CCTV

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Wheels

Julian Keeler
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This morning my mum and dad who are both in their 70s heard a noise in the hall while they were in the kitchen, assuming the wind had blown the front window shut my mum went in to see if it was that, she got in the front room and it was ok so she went to open the door into their hall way only to be confronted by a man who had let himself into their house, mum and dad ended up wrestling this ****** in the hall and some how managed to get him out of the front door and lock the door while my mum rang the police, then she saw my dad who has a heart condition turning grey and holding his chest, so an ambulance and the police turned up in less than 5 mins whilst the ambulance saw to my dad the police went looking for this person.

To cut a long story short can anyone recommend a way of setting a cctv up to a pc, my dads friend said he can have his old pc and then he can get cameras that are motion activated using software on the pc and record any movements on the pc as and avi file. I have said I will sort it out but having never done this before I have done some googling but coming up with allsorts of methods. Is this way that has been said recommended??
 
I did this a long time ago, cant remember the software, however the setup I had was only for 1 camera.

However what I found was Windows XP would run rather slow at times and sometimes crashed. The solution I found was to use a different operating system (Linux) its open source and is available for download.

a quick google search came up with Motion.

Anyways hope this helps.
 
Numberous ways of doing this, from the cheap £10 webcam and long cable + software, to a £1000 budget and standalone system. What kinda budget you looking at? And how many cameras do you want?
 
Thanks Sammy the OS is XP there is no monitor with it but they are 10 a penny for an old 1. I also came up with Motion whilst googleing.
 
That's an awful thing to happen - however CCTV will only capture what has already happened.

I would concentrate more on the security of the house.

Hope everyone is OK.
 
sorry to hear this mate

however my money would be spent on security and keeping the bastads out

they only need to wear hoodies etc and all your CCTV money has been wasted
 
Ali I am looking for 2 cameras possibly 3, and its a shoe string budget I have 2 webcams but It means wires trailing round the house to where I suggested the pc was located. I know what you mean Spencer the house is normally secure at the front it was only for the fact my dad had just been in to their garage and came in without locking the front door which is normally locked 99% of the time. This is purely for peace of mind for them and us.
 
Ok, well you could link 2/3 webcams to a pc and record to that. I have seen some CCTV cameras with SD slots in- so a 8gb card (motion activated) would probably keep 7days+ worth on it- talking more like £70 a camera then though. Also- webcams and cheapy cctv are pretty useless in the dark, unless you get one that has an additional sensor for darkness
 
Where they live at the front is just a wooded area no houses so at night it is pitch black, in 40 years of living at this house this is the 1st time anything remotely like this has happened. I have found some reasonable priced IR webcams not sure what the pic quality will be like though.
 
mrgas said:
sorry to hear this mate

however my money would be spent on security and keeping the bastads out

they only need to wear hoodies etc and all your CCTV money has been wasted
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:agree:

That's awful Julian, Hope your mum and dads ok, and keeping the doors locked in future, we often leave ours open so its a lesson to us all
 
Julian, Sorry to hear about that, these scum bags need to be locked up!!

Any ideas how they got into the house? Do your parents have UPVC double glazing?
 
Dad had just been in the garage and walked back in the front door and forgot to lock it as normal, all UPVC windows and doors all round.
 
Cameras wouldn't stop this situation happening again. The money would be better spent on better/different locks and, even then, it's down to your father using them.
 
Yeah I know John, I agree he just said it slipped his mind, and with it never happening before it never entered his head.
 
Julian

I hope your Mum and Dad are both ok and that the experience doesn't seriously affect them and make them scared. These type of scum won't necessarily be put off by cctv. A good alarm with a panic button would probably do more good as they don't like attention being drawn to them and the noise would do that.
We have cctv at work and have been broken into once. The scum parked under the camera on the next factory so we new how many there were and what they were driving but the cctv was useless as they held torches up by their heads when they approached the areas with cctv so flared it out making identification impossible. Best advice is keep them out in the first place. Brambles around the garden. Keep hedges low so passers by can see your property etc.

I had a rally car that I used as my normal daytime run around as well as competition. Because it was covered in signwriting, the scum kept trying to steal it. I got fed up with replacing steering locks etc and ended up just fitting a hidden switch in the fuel pump supply. The car had enough fuel pressure for them to start it and get say 30 feet then it would cut out in the middle of the road. When this happened, they just jumped out and scarpered as it drew attention to them. Same principle really.

Sorry for the long winded bit but to summerize, My experience of cctv is that it is poor.
 
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CCTV is not that mutch use sorry to say unless you have quite a large budget to do it properly.

I can suggest though for peace of mind and security investing in a air rifle or something like that. Doesnt even have to be loaded, i know someone who had the same sort of thing and when they came down the hall with that baby the intruder was soon out.

Waits for Rob to mock the air rifle and suggest bigger fire power:nuts:

On a serious note though because there quite old see how much it would be to have a panic button installed thats linked to the police. I know someone near me has one as she hit it one day by mistake and police were at the property in minutes.
 
Oh just another thought re-UPVC door locks.

Just had a leaflet delivered at work saying that cheap standard locks are easy to get through. Aparently they are easy to break in half by stuffing something in them and levering down on them. The leaflet suggested fitting higher quality police approved ones which are more resilient.
 
The plodds that attended were brill with mum n dad and mum thinks they mentioned something about a button, they are waiting for someone from victim support to contact them and they will help with more locks etc and advice.
 
Wheels said:
The plodds that attended were brill with mum n dad and mum thinks they mentioned something about a button, they are waiting for someone from victim support to contact them and they will help with more locks etc and advice.
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Thats good then at least if it was here then because we are in the countryside the police would most likely have not bothered to come out for a good few hours if the criminal had gone.

Another idea is are you parents interested in a dog ? ive seen some german shepards that to the owners and people are loverly and wouldn't hurt anyone but when told to attack they are vicious as hell.
 
They dont want another dog I mentioned it to them today, they cant do a lot of walking so it wouldnt be fair on a dog. Plus its over 20 years since they last had a dog.
 
Just make sure they double lock from now on, even if they're inside the house! We had a similar thing happen last week to someone down out street. Apparently, UPVC doors are easy to get into if not double locked! :(
 
Y15HAL said:
Just make sure they double lock from now on, even if they're inside the house! We had a similar thing happen last week to someone down out street. Apparently, UPVC doors are easy to get into if not double locked! :(
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I have sent dad 3 texts tonight making sure all secure and it is.
 
Thats cool then, but even during the day.....the incident i'm talking about happened at 5pm! Whats the world coming to????! :thumbsdown::cuckoo::shake:
 
If they don't want another Dog, what about a few Geese. They are Nasty beggars to everyone who doesn't own (regularily feed ) them. They would also provide fresh eggs !!!

Downside is Geese droppings and some noise.
 
Y15HAL said:
Just make sure they double lock from now on, even if they're inside the house! We had a similar thing happen last week to someone down out street. Apparently, UPVC doors are easy to get into if not double locked! :(
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If I am in I always leave the key in the inside lock and half turn it as I have found that you can't put a key fully into the outside lock if the inside lock has a key in it. This might help prevent 'lock bumping' (look it up on youtube) bit worrying really.
 
That must have been awful! Bloody scum and I bet the little **** is claiming benefits and this is how they say thanks? :(

I've also seen how they can use mole grips to simply rip the whole lock section out and switch the lever across. Thing is, if they want in they'll get in.

Although protecting against lock bumping is essential as your insurance probably won't pay out as there won't be any sign of forced entry.

As for safety, pretty scary if this was the only time he forgot to lock the door - either this guy was waiting and watching for quite some time or was just an opportunist and your parents got very unlucky.

I'd change the locks on the front and back door as newer locks will probably be bump proof. It's only a 5 min job to change a lock.

Something like this (below) would certainly make someone think twice - even if they don't see a dog it doesn't mean a great big angry one isn't sitting around somewhere. Only cost a few quid as well :)

bewarexing.gif
 
Hi Julian first off I would change the front door handle from the normal supplied lever/lever handle combination to lever/pad handles what this would mean is that once the door is closed it can't be opened from the outside without a key, normal service from the inside it just means the outside part of the bar is cut or will not connect to the lock mechanism.

You can get a dedicated cctv from the police in some cases and they will fund it, it's worth checking out.

Hope this helps matey :thumbs:
 
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