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  1. #1
    Dave J Guest

    Default Workshop security (CCTV camera's)

    Hi,
    I am having a few problems at the moment with thieves. Somewhere between 11:30 pm last Saturday(30th) and the morning of Sunday (31st) someone cut the back chain wire fence in my paddock fence and made a hole around 500mm by 1000mm high, they then opened up the horses gate half way up the property near my shed, went into my fully enclosed dog compound and stole 2 dogs that have lived here forever? The hole was big enough for a person to fit through, but not big enough to let the horses out. I found this on the Sunday when I went down to feed them and they where gone and the horses gate was left unlocked.

    The dogs where not expensive ones as one was a Labrador around 4 year old and the other a jack russell 5 year old, both of which are my 19 year old daughters dogs who lives with us. They left the most expensive one behind which was our bull mastiff, but he is next to my sons caravan who was home the night they went missing with his girl friend but they heard nothing.

    I contacted the police, but all they did was to put me through to some remote help line that wrote a report and never even bothered coming out. The lady on the phone kept telling me to ring them if I found the dogs had just got out on their own. I have never seen a dog use wire cutters and undo gate locks.

    All of these dogs are friendly, but the 2 that got stolen would bark at anybody that went down the lane beside us or in the yard, and that would set the mastiff off. I have checked the local RSPCA all week asked everyone and the local vet lives across the road who is keeping an eye out for us, but no one has seen anything of them at all.

    The only thing I can come up with is they have stolen the dogs so they can come back, because the 7 x 7mtr shed is totally full of both wood work and metal work tools/machinery, and the son has a fair few expensive motor bikes.

    We have never had anything stolen from here in the 25 years I have lived here, even though we leave things out in the yard all the time. At the moment we are in complete lock down.
    I am not even sure what to think of this theft, as you can't see in the shed or the back yard from the road and we have 2mtr fence down the lane way. I keep to myself and we have great neighbors up and down the street. Also we haven't had any trouble with anybody and I don't drink or go to the local pub for someone to over hear anything.

    So the question is, does anyone know anything about security camera set ups?
    We are looking at buying something like this 16 channel 12 camera set up. I know it might be a bit of an over kill and it's a bit of money, but we are protecting a lot of expensive gear, so I think it's worth it.
    IR AUDIO DOME CCTV CAMERA NET 16CH DVR Security System | eBay
    Then they have a one with dome camera's, but the only thing I can tell different is they have audio.
    SONY CCD IR CCTV CAMERA 16CH NET DVR Security System | eBay

    I like the idea of being able to burn copies with the RW if needed or if the hard drive gets full. The remote mobile phone etc communication etc would not get used by us. We are just after something to record any events and alert us when a camera goes on.
    Any help would be much appreciated. As I know nothing about these cameras or systems, and need to buy one in the next few days to get the ball rolling.

    It is sad to think this area is getting over populated and going down like the rest of the suburbs, my wife is actually a descendant of the Holmes family where Holmesville originated from.

    Dave
    PS
    I don't usually post at 4:30 in the morning, but I am doing the dog watch security shift until we get the camera's up. If I catch them back, they will be met with a gun barrel,
    Also
    My son was just telling me the last month about a suburb 20 minutes away from here, where they are breaking into houses to steal the keys to the cars and taking them. One of his work mates had his 2 cars stolen while him and his family where a sleep, and there have been a few others as well.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    melbourne australia
    Posts
    3,228

    Default

    Dave,
    sorry to hear your troubles. I've been slowly building a CCTV system with used cameras from ebay. From the research I've done, a used known-brand camera (samsung, panasonic, bosch, phillips) is a heck of a lot better than the cheap no-name cameras you get with a typical CCTV package deal.

    If you think there's a lot to learn about metalworking, wait till you delve into the murky world of CCTV.

    Check out this forum:

    CCTV Forum • Index page

    there are a lot of people on there like you and me asking for advice on setting up a home security system. The advice from the experts is always the same. You need sufficient camera resolution, very good low light (IR) capability, high recording resolution and fast frame rate if you want a system capable of identifying a thief. None of this comes cheap.

    You may be better off buying one or two really good cameras and placing them in strategic positions. You can add more cameras later as funds allow. That's what I'm doing. Of course the thief doesn't know how good your cameras are, so a few cheapies placed outside might be a good deterrent.

    I'm told the wireless IP cameras are crap unless you spend a fortune. I'm using cat5 cable with baluns each end to transmit both the power and picture. use multiple twisted pairs for the power and a single pair for the video. works well over reasonable distances.

    I'm certainly no expert on CCTV, so please don't build a setup based purely on my advice.

    Good luck.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    melbourne australia
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    3,228

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Dave J View Post
    All of these dogs are friendly, but the 2 that got stolen would bark at anybody that went down the lane beside us or in the yard, and that would set the mastiff off.
    Just an afterthought Dave- is it possible they were locals who took the dogs to stop them barking? They might turn up in another shire's dog pound.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Newcastle
    Age
    72
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    Mate I was at 'J Car ' at Maitland Rd Islington ( along from the Tafe) the other day and they have several set up's available and were most helpfull ( i'm thinking of installing a set myself )
    Rgds
    Russell
    Ashore




    The trouble with life is there's no background music.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2010
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    9,088

    Default

    Hi Dave,
    Also sorry to hear about your troubles.
    Can't help much with the cameras, I've fitted a few but my mate was setting them up.

    Stuart

  6. #6
    Dave J Guest

    Default

    Thanks guys,
    Jack,
    Thanks for that info, I don't really have the time to build a system and these dog watch shifts are killing my shed time as it's too cold at the moment to be down there past 12 at night.
    The dogs only barked if someone walked down the lane, which was not very often as it is mostly cars that go by. Our neighbors are all looking out for us and helping by putting the word around. The one on the left of me has around 350 bantam show chooks, so they would take them before my dogs over noise.
    The local animal pound here does all of Newcastle and surrounding areas and is the only one. The central coast would be the next one, but thinking about it and taking your advice, I might give them ago as well.

    Russell
    Thanks for that. My son buys some of his auto elec needs through that store and is happy with the service as well. I will give them a ring now.

    Dave

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
    Location
    Victoria, Australia
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    Hi Dave,

    Sorry to hear about the dogs, I hope you are wrong about thieves planning to come back. But at least, it gives you a chance to prepare and arm the mine field.

    I have a security system of sorts, wired IP camera's and Zone Minder motion detection.

    I keep changing it, but whatever system you use, I would take a bit of time with placing the cameras.

    I hope you catch them.

    Regards
    Ray

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Canberra
    Posts
    805

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    Thats disgraceful Dave. I would be absolutely filthy if that happened to me (as im sure you are).

    Do you think its possible the thieves did this to spite you or one of your family members? Have you or the kids had any run ins with anyone lately? It doesnt make sense that the dogs were stolen for their actual worth (in breeding etc). If they were a show pair then maybe...but to me this seems much more sinister.

    If the opportunity presents itself dont forget you'll have to lead a moving target ; )

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    melbourne australia
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    Night vision scopes are getting cheaper too.

  10. #10
    Dave J Guest

    Default

    We did have a lot of problems with the family down the lane late last year and the kids (16 and 18) who started it all are still spinning the wheels past our place. We have had rocks and eggs thrown at the house at night, but this seems a bit brave for them to cut the fence and come onto the property.
    We also had a cat poisoned the week before this happened.

    It has got me scratching my head about the dogs, and they will want to look out if I catch them, as I have had enough.

    These CCTV camera's can get expensive real quick. I did have a quick look through that forum and contacted Dick Smith, and the cameras they have are almost identical in spec to the ebay ones, but you only get 4 for a $1000 instead of 12 or 16.
    I have posted off a message to a few sellers about getting the cables lengths I need and think I will go that way.
    I also ordered 2 dummy camera's for right down the back in the paddock where a cable wouldn't be able to reach, unless it was 100+ mtrs. This will at least deter them and if they come up closer the real cameras will be on.

    Dave

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Canberra
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    805

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    Hmmm. I think those neighbors of yours could be a reasonable place to start your investigations. It is a fair escalation from egging a house to poisoning your cat...but its amazing what some idiots will do with a belly full of grog.

    I hope you are able to get some footage of one of them. I think your cameras are a must at this stage. They'll probably lay off for a period of time before hitting again, and you really want to get some footage of them when they do.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Location
    Mallacoota,VIC,Australia
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    HI,
    Sorry to hear about Your Trouble Dave. I know bugger all about cctv, so I can' t help You there. The thought jack620 had was a Good possibilty, but sounds like its not the case. Another possibility might be that the Mongrel Thieves took the Dogs so it would be quiet when and if they come back. Although You are looking at CCTV, have You thought of at least putting an Alarm in. It's dissapointing that the Police didn't come out and have a look.
    Last edited by steran50; 1st Aug 2011 at 06:47 PM. Reason: Police
    All The Best steran50 Stewart

    The shortest way to do many things is to do only one thing at once.

  13. #13
    Dave J Guest

    Default

    Funny you should say about the alarm, as our eldest daughter has just tonight given me a new alarm she had laying around to put in the shed, so I am just about to head down and install it. It come with some deal with Dodo when she signed up and has a door and 2 motion sensors.

    The dogs never barked much at all, and only when someone was around, which is why I think they have been taken so they can come back.
    We have a dog next door that can go right out to the front fence and barks at everything that goes by day and night, but it's still their and no one complains. Compared to this dog our dogs are really quite as they are around the back and it's only if a person walks down the lane that they will bark.
    The only ones that commonly walk up and down the lane is the young kids we have been having trouble with.

    Dave

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    Sydney
    Posts
    99

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    Booby traps, the kind that leave permanent damage.

    What's the going rate of electrifying your fences?

    I hope you catch the scum and give them the hiding they so deserve.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Oatley NSW
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    69
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    Hi Dave J,
    Sorry to hear about your loss of dogs and the problems that your having, Typical Police cannot be bothered doing their job, no wonder people take matters in their own hands.
    Putting alarms on your shed is a good idea, make sure it a really loud alarm so if broken into will scare them and alert you and neighbors thats someone is breaking in. The camera system is a good idea as well.
    If you need a good siren for your burgler alarm let me know, I can give you one.
    Hope it all works out for you.

    Regards,
    Keith.

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