A most Dangerous Game

[Brian Gillispie]

Hey all,


     I live in a townhome community.  All of our cars are parked outside in front of our homes.  

We seem to have a Thief of oppertunity trolling our neighborhood from time to time.  Usually its enough to just lock the doors on the cars and all is well.  

Well,  this parasite has finaly gotten me to the place where I am willing to spend money in order to stomp his butt flat.

I need some advice.  It is my hope to use a digital game camera mounted in a Dogwood tree outside my home to take pictures of this thief.

I have a private light pole outside my house on the sidewalk.  There is moderate light from the city streetlights around.

What are the limitations of digital game cameras.

are they motion sensitive?

Heat Triggered?  would recently driven cars cause enought heat to send a camera into auto cycle until its memory card is full?

What models would be best used in my little urban setting?

Can you hook a game camera up to a WiFi network?

Thanks for the help in advance.  I know very little about game cameras.

Brian Gillispie

[HumbleHunter]

Got no advice but Good LUCK GETTIN THAT Sucker!!!! I can't stand punks like that.

[paleFace]

Brian, there are several cameras on the market that will work without using a flash. if a flash goes off this criminal may make off with your camera or he/she could just run not knowing who snapped his photo. your plan just might work if you can keep the crook from finding your camera.  good luck!

[Brian Gillispie]

Hey there,


Do game cameras use a flash?  Do they use IR lenses?  My level of ignorance concerning game cameras is Staggering.


Brian G

[paleFace]

Brian as i mentioned there are trail cameras that work without using a flash, like the Cuddyback. they are not cheap. my guess is that if you can afford one that will operate and capture images that would be usable by law enforcement that would be the way to go. having been a police officer for 15 years my first thought is that if a flash goes off the criminal might try and find the source. if that's the case you would be out of a camera.  on the other hand depending on the crook they might just up and run off thinking they have been had.

[Brian Gillispie]

Hey there,


Thanks for the information.  I was hopeing to avoid a flash.  Was hopeing to avoid losing the camera..lol

I am playing with the idea of hooking it up to a wifi setup so the pics are shunted directly to my computer.  Maybe with a "PING" to tell me if a pic has been taken.

With this in mind I wonder if a simple wireless webcam nailed to my dogwood tree would work.  That is if its able to work in lowlight.

off to do more research,

Brian G

[Dave N./TX]

There are IR webcams out there, My experience with web cams is the resolution is to low to be useful. I had my truck tool box emptied one night in my driveway and my Neighbor had him on web cam checking his car the same night. Gave the video to the police but it was of little help. I installed one later and set the software on the computer to trigger on movement. I got animals, rain, every car that drove by, clouds... All in all you end up have lots of video to review every day with nothing of real interest on tape. When it broke after a few months I did not bother to replace it.

My advice is to git one of the IR game cameras, he will not see it and the resolution is much better. You will have lots of pictures that will need to be screened still. Leaf River makes one that is pretty good for the $. I use one of their regular digital cameras and it has great battery life.

Good luck catching the scumbag!!

Dave N/TX

[Snakeeater]

Yes, there are IR cameras that you can use to take pictures at night. Also, there are some out now that can transmit their pictures to your computer, although I don't know if they are IR capable.

A car alarm and a motion detecting floodlight might be good deterents also.

Good luck,

Snakeeater

[702plmo]

Get a IR Camera and build a wooden birdhouse around it.   and add it to your landscaping and no one know nothing about the camera.   Good Luck.

[GR]

A few cameras have a switch that will allow you to turn off the flash. You might try placing it up high in the tree. I would put several out just in case. Good Luck, keep us posted.

[JBiorn]

I think it would be funner to use about a 650 grain arrow with a rubber blunt! That might change his attitude a bit-----it's a shame that we aren't allowed to protect our propery in such ways....

[Eastern fisher]

I do not know alot about them but what about the game trail cameras.  They must not send out a flash because then the deer and other critters would run (yes-no?)

[Aeronut]

I have watched several deer getting their picture taken while sitting in my stand and none of them even flinched when the flash went off.

For catching a scum-bag thief I would invest in Cuddyback or similar system with IR capability.

Hope you catch him/her in the act.

Dennis