Racism Sucks & Security Camera Recommendations

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We are the only family of a certain skin color in my neighborhood. As much as I work to keep the yard looking nice, it never fails that others around here find it necessary to throw trash either on the side of the road in front of the house or onto the yard itself. NOBODY else around here has to deal with garbage being thrown onto their property. Then, today, someone threw eggs at the house. I believe I got a look at the POSs this evening who did this, as they were outside with some type of "toy" gun that appeared to automatically fire off projectiles. It was dark, so I only got a glimpse of it with light from the streetlight. I'm sure nobody else here had their home shot up with eggs, only us, and no doubt it is because of our skin color. I made some decent money last week, which I was hoping to pay down on my credit card. Instead, I am now going to take my extra money and buy some security cameras. I figure two for up front, one for the side door/carport area, and one for the back. I would appreciate any recommendations. I would like something that is easy-to-install/use. I do not want to deal with having to wire something in, if it can be helped.

There is the truth.
Then there is the right thing to say.


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2024 03:02AM by ServiceAward.

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Sorry to hear that you have to put up with that in your neighborhood. Hopefully, it doesn't lead to something worse. Unfortunately, I don't have any experience or can provide any recommendations. The closest thing I purchased was a dashcam for my car. I'll be following this thread for recommendations, as well.

I'm one of the few in my neighborhood who doesn't have any cameras. Some of my neighbors also have motion-sensor lights that run during the night. I thought about getting a doorbell camera because I receive a lot of deliveries and door-to-door solicitors, but I would have to get someone to install it for me. I'm not handy like that with the house and cars.

Fortunately, my neighborhood is pretty safe. The biggest crime in our neighborhood is the curious incident of the whose dog pooped on my front lawn, and speeding.
So, I hate them, but I have Blink. But it is not a continuous stream. It is motion sensored, and it misses things. I have neighbors with cameras. And my neighbors are cool. If you have cool neighbors you could ask if they have any footage you could check.
Wanna borrow my pressure washer? Eggs are tough to get off, especially after they've started drying.

I have a camera set up, 4 cams, all the wires, plus an extra 100 ft wire for extension for each camera. Brand new in the box, my son won't set it up, but he's the one that thought we needed surveillance. But my house is far enough away from the road, and the driveway gate, that cameras on the house won't tell me what happened at the gate anyway.

I've been the subject of harassment by city officials, but not because of the color of my skin. People just naturally hate me, it seems. the city animal control (yes, I said city) decided randomly that my pit bull was vicious, and it all went down hill from there. There is a story there, but it's a long one. Otis wasn't vicious, he was a couch potato that never met a stranger. Animal control started coming to my house and peering in the front windows to find things to cite me for. When I got an attorney to send them a letter they got sneakier. The City code enforcement started sending me warnings about things that hadn't changed since long before I bought the house. So I corrected those things, so they cited me for bigger and more expensive things. And the parking police made a special stop at my house on trash day, I got cited if I parked my car at the curb, and I got cited if I parked my car on the dirt next to the driveway. So I was screwed no matter which way it happened. The parking fine was less expensive though, and I didn't have to pay it until it was time to renew the tags. Toward the end code enforcement would drive past my house at least once every day, park across the street and walk past my house to check for things they could write up. Twice the fines on the house kept me from refinancing, though I did get one home equity loan to go through, but most of it went to paying off the liens. And they tried to keep me from selling the house so I could leave too. I think the new owners or the escrow company got an attorney after them.

I don't know the cure. Cops in small towns, especially in the South, aren't going stop them, so getting the cops involved is more likely to get someone hurt than not. I'm sorry I can't be more than moral support.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2024 09:38AM by Morledzep.
@nolimitem wrote:

So, I hate them, but I have Blink. But it is not a continuous stream. It is motion sensored, and it misses things. I have neighbors with cameras. And my neighbors are cool. If you have cool neighbors you could ask if they have any footage you could check.

Sadly, I am quite sure it is my neighbors who are the problem. Of the 6 or 7 families closest to me, all but 2 have kids. That's the houses on either side of me. Once I'm sure doesn't have any cameras as they've not had AC in over a year. The other lady is just plain rude, won't speak, etc. She does not cause no problems, but she does not like my mom.

About 15 years ago mom hired a guy to trim the maple tree in the front yard. The guy did not come on the day he was supposed to, and didn't call either. She called to see what was going on, and never reached him. Then on a Sunday a couple of weeks later, when family was here celebrating a birthday, the man and his 3 big trucks showed up, demanding all the cars be moved so he could cut the tree. Mom told him no way, they would have to make other arrangements. There was a party going on and he had not made any effort to contact her about why he did not show up the first time. Mom was leaving the next day to come visit me for three weeks, so she told him she would call him when she got back to town to set up a new date and time for him to come. While mom was at my place, the man showed up here and scalped the tree. Of course, she had no idea he had done this until she got back home. A few days after she came home, a city inspector showed up and berated her for placing her tree debris on the aforementioned neighbor's property. Mom had no idea what he was talking about. It turned out the tree contractor, instead of hauling off the debris which he had been paid to do, put the debris at the front edge of the next door neighbor's house. It had already been hauled off by the city by the time mom got home, which is why she didn't know anything about this. The neighbor called the city when all this went on, which is why the inspector paid her a visit. Ever since, the neighbor has had a snotty attitude. Mom attempted to apologize for the mishap several times, but the woman would not even look at her. She is downright racist. I still do the right thing despite it.

One day I saw someone in her backyard snooping around when her car was gone. I knew they were not supposed to be there, so I ran them off. When she returned home, I walked over there and knocked on the door so I could tell her she may want to check around to make sure nothing got taken. The woman didn't open the door and told me to get off her property. Okay, then. Whatever.

There is the truth.
Then there is the right thing to say.


Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2024 09:02AM by ServiceAward.
I hate you are going through this. I used to have Arlo cameras, but sold them on eBay because they automatically began trying to make us pay for the monitoring service they provide when it was free when I purchased them. Now, I use Eufy. They are AMAZING! I have 6 cameras all together. After purchasing the base and cameras, there isn't any other charges. I have the wireless ones. Very easy to set up, too.

Shopping Arkansas, Louisiana, & Mississippi.
Yep, as a grade school child, I thought other people were like me. I'm inquisitive, I love to learn, quiet, and respectful of things and other people. I assumed other people were honest and moral like me. I'd ride my bike towards home from school.and stop at a creek to see the water flowing, play with frogs, etc. Innocence.

Years go by and I meet this girl. She made advances. Poured on the passion. Turns out, many of the things she told me were lies. Habitual lies. Oh, the stories I could tell...

Let's just say when I found out about her deceit, I set fire to her rain. [Adele]

Bottom line, ServiceAward? So many people suck! It takes effort to keep a close circle with a small number of real friends in your community. Move on.
I am sorry that this is happening to you. It has been 4 months since we moved to a new house and we have Blink. No fees. It senses motion and alerts you. Also, you can monitor different areas if you are away by a click. We have a nosy neighbor and she was always snooping around and the moment I mentioned we have 4 cameras each in a different direction, she stopped "taking her walks."
I appreciate the camera suggestions. I am going to be looking into all of them. When I was driving down the hill by our house today, I noticed pieces of something white on the roof. It is eggs shells. I missed this the other day when all this happened. Hopefully the rain will wash it off, but if not I'll be climbing the roof.

Thank you again for the tips!

There is the truth.
Then there is the right thing to say.
If you are looking for a robust, reliable, camera solution, I can only recommend a NAS solution with wired cameras. NAS stands for Network-Attached Storage. Wired cameras being on an Ethernet network. I use a Synology NAS and Amcrest cameras. The backbone being the Synology NAS. The NAS is comprised of multiple hard drives in a RAID array that provides backup protection from hard drive failure. The Synology NAS has an app on it called, Surveillance System which allows the user to define the camera parameters and monitoring.

It can be run locally and not connected to the cloud. There are no monthly charges. However, it's not cheap like the camera systems others have mentioned previously.

I own and operate such a system. Most business owners have similar systems. I bought my components on Amazon. Do a Google search and learn more.
[www.synology.com]

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/30/2024 10:36AM by maverick1.
Mom went to the mailbox this morning to discover ANTS, hundreds of them, all inside it. She didn't realize it until she took the mail out and her hands got eaten all over with ant bites!!! I went down to see what was going on, and someone had put what appears to be rice in our mailbox. NASTY!!!! I am now at the ER with my 83-year-old mother hands swollen and red due to all the bites. Like it or not, racism runs both ways.

Update: Back home. They gave her a cortisone shot and some prescription strength steroid cream. Otherwise, ice packs on and off as needed. She will be okay, thankfully.

We need legalized a**-kicking in this country. That will stop crap like this.

There is the truth.
Then there is the right thing to say.


Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/2024 08:23PM by ServiceAward.
Apologies if it's too soon to joke, but I have now reconsidered my stance on sending packages, using peanuts as filler weight and cushioning.
Fire ant bites are painful especially if you are sensitive to them. More than a couple I cant imagine the pain.
It totally sucks that you're having to deal with this. In my small New England town, two of my neighbors experienced similar issues. One, in the house right across the street from me, had someone rip down her rainbow flag and smash a window on her front door. Another, around the corner, had a stream of garbage being thrown regularly onto their front yard, including dirty used coffee cups with foul, racist things written on them - all because of their Black Lives Matter sign. Fortunately, after they installed cameras, the culprits were identified and charged. I don't know what happened after that. It makes me too afraid to put out any kind of signage in front of my apartment door or in the windows.
Not entirely the same, but there was some of that sentiment in the neighborhoods around me four years ago. A good number of houses had Biden and Trump signage, and it was a pretty even divide. One house went crazy with signage, and another neighbor decided to cause a ruckus about it. All of that with Halloween decorations, it got even more crazy. At least for now, it doesn't seem to be as crazy as back then.
Sorry to hear about all this..why rice of all things? people can be so odd

speaking of signs, bumperstickers, etc. I am saddened to think overall that making your thoughts known in this country now entails some level of risk, more or less depending on where you are.
Ignorance invites fear, fear invites violence.

Vote for education. Love wins.
If I wanted to attract ants, rice wouldn't be my first choice of bait. That's very odd.

Service, I think it's time to pull the trigger on those cameras. I'm so sorry this happened, and I hope your mom has a speedy, non-itchy recovery.

I do not put anything on my car or in my yard. Sad to say, but doing so is almost asking for it.

If your path dictates you walk through hell, do it as though you own the place. -unknown
oh dear, I'm so sorry Service. I hope your mom is ok. I'm guessing this also means that you are safe from the mess that Helene caused. At least I hope that's what it means.

The ants have been going after a lot of complex carbohydrates lately here at my house. Last year they went after a lot of fat and protein, no kind of meat or animal fats were safe unless they were in the fridge. All of my crackers, except my saltines, have been taken over by ants. My son brought home a box of chez-its that I found in the cabinet. I brought it in here and started eating it, only to get the entire inside of my mouth bit up by the ants, and ants covering my desk. I had to move all of my electronics off the desk and spray it with the cinnamon oil bug spray to get rid of them. The bug spray I use for fleas and mosquitos doesn't work on ants, I have to add the cinnamon oil to it.
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