Home security while away

It depends on where you live. One county may have a sheriff deputy who will come over and press a case even for vandalism. Go one county over, and unless the press, large business, or a famous person is involved, at best you will get a police report number for your insurance records.

I like the Dropcam idea or some service that could store pictures to a DVR, perhaps save "choice" photos offsite to a cloud storage provider. However, talking to a would-be intruder likely will get them to just burn down the place (if they are going to get 10+ for burglary as a mandatory minimum, taking the risk of an arson charge may be an acceptable risk if it burns up the DVR footage.)

Check these out https://www.dropcam.com/If you have a smartphone seems like a pretty economical solution. I think it is $10 a month for seven day recording. Which should be all you need if you are alerted to activity. You get an alert, look at what is happening, call the cops, and download the days video to give to the cops. And the really neat part is you could talk to them to mess with them. "Hello! That is not yours! You are in my house and you are going to jail! Smile!"

I kind of somewhat agree with some about the camera. If you are gone an extended period of time and come home to find your house broken into and some pictures, possibly, the damage is already done. Granted you might have a picture of the person doing it, getting law enforcement to do anything about it now adays is a different story. I watched a taxi cab driver chase around 2 guys in a 2 square block of town. Kind of figured what had happened (jumped the fare). When I saw the taxi stop the local PD across from my workplace, I went out to ask if they were looking for the guys as they were on the corner and we had them on camera.I'm talking maybe 50 yards away and I could see them. The LEO turns to me and said he's not gonna go chase them that its on the taxi driver. All he is going to do is write a report. Being Federal, I had no jurisdiction. All I could do was say ok and go back to my workplace. It's not the first time, I had seen them work like before. It's sad that they don't even want to come out to investigate anything anymore hardly.

Since the OP mentioned he lives in the boonies, perhaps the sheriff there will be more proactive. Heck reactive would good also.

We live rural but still fairly close in. Next door neighbor is a 1/3 mile to their home, guessing. Next one is a over a mile. Burglars have broken in here before we bought the place.
Not too concerned while we are here. Our family dog, though very friendly will take a burglar down, if they were to get in the house.
Security lights and cameras coming soon. Last owner took them with him as well as monitors integrated into tv distribution system throughout the house. Game cameras are a good idea depsite my idea of stopping them first. We have a neighbor that lives a bit further away that checks on the place when we are gone. The Post Lady checks on the hosue also. Our Officers and County cruse by many times a day.
If there is any criminal activity within this part of the county or sometimes the whole county, nobody strange gos unnoticed. If we are to be gone for a lengthy time, which seems unlikely, now, I'll pay someone to house sit. Since 1975 we had a break in and several attempts while we were there. We had one home invasion in 1976 or 77 that left us and our little Daughter so trumatized we repressed it. Wife sometimes will say she remember something but the subject is left alone. Someone shot our dog and someone tore ther Phone box, up and tore out all but one circuit in 05 maybe. It was about 13 ft up on the back of the house. Several times during the period we heard things and I checked and sometimes too deep in sleep. Dog has been shot with a shotgun and stabbed with something like twin ice picks. I caught two of the perps of the break in 76, in a nearby City. They were prosecuted for higher crimes there. never will recover my firearms. We had a safer community before the bridge but safe now because everyone knows everyone including most if not all the LEOs.
I take security very seriously after all that and some other things. Insurance won't replace some things. Traditionally, in the country people had dogs. If you have responsibly trained dogs and someone to take care of them when gone and not where children, or others will wander through I think they are a good bet. Nobody gets chewed when any of us are around. And kids might get licked to death. But Dakota recognizes a gun, of any kind and sticks in a strangers hand. He doesn't especially like it when we have a firearm in hand. All in all we are pretty secure here but you cannot stop a determined thief except with another determined man with a weapon.

I'm just lucky, I guess. I live on a dead end street with just 15 houses on 1/4 acre lots. Everybody on the street has lived here for 20 years. We know each other, and a stranger stands out. I also have friends that live a couple of miles away that check on the house for me while I'm gone and they have my cell phone number and a key. I do the same for them. I have a couple of table lamps on variable timers as well.
In the long run, all you can do is make your place less attractive to a thief than someone else's.

I would buy some game cameras that they use for hunting and install them so you can see who comes and goes on your property. I use one on my driveway all the time . If you get one with a 8G card you can take thousands of pictures that are date stamped with date and time. The cameras also have night vision.

mustangglp wrote:

down home wrote:
what the heck is a fine photo of some perp going to do fer you? The object is stop them not take pictures.

Mine send an email to my smart phone instantly I could call the police! Also they can steal the camera and I still have the pics. Its a deferent world then the days of Jessy James.

It would be a lot easier to break into my house than to steal my camera. it is mounted in a locked metal box lag bolted to a tree. I suppose they could use a chain saw, cut down the tree, etc.
bumpy

down home wrote:
what the heck is a fine photo of some perp going to do fer you? The object is stop them not take pictures.

Mine send an email to my smart phone instantly I could call the police! Also they can steal the camera and I still have the pics. Its a deferent world then the days of Jessy James.

Tongue in cheek, way deep.
I've gotten three turkeys to come around the back porch last couple of weeks as the rest wander off when come out.
Thinking about all the stories, that pop up once in a while about vicious wild turkeys attacking everything I'm wondering how they would do at watching the house when we are away?
Anyone know how to teach turkeys to attack? :)

oops