Security again

[Bob Eager]

This is d-i-y related in the sense that I will end up doing the work...

I've just installed a camera which covers the immediate vicinity of my house, at the front. This is to try and see the scrotes who keep vandalising my car, my wife's car and several others in the street (we don't have off-street parking but in any case, people up the road suffer and they park in driveways). They do this on Friday and Saturday nights, on the way back from pubs and clubs.

Leaving the DPA aside...done to death in another thread!

OK, I can see them (and can hear general noise but nothing specific). I have good lighting.

Now, I have my doubts that the plod will rush over to my place if I see someone and call them....be nice if they did, but... I can clearly confront them (probably not wise).

What else have people done in this situation? I'm talking equipmwent, precautions, and yes...what to do if I actually see something. I coiuld always switch on a large floodlight and set off a siren as they touch the car, but...????

[Huge]

[17 lines snipped]

Tell plod you can see a gun...

[Aden]

IMHO letting them know you have surveilance on them makes them do it all the more, if you gather enough evidence over a period of time and rally round the Neighbours for a petition then get in touch with your local councillor he will advise you on this matter. Incidently a B/W Camera is the best option for night time work because the colour Camera fails at night poorly.

Aden

[Bob Eager]

Really? Have you experienced this?

Yes, that's what I thought. The camera works nicely down to 0.1 lux.

[Dave Stanton]

If they can see the camera, they might decide its more fun to heave bricks at that and not your cars !

Dave

[T i m]

[T] Well, a mate caught some 17 year old 'herbert' trying to break into his garage .. he gave him a couple of slaps and told him to tell his Dad and / or the Police if he wanted .. didn't see / hear him about again? As a Policeman friend said (off record) "The public are going to have to look after themselves .." d.i.y. Policing?

[T] Indeed ... if you have *something* you have something to loose (car / house windows etc). 'They' often have little therefore less to loose?

Another mate had a local 'lad' insult his wheelchair bound mother (for no reason) and when he suggested that it wasn't a nice thing to do the 'lad' went round the back and kicked a hole in my mates fence? Luckily, the lads trainer got caught in the fence panel and another neighbour ran out the lad ran off and he grabbed the trainer. My mate confronted the lads Mum who said 'what did you expect, you upset him when you told him off, can he have his trainer back ..?"

So he called the Police, they came over, the lad was arrested and the Policeman said "do you want us to charge the lad and if we do are you willing to give evidence in court if needed"? "Yes" replied my mate and apparently the Policeman was surprised that someone was willing to follow it up?

I asked my mate if he was concerned about 'comeback' from the lad etc ..?

His reply ..

"I'd rather rather live on my feet than die on my knees .."

All the best ..

T i m

p.s. The lad got a good telling off (and a night in the nick) and has kept his distance ever since?

[Martin]

Yes we have, it got so bad that we moved. Kids are a bigger threat than adults because they really do have nothing to loose.

[Bob Eager]

The camera is covert, and inside the house...

[Parish]

When the parents don't understand the difference between right and wrong, what hope is there for the kids?

A friend who works for the Local Education Authority was telling me of a letter they had received from the parents of a (primary) schoolchild in reply to a letter from them enquiring why the child had been absent from school for several weeks without explanation. The reason was that the teacher had made the child stand in the corner for being naughty and that this was embarrassing, humiliating, and degrading so the parents were not going to send the child to that school again!!!! The fact that the child was misbehaving obviously didn't enter in to it. What are teachers supposed to do with naughty kids? give 'em a bag of sweets? In my day (that's the "good old days" of course) you got yer backside tanned.

Regards,

Parish

[Michael McNeil]

If you can't get enough hefty friends and neighbours handy to deal the much needed, an airgun and an alibi would work well enough. Get rid of the evidence pronto though.

[Michael Mcneil]

Bear in mind the enemy will be dysfunctional -drunk, guilty, caught and shamed and not want to do more than run away if given enough room. If you corner them they will fight. That's why if you have enough heavy friends to catch them they MUST be soundly thrashed. Threats are worse than no good.

[Seri]

It has to be said, saying you can see a gun will get them round within minutes, sirens 'a blazing', but if you take this approach I recommend going into a mobile phone store and buying a pay-as-you-go sim card to make the call with.

Alternatively, you could just get yourself a 'soft air pistol', replacing the spring with a 'much' higher rated one, then just wait for them to come and take pot shots at them. Relatively illegal but I can't imagine ballistics forensics having much luck tracing a 'toy'.

From my own experiences, there's nothing you can say or do within the law that will make an easy quick fix for you. If you tackle this using the 'right' paths, then spend time gathering a much indisputable information against the vandals as possible then seek independant legal advice.

[Dave Liquorice]

"high jinks" and pissed as farts no doubt.

They'll be to busy trying to control the fights outside the pubs/clubs mentioned above. However it might be worth having a word with your local crime prevention officer or beat bobby (if you have one, big if...). And see if they can't quietly watch the street at the relevant time and "have a word" with anyone they see behaving with rather to many "high spirits". I suspect that these scrotes are normally law abiding citizens and a word from the law may well stop it.

[fred]

In article , Bob Eager writes

My car alarm has a radar space sensor which has inside and outside range zones. Outside zone is set up to sound a little 'I know you're there' beep inside the car. Something like this linked to a transmitter in the car could warn you in the house that scallys are around your car late at night. I know it's a long shot, but it sounds like you're in a spot.

The unit is made by Microscan and was available on it's own to add to an existing alarm. Not to be mistaken for the voice warning proximity system made by the same outfit which would be more likely to get your car trashed than anything else I can think of ;-)

[Dave Liquorice]

These days a *very* good question. About all they can do is have a "nice little chat". WTF use is that with a persistently disruptive child?

And for most kids only once, if at all.

[Bob Eager]

Sounds useful - but in fact I can tell they're there easily enough. I've heard 'high jinks' shouting in the past - I can now hear that inside more easily due to a small mike on the outside. That's enough to claim my attention and look at the camera output.

The problem is what to do next...

[Bob Eager]

Indeed.

I'm going to ask about seeing the CPO tomorrow.

Yes, that's my feeling. They aren't kids, either...more 'yoofs'!!

[Steve Firth]

Why? It's a perfectly reasonable thing to say. Of course, when the police have attended it turns out that you made a mistake. Oh dear, silly me, it certainly *looked* like a gun at the time.

[T i m]

[T] Indeed. Did you see that thing on telly the other day where a bloke (old school, well to do) was being turned over when he disturbed them and they ran / drove away. To remind them 'not to come back' (for the Nth time) he fired his shotgun in the air.

He had one visit from the Police re the break-in and NINE visits relating to his missuse of the shotgun ..? (and they didn't get any of the gear back from any of the break-in's ..)

All the best ..

T i m

[Sam Nelson]

A gun thread, on uk.d-i-y?

Which is of course as it should be. He clearly had no justification whatsoever for his use of his firearm.