with flood lights into my existing ecosystem simple. It's pretty easy to have the doorbell, the floodlights, and some exterior and interior cameras on a single system that you can record locally or to the cloud, get alerts, etc. I am sure the same thing exists for Google and IOS and so on. 

Of course, they are also backed up with a secondary system.

I went with a Eufy setup, mainly because you can use a "home base" that stores the video data locally rather than on the cloud. Note: This doesn't mean the system isn't spying on me and reporting back to (probably) China, it just means that if I need to access the data, it's here at the house so I don't need a connection, plus there's no monthly fee for cloud storage. I also like that they have a wide variety of different types of cameras, indoor and outdoor, doorbell, floodlight, solar, you name it. My system is a mixed bag of different types, but they all talk to the homebase and I can access them all in one app.

i like most of the other peoples suggestions.  maybe the boom stick might be a bit extreme especially one that doesn't have the distinctive Remington 870 sound of chambering a shell.  

a few thoughts:

1. don't obsess over it, too many cameras and too many lights will quickly become either analysis paralysis (you'll spend too much of your time and energy looking at stuff)

2. focus on protecting the assets and assume that folks will get into the space.  This means that you should focus lights / cameras / etc. on the valuable property and do your best to keep said property within specific zones...  I.E. if you garage/shop/etc. is in one section of your yard, put more emphasis of on that spot and less on the other areas.  I say that because small animals probably don't care about your cars / shop and focusing on the things you care about might reduce your false positives.  

too much security quickly turns into ignored security

I use 10 of these. You can't come in the yard without being recorded by at least two of them. 

And a couple of these.

I have recorded several people walking up my driveway to the back of the house. As soon as the light on the cameras comes on they turn around and leave.

Problem solved. 

Interesting ideas. Thanks. Our house only has one way in and out of the rear yard, and I already have a bright LED motion sensor for that area. He didn't trip it, but I bet he was less than 10 from the zone. Had the dog not needed to go out, he would have been hit with the light, and boogied right back out. 

In reply to Toyman! :

I bought a set of three of the Arlo cameras and a base station at Sam's a few years ago. I don't know if I can add any more cameras to the system. The battery life is pretty good on two of the cameras, but one of them had the battery damaged when I hooked the camera up to the included solar panel. I just use two of the cameras, and rotate them when the batteries get low. I also only turn them on at night, unless we're out of town. 

Are your cameras running off of the batteries?

In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :

Anything near a receptacle is plugged in. That's mostly the cameras at the front and back door and the camera on my shop.

The rest are powered by solar panels.  

I also have 4 cameras at my office and 4 cameras at the farm in NC. They all run from the same account. Two at the office are plugged in. The rest are solar. 

You can get cameras that replace light bulbs on Amazon pretty cheap.

They have an app that will alert you whenever it's triggered too, I think you can set it up to turn on the light when it does

Also has a speaker you can talk to them thru, so basically as long as you have service and your house has wifi you are set.

It's been years since I bought one but they were $20ish and worked well when I did

I've got a Newfie, Great Dane and a Maremma.

I also own a backhoe.

In reply to ShawnG :

Curious which one is the most vigilant. Being a Great Pyrenees owner (2nd one) and having dogsat Danes for multiple weeks, I'd guess the Maremma.

Our current house security:

Her current hobbies are eating, sleeping, and farting. 

I have cameras but I'm not sure if the current crop of ne'er do wells give a crap anymore. The other night a couple of guys stole a car from a neighborhood a few miles away from me. While one guy boosted the car (Chrysler 300C) another simply stood in front of the camera showing it the automatic Glock in his hand. Didn't give a damn about the recording, he was using the camera to warn the homeowner he was armed. Motion lights, camera, owner was home, didn't mean jack to what looked like a couple of teenagers.

I've got a fence, a rottweiler mutt and a couple of "Beware of Dog" signs along with the cameras, seems to keep people from wandering so far. I'd suggest adding a fence that is uncomfortable to climb.

I've been very happy with the Blink system that I installed a couple of years ago. We have two of the hardwired floodlight cameras and more than a few of the outdoor wireless cams. They all sync to a module inside the house. I've only had to replace the batteries in the doorbell. You can get notifications and tune in to the camera feeds in real-time, which is what it sounds like you want. The floodlights are damned bright, too.

Don't count on Wi-Fi for camera connections, hard wire the video feed if you can. A group of thieves was caught in my town last summer with a backpack that contained a device to disrupt/block Wi-Fi signals. Apparently it was rather effective against video cameras & doorbells.

In reply to mtn :

The Maremma for sure. He's the most vigilant and ready to defend his property. 

The Dane wants to investigate and then chase down whatever it is. Her prey drive is crazy. She will run after something until she catches it or collapses trying.

The Newfoundland sticks close by the human and makes herself sound very big and scary.

My main security is my pitbull, my Rottweiler, and my 12 gauge. I do have a ring doorbell and ring motion camera powered by a solar panel as extra precaution. All have seemed to work well 

I have the Blink deal. I have had them for over 5 years. Battery life is good, install is very easy, it's not perfect but cost and effort to effectiveness I am very happy. 

In reply to ShawnG :

That's interesting, our Maremma/Poodle while high anxiety in general and afraid of boxes with chase down whatever he thinks is a threat, no matter how scared he is. He's literally 31 inches at the shoulder so I hope that he one day realizes that he's freaking huge.

Our other dog is mostly English Mastiff with some German Shepherd, Caucasian Shepherd, Staffordshire mixed in and while protective he isn't quite as ....insane about it

ClearWaterMS said:

i like most of the other peoples suggestions.  maybe the boom stick might be a bit extreme especially one that doesn't have the distinctive Remington 870 sound of chambering a shell.  

Racking a shotgun is berking stupid. It's your home, you know the layout and they don't know you're there yet. You give up every advantage you had.

Firearms are to protect life, not property. They are serious business.

Don't count on that noise scaring them away. You bring a firearm into play you a severely upping the stakes. Don't ever use a fake gun, or blanks, or try to bluff with an empty gun. No half measures. Understand that that device has one purpose and one purpose only: To kill human beings.

Set yourself up in a position, a choke point if possible. be aware of what is behind you in case it becomes a two way range.

Call out, tell them you are armed, tell them the police are on the way. Tell them to leave. Allow them to leave. Do not go after them. Protect lives, not property.

If they take one step towards you or yours. Do not tell them to put their hands up, do not tell them to freeze. End them.

Do not buy a meme gun. To not decorate your gun with punisher skulls or moron labia stickers. Do not cover you gun with tacticool accessories. Your gun may well end up with an exhibit A tag on it being held by a man in a 5 figure suit trying to makeyou look like the bad guy. Do not help them.

If you own a gun. Lock it up. If you own a gun make sure you own an IFAK. If you own a gun make sure you use it. Frequently. You need to be at a range training at least once a month. Don't just buy it, stick it in a drawer and assume you're good.

Even though cameras have improved in quality and gone down in price over the years I still see them as a secondary feature to a home security system.  It should monitor door entry, glass break and/or motion sensors inside the house, as well as connections to smoke detectors and CO monitors.  Other useful features are low temperature alarms and floor flooding sensors.  It should be remotely monitored, you may not be home when a breakin occurs or you may be incapacitated by smoke from a fire.  You can usually get a discount on your insurance, too.

Cameras will show you nice pictures of people carrying away your valuables, but the chances of being able to identify them from the video are pretty small.

Selective exterior lighting is good, but you don't need to light the place up with a million candlepower.  Opinions are mixed on whether it should be on from dusk to dawn, or controlled by motion sensors, personally I have a small light on all night over the front and rear doors.  Make sure they aren't annoying your neighbors and shining in their bedroom windows.

It's inevitable that in every discussion about home security, someone will post a picture of a gun and someone else will post a picture of a dog.  Unless you never take your dog with you (and most people seem to take their dogs everywhere) it won't do you any good if you're not home.  Same with the gun.  And as AClockworkOrange said, waiting to rack a shotgun gives away your advantage, just because they do it in the movies doesn't mean it's good procedure. If you're counting on it to chase people away, you may as well just have a recording of the sound on your phone and play that.  And like he said, they're for protecting life, not property.

So far I'm liking the Blink system. Eufy makes too many other products. Arlo has too many products and their website is annoying.

Home security has layers of meaning. I'm not fearing for my life, I have little risk of theft, but I would like to know if some rando is around the house. I suppose I would like to maintain my level of privacy.

The guy down the street is the one with multiple cameras on the house and trees, and signs showing guns and threats at the front door. That's so not me.

I was fortunate to visit the fancy part of Johannesburg and all the houses had 440A electrified fence on top of stone walls and security guys with guns and cars at the gate. Everything says "stay away." If I lived there I would have no electric fence and the gate would be open. It would become known as "the one you don't come out of."  Lol