question for security/alarm/camera geeks...

[AJMD429]

S'poze you had someone repeatedly bash in your mailbox after making veiled threats, maybe cuz you called him out when a urine drug screen showed meth, suboxone, and Narcan.....

It would be nice to get photos of face-recognizing and license-plate-recognizing quality, but from my experience with cellular trailcams, ain't no way.

The closest place to conceal a camera would be 50 yards away at a 30 degree angle. Anything visible would get destroyed or shot, and a secondary camera to 'witness' that would have to transmit instantly before it too got shot - probably faster than cellular would allow.

But I know durn well it is possible technologically.

However my 'tech assistance' will not be a Secret Service detail who I can give a hundred thousand bucks; it will likely be some local alarm company.

So....what do I ask for...?

What do I do when they tell me it isn't possible...?

(i once had a guy at a big builder-supply place tell me 'nobody makes anything like that' when I sought to buy a furnace-fan to put into a wood-hearing system, and another guy told me nobody makes an electrical valve capable of shutting on/off 60 psi tap water, so I've heard all the nonsense.... )

[GunnyMack]

Gee Doc sounds like you have quite the hypothetical problem, well I would explain to the prospective alarm companies what is the threat and let them guide you- they are the pros. As for them telling you it can't be done might I recommend claymores of a PO box?!

[AJMD429]

. . . . might I recommend claymores of a PO box?!

Yeah, ever since a med school classmate of mine was killed in a home invasion last November, I've not been a fan of meth-heads....

[piller]

Strange: it is illegal to make or use Meth, but it is illegal to shoot them. One or the other should be changed. Just my observation.

[AJMD429]

Forty years ago, when my best friend ran a gun shop and did reloading for the local police, I had let the air out of a deer-poacher's tires (didn't hurt the tire, just loosened the valve stem), and he saw me. The game warden had told me he couldn't get there fast enough so I should take a photo of any vehicles on our property and if possible let the air out of a tire so they couldn't leave before he got there.

He saw me crouching by his vehicle, shouted, and shot his gun in the air, then ran towards me and I beat it back to the house. Once I got there I closed the driveway gate and let my German Shepherd out, then called the police. He was standing at the gate, and yelled to the house "get out here or I'm gonna shoot your dog". Then I called my friend.

The guy kept yelling and I told him I'd called the cops.

Just a few minutes later, there was a loud engine roar of a car coming down the road, then I see my friend's station-wagon coming sideways down the road, tires smoking as it came to a stop. My friend, who always wore a poncho and cowboy hat, leaps out of the vehicle, lays a Mini-14 across the hood of his car on a bipod, and says "Hit the ground, mf'r - NOW....!!!"

The guy did as he was told, and laid right down in the driveway...

NOW I'm brave... and go outside with my friend Mr. Mossberg.

My friend is walking up to kick the guys rifle out of his reach, Mini-14 in hand, and the guy looks pretty scared.

Then, we hear police sirens, and a police car pulls up, deputy getting out. The guy actually looks relieved now to see a cop.

As he starts to get up, the cop said to my friend "Hey, Jonathan, how are you doing...?" and the guy looks less relieved. Then he says "Sir, I think I'd stay right there for a minute while I talk to these boys..." (we were both in our early 20's).

After he took a brief report, he let the guy stand up, took his drivers license and recorded the information, and he told him:

"Sir, you need to know something. These boys are good kids, and I don't like it when bad things happen to good people. They are probably upset now, and to be honest, so am I. I'm thinking that if these guys so much as go out to take a [leak], and the wind blows it onto their pant leg, the first thing they are going to think of is you, and the way you behaved today. So you might want to spend all your time being sure nothing happens to upset either of these boys or any of their family or friends, but that would mean being near them, and personally, I think you'd be better off staying far away from them. Jonathan is a really good shot, and his friend here probably is too, so I'd make it really, really far. I'm going to be checking on them periodically, and you had really better hope that nothing happens that upsets them, and you had really better PRAY that nothing happens to upset me...

Now just to show I'm a nice guy, I'll radio for a tow truck to come reinflate your tires.

Do you have any questions...?"

The guy said "No sir," and walked back to his vehicle."

Too bad that kind of thing doesn't happen any more, but I'll never forget seeing my friend jump out of his car and lay that Mini-14 over the hood of his car. Jonathan passed away a few years ago from years of smoking, but he was a good buddy.

[Grizz]

there are miniature self contained cameras with sound and motion detectors, I think LEOs call them body cams. In dry wx I would spread quick lime about for some useable tracks perhaps... and I would conceal a camera in the post the mailbox is on. maybe install a decorative wood fence for more camera locations.... and something like a car alarm hooked up to a 200db speaker system, with a tiny print warning plack inside the mail box... and some way to safety the alarm so you don't deafen the mail carrier. unless of course the mail carrier is the meth head in question.

remember you can put pressure switches in the ground to operate electronics.... and tactical airhorns . . .

[gcs]

First thing I'd do is get an unbashable mailbox, I mean it could probably be bashed eventually but it would delay the basher and possibly lead him to not notice the tiny go pro camera built into the new unbashable base of the unbashable mailbox.....

I believe the lense is smaller then a dime, and you can probably make it very difficult to see, I'd leave the trail cam setup only as camouflage, so the miscreant thinks he's no longer on camera after he shoots it again....

Otherwise I'm afraid a good system is going to cost....Good Luck

[AJMD429]

First thing I'd do is get an unbashable mailbox, I mean it could probably be bashed eventually but it would delay the basher and possibly lead him to not notice the tiny go pro camera built into the new unbashable base of the unbashable mailbox.....

I believe the lense is smaller then a dime, and you can probably make it very difficult to see, I'd leave the trail cam setup only as camouflage, so the miscreant thinks he's no longer on camera after he shoots it again....

Agree that tougher box means more time, and more time means more 'photo-ops'.
Yeah we have an old trail cam that doesn't work somewhere.....

Ideally the camera would send real-time images to a secure receiver 100 yards away, so if they destroyed it before a cellular signal and data transfer could happen I'd have something to work with.

It would be nice if I could bring back my childhood friend and the officer who came out that day....!

[Alan Wood]

I would be inclined to put a somewhat poorly concealed sacrificial trail cam near the mail box. With the good camera well hidden further away.

[AJMD429]

Interesting stuff I've learned about what it technologically possible...

There was some other vandalism so the police put up some cameras, and one of them was no bigger than a double-A flashlight, totally self-contained, and able to be buried with just the camouflaged tip at the surface. It had a separate motion detector about the same size that could be put a dozen yards away to trigger pictures. Unfortunately the 'system' costs $8,000 or so, but it is interesting technology.

It is strange though to realize that now whenever I walk down the driveway I'm on live television...

[jdad]

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[marlinman93]

I'd start by getting the smallest camera I could find with good resolution. Then I'd make something that didn't look like a camera station, or enclosure to put it in, and put it closer than your 30 yd. minimum you now have. It could be a simple post with a hole in it the camera can sit in, or even something larger like a brick bollard that sits opposite the driveway and mail box. Even a pile of rocks set in mortar to hold them could have a space inside to hold a remote camera. Just so it doesn't look like what it is.
Many cameras are remote now, and need no wiring, as are many alarm systems. We have a completely wireless alarm system in our home and cameras can be monitored via our cell phones. It even sends alerts if we program it to tell us if the camera senses movement.
I hope you've already contacted the local authorities to alert them to the situation, and who you feel are the likely culprits that have threatened you, and your property?

[Ryan2smith]

there are miniature self contained cameras with sound and motion detectors, I think LEOs call them body cams. In dry wx I would spread quick lime about for some useable tracks perhaps... and I would conceal a camera in the post the mailbox is on. maybe install a decorative wood fence for more camera locations.... and something like a car alarm hooked up to a Bluetooth speaker for car with 200db system, with a tiny print warning plack inside the mail box... and some way to safety the alarm so you don't deafen the mail carrier. unless of course the mail carrier is the meth head in question.

remember you can put pressure switches in the ground to operate electronics.... and tactical airhorns . . .

Is 200 db the same as Macrs?

[Grizz]

Is 200 db the same as Macrs?

don't know. just a loud noise, like a train horn is what I was thinking . . .

[piller]

Could someone weld a mailbox up out of quarter inch plate? Attach it to an iron pipe filled with cement. Bury it 3 feet or more and concrete it in place.

[marlinman93]

Could someone weld a mailbox up out of quarter inch plate? Attach it to an iron pipe filled with cement. Bury it 3 feet or more and concrete it in place.

I did that when we out in a rural area and our mail box got smashed by vandals. Had a neighbor who was a well driller, and got a piece of large OD well pipe. Cut it in half to form the round top, and then welded plate sides, and bottom to the half pipe. I put the old door and flag off the bashed box on it, and painted it silver. Bolted it to a pipe, and poured a concrete base around the pipe.
About two months later I went out to get the mail one day, and there's a mark on the side of the box. Laying in the drainage ditch was an aluminum baseball bat bent up. Must have felt really good when he smacked the mailbox and it didn't give any!

[Grizz]

Could someone weld a mailbox up out of quarter inch plate? Attach it to an iron pipe filled with cement. Bury it 3 feet or more and concrete it in place.

yes. easy to do that. the problem is always the access. the mailmen around here won't unlock a mailbox. so there has to be a door something like postal boxes have. and that doesn't preclude the bad guy from putting some asps and a cobra and some brown recluses in the box.

[piller]

The person who is probably doing it has been described a meth user. I somehow doubt he would handle the snakes.

[Grizz]

The person who is probably doing it has been described a meth user. I somehow doubt he would handle the snakes.

i would not put anything past anybody based on the historical record of human nature . . .

my idea was that whatever access i provide so that i can get mail is also access to any bad actor who wants to act badly . . .

doesn't solve the original problem of photographing the bad guy being bad :)