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Ask Slashdot: Video Monitors For Areas That Are Off the Grid?
An anonymous reader writes "I have a cottage at the end of a long dirt road, no electricity nor internet, and recently some (insert expletive here) wads are using the area as a trash dump: countertops, sofas, metal scraps, tvs — all the stuff they don't want to pay to dump at the landfill. I can't block the road because it's a fire access. But I would really like to have a way to catch who is doing this. Are there any a) waterproof, b) self-contained, c) self-powered, and (ideally) d) inexpensive video-recording units out there? Are there any other creative ways to get the guys? I was thinking of something like a device that will cycle, so that the last week of video is recorded. It could take photos or video, and as long as it's small enough that I could camouflage it well, I suspect I'd be able to figure this out soon. And any idea of what my legal rights are to videotape or record?" Hunters have been doing this for years (with film, and now digital) to figure out prey patterns with cameras that are built for concealment; what else would you recommend?
You know you could ask the Govt if their drones are for rent...they have night vision, missiles and everything.
Put up the IR deer cams. Hide them because they will steal them.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
here you go
http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=3413551
Bushnell Trail Sentry 5MP Digital Camera
Seems like it's packed with features.
http://www.opticsplanet.com/bushnell-trail-sentry-5mp-trail-night-vision-camera-119305.html
Don't reinvent the wheel, hunters have already done the hard part. Check around for concealed hunter camera gear. Already camouflaged, and able to take stills or video...
America is all about speed. Hot, nasty, badass speed. -Eleanor Roosevelt, 1936
This is what Trail/Wildlife cameras do. Why not just get one of those?
Get some kind of motion-activated wildlife cam, and put a big storage card in it. A good one should allow you to choose stills or video. Then just pull out the card and review at your leisure. These things are made to be used outdoors, so they're generally weatherproof, camouflaged, and battery-powered (I have one that runs on four C batteries for quite a long time).
Type "camera trap" into google and you'll find devices that do this (for photographing wildlife). The commercial ones are already camouflaged.
It's possible that the more recent dumpers don't even know they're not supposed to dump there; after seeing junk already piled up some may assume that it's a legitimate dumping ground.
A sign or two saying something like "PRIVATE PROPERTY NO DUMPING" might help, if you don't already have a sign like that which is being ignored.
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There is inferior bacteria on the interior of your posterior.
Have you asked the local cops what to do about the dumping? They might blow you off or they might get interested. It is worth a try before you get too cowboy on your own.
They are ruggedized motion activated camera systems used by hunters and various conservationists to document wildlife in an area. Point on at the road and you will likely get a photo eventually.
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=trail+cameras&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=3841717161&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=6759584441200341366&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_76nuhrt4i1_b
Wait in a ground blind with a boomstick and give em a taste of frontier justice (where justice == birdshot)
Seriously though, the comment about trail cameras is right on. Motion activated camera that's self contained and battery powered. Designed for locating and tracking game movements, sounds like it would be perfect for your situation.
Double seriously, trying to wait out for them and firing some blanks and generally appearing to be a totally unhinged redneck might go a long way to scaring them off. Plus it would be a hell of a lot of fun, legal issues not withstanding.
Ze Atomic Device! It iz Ztolen!
You need one like this:
http://dover.idf.il/NR/rdonlyres/D9C669D3-EC4F-45DA-97F9-9261B7BACD7B/0/02s.jpg
There are a lot of super small USB cameras with a rolling overwrite feature.
Contour is one, Go-Pro - but those are kinda of pricey.
The last one I saw on Youtube looked like a childs toy DLSR with a single button and MicroSDHC slot. It was about the size of your Thumb and took really good video. http://youtu.be/k-DCpQ9EYZg or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgtTg62GDfs&feature=fvwrel
I think they were in the $100 range
You would still need a housing, a memory card and a power source.
Why re-invent the wheel? You said it yourself, hunters have been doing this for years. Therefore, there are already products on the market which will stand up to the elements with a long battery life and the capabilities to do what you are looking to do. Sure, you could buy some camera, put them in a water-resistant sealed box, camoflauge them, and run a wire to your house. But why go through that much trouble when someone already makes a reliable product to do exactly that?
sudo make me a sandwich
A cheap iPhone with a time lapse App might be just as good.
This is easy, no electricity needed, and it has proven effective for thousands of years. Get an outside dog, maybe a lab. Labs love people, and people polluting on land won't know the difference between a dog happy to see them and one ready to tear them apart when it is running at them.
The many features of the dog include a built in, day or night motion detector and alarm with a range of the upwards of miles. It requires no energy, and can also provide benefits to owning beyond simple security. The dog can also be adjusted so that it only detects certain objects, such as humans and not cats, depending on the model.
A sign or two saying something like "PRIVATE PROPERTY NO DUMPING" might help, if you don't already have a sign like that which is being ignored.
Where do you live that it's okay to do this:
I have a cottage at the end of a long dirt road, no electricity nor internet, and recently some (insert expletive here) wads are using the area as a trash dump: countertops, sofas, metal scraps, tvs — all the stuff they don't want to pay to dump at the landfill.
Even if it is a dirt road, it's not your property and if you don't have permission to be leaving shit all over the place then you don't do it. Where do you live that you can just legally drive around and say "this looks good, I don't see any signs" and dump shit to rust and rot and look terrible? Am I the only person that is appalled by that?
I've lived in two states. I'm pretty sure you'd be fined and/or sued to high heaven if you were caught doing that on any property you do not own and pay taxes on -- even then TVs and metal scraps can permanently damage the environment if not properly disposed of.
My work here is dung.
Place signs around the area (they do not have to be large) saying, "Video Surveillance in Use." Make sure you clean up any existing trash.
If dumping persists, use a game camera to take pictures, then tack up some large prints of the perps dumping.
Something like this: https://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=video+surveillance+signs&hl=en&prmd=imvns&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&biw=1173&bih=640&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=8862164393585909605&sa=X&ei=okp0UO2UPMWXiAKB-YHAAQ&ved=0CGsQ8gIwBg
People really pay attention to little cues like this when they are doing something nefarious. Good luck.
I grew up in a semi-rural area so I know what I'm talkin bout here:
Figure out why your neighbors hate you and convince them to like you. Lets be realistic, middle of nowhere, nobody's driving 500 miles just to dump on your land... You pissed someone off who lives VERY nearby and the folks who could bust him are better friends with him than you. Fix that.
Talk to your local politicans and get fees removed from the community landfill. That's insane. Not legally permissible where I live, I believe by state reg, because the DNR doesn't want to spend $20000 cleaning up dumped motor oil as a result of "profit" they'd make from charging $5 at the landfill, not to mention it provides a profit motive for turning touristy scenery into a 3rd world wasteland. Sometimes a double taxation argument works... Govt already made 5% sales tax when I bought my motor oil, presumably they don't need another 5% to dispose of it.
Another thing I don't understand is I cannot throw out steel or metal anything without the local meth heads stealing it and getting money for it at the junkyard. Other stuff you're reporting sounds bogus. Goodwill accepts anything electronic and sometimes makes a profit reselling it. There's a veterans group who collect furniture, drive up to your house with a pickup and they unload "for free" although since they're doing "good" I slip them some cash (knowing its probably paying for their lunch instead of going in their treasury, and I don't mind a bit). The only thing I can kinda understand is the countertop, but only kinda. Like where do those come from? If its wood, burn it. If its rock, bury it. If its steel the meth heads already stole it. So...
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
On your own property? To catch trespassers dumping garbage?
Jeebus, is our country so in the shit we need to ask that now? Why should corporations and the government have a right to surveil and that right be denied to us? Why is every sentence in this post a question?
Go to Bass Pro and get some deer cams or just google "deer cam". You can get them as cheap as $100. They do exactly what you want. End of story.
Ninjas don't carry tic tacs
A goat or two pastured in the area, if you're not averse to raising livestock. Goats are very protective of their territory. Might not be a viable solution if you're not around very often, but effective otherwise.
Easy Online Role Playing Campaign Management
Ditto on the trail came suggestion. I deployed one of these to try and catch someone who was stealing supplies and product. I bought a camera that allegedly transmitted no visible light when recording at night via IR; the problem was it did transmit a small amount of light in the red spectrum. I gambled on it anyway and hoped it wouldn't be detected. I caught my thief, I'm pretty sure, but the thief stole the Compact Flash card from the camera in the process of being filmed.. This was inside a small outbuilding; if you're recording in the woods, you'll have a much easier time concealing the camera.
If there's any papers in it, there's a good chance you'll find names and addresses.
Imagine a phone call that starts like this:
"Kid, we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a half a ton of garbage, and just wanted to know if you had any information about it."
This strategy is in addition to any cameras you might have set up.
I am officially gone from
You didn't tell us where you live. How are we supposed to help you, if we don't even know what country you live in? Because this is Slashdot, I guess we can just assume that you're talking about the USA (possibly Canada). But then we still don't know what state (or province) you live in! I mean, I support the One World Government as much as the next Illuminati member, but until we can bring about that glorious revolution, we'll just have to deal with all these fractured governments.
First of all, I'd try contacting the local police. You weren't explicit about who owns the land that's being used as an illegal dumping ground, but, once again, I'm going to assume that it's yours. It sounds like some laws are being broken here, but because I haven't the faintest clue where you live, all I can do is guess. Second, I'd contact some environmental activists. They live for this kind of stuff. Take some pictures, set up a blog, and get really melodramatic about how the land is being despoiled and raped. You'll get a few hippies volunteering to watch the land. No video cameras needed. Hell, they might even donate a few. If you seemed like a nice enough guy and you caught me on a good day, I might even help out.
If you just want to buy new toys and play with them, then I suspect that you'll do better going to a forum more dedicated to paranoid conspiracy theories (they love this kind of spy thriller technology), hunting, and/or survivalism.
Costco has exactly what you are looking for, waterproof outdoor camera battery operated that takes video on SD cards. Like $100 or so.
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I take my lawn tractor and cart to these places and load that stuff up, then take it to the metal recyclers. Makes a few bucks if you wait till you have a load big enough to counter your gas money for the trip. A little extra work to separate the copper from the iron pays off nicely too.
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Since I also heat with wood, snail mail spam is always welcome here - free btu's.
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But if you just want to be angry - yeah, get a deer cam and experience the frustration that the cops aren't going to do diddly squat for you on this.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
You're obviously not a hunter. A game camera is what you're describing. They're camo motion activated cameras you mount to a tree. You can have it snap pictures to an SD card, some of them have night vision, etc. Cabelas has some examples: http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/search.cmd?form_state=searchForm&N=0&fsch=true&Ntk=AllProducts&Ntt=game+camera&x=0&y=0&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products
Legally the only restriction is audio recording someone without their consent where they do not have an expectation to privacy. That means if they are trespassing or dumping illegally they should not have an expectation of privacy. Excluding audio removes any legal issues, but you may be in your own right to audio record them if it is your property.
Put lots of spikes in the ground that will keep them out (or in)
blog.sam.liddicott.com
Post "YOU ARE ON CAMERA" signs and put up several decoy Video cameras around where they are visible. add some solar motion lights as well.
They will move on as they think you are watching them.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Yes there is a perfect solution. You can purchase a Wildlife camera that is battery powered. You can mount the camera to a tree or a building and it monitors movement using a PIR (passive Infared) sensor. When movement is detected is takes a snapshot, and the image is stored on a flash media. There is on issue. Some of the cameras use a photoflash for taking pictures in the dark or low light conditions. If the flash goes off, its going to notify the perps of the camera and they will probably steal it.
I would set up a few of the cameras (hidden) and then check them, you can pull the flash and view the images. I would go with more than one since its likely that one would capture sufficient information (such as a license plate number). Expect some false positives as wildlife in the area will trigger the camera.
I've bought the MUVI VCC-05 (for other purposes) and I believe it cycles video but it certainly timestamps. You can buy weatherproof case, and it has a sound trigger. As far as power source goes, I think you can hack something up with a solar panel to batteries. The camera is about $150, so I suppose you'll have to figure out if it's worth the cost.
Good luck
How about using a Trail Camera, basically an Infrared, battery operated, motion detecting, Camera. I think they do video or photos.
There are loads of "game cameras" sold to hunters to scout hunting locations. It's going to be hard to beat the performance and value of a game camera. Check the usual sources.
That said... I have a somewhat similar situation, a mountain property and private road that is a fire road. But we have a locked gate with 10 lock slots. Out where I am at, as long as PG&E has a lock slot so that their meter readers can get up the road (to read meters at radio towers on the mountain top), and as long as the gate is "crashable", you are good to go. The CalFire trucks are all fitted with crash bars so if they come to a gate on a fire road, and you didn't have the sense to leave it unlocked as you evacuated, they can crash the gate with their truck and lift it off the hinges. Or they use a Cat, which they usually have along anyway. In case of wildfire, the gate is sacrificial. And I can say from personal experience, when you have evacuated and are watching a YouTube feed of a firebomber drop a load of orange fire retardant on your property, you say, "Hell, yes, I'll fix the gate, crash it whenever you like." Of course, we left the gate unlocked for them so it wasn't an issue.
My point: Go check with the authorities. Maybe you *can* have a gate with certain requirements. If it is a privately maintained road, that is.
Go to a store that has hunting gear, such as Academy, Bass Pro Shop, Cabelas, etc.
Buy a "Game Camera". They are digital cameras with motion sensors. Put it up in a tree, point it at the spot. They make them anywhere from $20 to $500+.
Where I live, the dumpers are usually stupid enough to include some personal information with the trash. Envelopes with ardessess and so on. Take a look and bring the law upon them.
FCKGW 09F9 42
Have you even asked the local government about a lock for the gate that both you and they have a key for? Here in Boulder County (CO), there are some fire roads that are normally locked to prevent idiots from going where they have no business being.
Put up a gate and lock it. You can talk to the local fire department about the right Knox Lock or fire access lock/box; every commercial building has a box that FD has a key to that is filled with keys to the building and they make Knox pad locks so the FD can get into gated areas.
What you need is a good Game camera.
http://www.basspro.com/Bushnell-Trophy-Cam-8-0-Megapixel-Digital-Game-Camera/product/10211917/
The trail camera is a good idea but what if you were to take it a step further, putting up a sign saying the property is covered by CCTV and install a dummy camera that isn't hidden, plus a trail camera that is hidden. If you put up a sign and they couldn't see any cameras they might just think you're just bluffing, but if you give them something to find then they probably won't think about looking for a hidden one.
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvZhRUsKNG4
I'm sure Aperture Labs would also sell you a self-contained power unit for the thing. Problem Solved.
look up PLANTCAM on Amazon. Several models by the same company. time-lapse pics also video, motion activated uses batteries and an SD card I think.
I like microcars
Check out Harbortronics.com.
They sell a wholly autonomous solar powered stills camera that could run remotely for a year, programmable to take a shot every 5 minutes.
Hunting cameras I presume are only intended to work over a day (night). Expensive, but great for long term recording.
However, to be honest, the sign would be cheaper....
I would put up a fake camera and a sign that says "This site is monitored, dumping is not allowed." ps What country do you live in where it cost to recycle stuff?
They may allow you to add a gate as long as you use the correct locking mechanism they have a key for. I've seen plenty of 'fire access' roads that have gates on them either with the 'chain of padlocks' sealing it shut or a more complex mechanism specifically to let 'any of X' keys open the gate.
Inform the local fire department that the road is booby trapped (with location and methods) and use a board with nails in it to puncture their tires. It'll make dumping on your land really expensive. With any luck you'll fix the problem before the fire trucks need to go down it.
A neighbor of mine had a similar problem in that the county road made a hairpin turn around what used to be an old barn and stream that had since been removed. One of the locals got the idea of just driving across his land rather than do the turn. It was a great idea for a a few weeks then the PO got tired and put a 2x6 with nails in the field. Problem solved.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Forest fire fighters usually come equipped with 3 foot bolt cutters. A locked barrier is only a minor nusiace. What is really important is that you remove as much trash as possible. This will help discourage future activity, since people tend to put trash next to other trash.
Agree with all the above trail cam/deer cam people.
Personal recommendation for the Wingscapes Bird camera. I set one up with an eye-fi memory card for my mother a few years ago, worked great.
First-World problems....
Packed with C4 and buckshots.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claymore_mine
And by party, I mean set off fireworks when they arrive. Use a trigger that I got from IED-using insurgents in Iraq. You can use two hacksaw blades in a hose that act as a switch when driven on. Have this trigger a rocket motor igniter that ignites a rocket motor that lights several fuses which then sends fireworks up in the air announcing their unexpected arrival. IIRC, you only need 3 volts.
That should be enough to scare them away. But you can also use it to trigger cameras too.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Post a *Private Property* sign, and in a more common dumping area dig a deep pit. Do not put in the sharpened sticks. Cover with brush. Wait.
In a way that's how my neighbors caught a burglar... They were having some renovations done that had the basement steps taken out. Went on a week long trip, came back, and heard the screams of the burglar that had broken in, blindly stepped into the basement and shattered his legs...
"Trespassers will be SHOT!". I'm they'll think twice about coming around.
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
The OP specifically wants to capture identifiable information such as a license plate. Beware that most game cameras have a very slow response time, that is, it could be 1 to 3 seconds after detecting "game" that they take a picture. This is OK for deer or other critters (I've captured shots of racoons and groundhogs) but may not be effective with moving vehicles. Please try before you buy.
Try these guys. They make an off the grid surveillance system for oil and gas. Might be above bit above your price point though.
ospreyinformatics.com
The signs probably won't work, no one is expecting them to act like a magic force field stopping stupid and selfish assholes alike. However, the signs would be really cheap compared to the money and effort needed for the camera system, so even if a small chance of it doing something could still work out to about the same benefit/cost as better systems. And I'm not saying they should be used instead of cameras, just that if you are going to put all that crap up, a few signs might suggest to someone you are paying attention. Even if the signs don't work, it is one more thing you can use to browbeat people in court that you caught on your property.
A few months back I set up something like this for keeping an eye on our woodlot. I bought from Trailcampro which had all the parts in one place and plenty of advice. I got the [Bushnell Trophy Cam] HD Max Ultimate Package, which included a camera, camouflage steel protective case, rechargeable batteries, charger, and a steel lock cable to lock the camera to the tree. The camera has what this industry calls a 'black infrared' flash for the camera to take pictures at night and reduce the likelihood of being seen. Years ago a game warden put up a trail camera near by to try to catch some bear poachers and just had it destroyed, which is why I opted for the steel case. Of course someone could still tear it apart or down, but they're not going to do so easily and will have to be very intentionally destructive.
While being painted camouflage, it seemed pretty obviously not part of a tree to me so it was hard to find a place to mount it that both had cover and could see the area I was trying to watch. However I've been surprised by how few people who know it is out there have noticed it so far.
The batteries last about two months and I go out monthly to switch SD cards just to keep up on whats going on. I've got the camera set to take three pictures when triggered, which increases the likelihood of seeing something identifying like a license plate.
It works well and I'm pretty happy with it.
The camera system worked great, but getting the trash picked up was left to him, and the cops wouldn't go after the dumpers. So he took an old pistol, loaded it with blanks, got a relay and hooked to the trigger, used the motion detector system to trigger the relay and put the whole thing where it was protected and hidden. And then put up a "trespassers will be shot" sign. That ended the dumping.
Republican leadership = Idiocracy
Hi,
There are game cameras with Cel phones in them so your pictures are sent right away. Not sure of the price but phones are pretty cheap now. Second check on your state law, in PA the owner of the vehicle is responsible for the dumping fine ($300) so you don''t have to identify the people just the vehicle. Dumpster diving in the trash is what our State Game Wardens do here (pro tip if the land is used for hunting talk to these guys rather than the State or Local police to enforce the law, they really enjoy this)
Last time we had dumping they found id's in the trash and it was wonderful to see the smile, "I know this guy" said the warden and the dumping stopped.
Don't fix it.
Hunters have been doing this for years (with film, and now digital) to figure out prey patterns with cameras that are built for concealment; what else would you recommend?
Monterey County in California has implemented this approach: Posting signs along several roads where the worst dumping occurs saying "No Dumping: Video Surveillance In Progress", in addition to the signs that say "No Littering Or Dumping $1000 Fine..." per the California Penal Code, and then hiding portable video surveillance gear in various spots along the roads. The gear isn't always there but it is well hidden so no one knows when they're there or where they are at. The result is that dumping has been reduced to occasional littering. Enough people have been caught dumping that most people know that it's too risky.
Trail Cams are great, but spend the big $$ to get one with High Resolution or else you'll have grainy faces/license plates which won't be of any help at all.
You'll need top sped upwards or U.S. $500.- each to get a decent one.
http://www.google.com/search?q=wildview+cameras&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvns&source=univ&tbm=shop&tbo=u&sa=X&ei=wV90ULPTFNGgyAHboYCwAw&ved=0CDgQsxg&biw=1441&bih=902
they're fairly cheap and good. Run on 4 C batteries or can be hooked directly to a car battery. Different models take different capacity SD cards. I have two for my birdfeeder. One takes bursts of 3 pics when the PIR detects movement, it uses a visible strobe for night time. The other is more up your alley, it uses a pir also, but can take picture bursts OR video, and uses a grid of 35 IR LEDs, range is about 35 feet. The IR leds are visible but only if you really are looking for them. I have a 16 gb SD card in the video one, which is more than it says it supports, but you have to format it carefully for it to use it to full capacity.
Hunters strap them to trees, there's slots on them for that. There's also a locking latch to access the controls, battery, and sd card, but it's not really going to help much if they really want to take the evidence. Just camo it lightly and you'll be fine. I'd recommend getting two, one to watch the dumping area and one to watch the road (to try to get a plate #)
Resolution varies depending on model.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Put up a big obvious CCTV camera housing on a pole with a big obvious sign. This will attract the paintballs.
Then stick a modern exterior CCTV camera up, with a wireless link back to your property. Or alternatively, just use 3G to backhaul it.
...she speaks with authority. So does her little brother, Barrett.
I have no tolerance for asshats. I think a couple shots should begin to discourage them. In your situation, I think it is probably the one group doing the dumping. Otherwise, it would be very sporadic.
If you feel the need, I suggest using a sub-caliber sabot round. There are a couple manufacturers that produce .22 cal slugs in a .30 cal cartridge. Pro tip: A sabot round has no barrel markings. Just make certain you collect the plastic jacket. It'll be in line (more or less) with the target. They burn up pretty good if you use a propane or MAPP torch. (NB)
I also recommend a Thomson Contender in 30-30 with a decent scope. You can shoot from a reclining position and be very well hidden. A Thomson Contender is like the Spanish Inquisition. Nobody expects it.
The UA 571-C Sentry Gun from Aliens would probably work.
I can mend the break of day, heal a broken heart, and provide temporary relief to nymphomaniacs.
Okay, if you're looking at doing this on a budget I would consider going for stills only. Get a cheap Canon camera that's compatable with CHDK. Stick some high capacity batteries in there and use motion detection to trigger the shots.
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK
£30ish - job done.
Use the GNU radio project and record the 90 second pings from the cell phones.
Then you'd have the phone of the parties responsible along with the camera data.
You could setup some nice wildlife cameras, but the police aren't going to do anything about dumpers. Even if you have clear photos of their vehicle, license plate, their faces, and them in the process of dumping. Best that you just put a gate up... or better yet, bury some 2x4s in the trail with screws sticking up out of them. If you have the time, and the dumping occurs frequently enough, maybe sit up one evening with your pump shotgun.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
And any idea of what my legal rights are to videotape or record
FFS people, if the police can do it, so can we. These are "public" areas with no expectation of privacy rights! Right? Some days I just do not understand the world we live in...
"but money is the God of Algiers & Mahomet their prophet." - Rich. O'Bryen June 8th 1786
Here you go. Inexpensive and should do the trick nicely.
http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/browse/hunting-scouting-feeders-trail-cameras/_/N-1100176?WT.z_mc_id1=43000000147167090&WT.srch=1&WT.tsrc=PPC&WT.mc_id=google|hun_Wildlife+Management_Trail+Cameras|USA&rid=20&pcrid=8194945977
I ran into this site a few months ago, and it talks about the various cameras, etc. http://www.diytrailcams.com/
this product uses 3g and has solar and camera addon options.
http://www.winkstreaming.com/en/transporter/ its expensive from what I gather, but it does the job you are after.
Moultrie Game Spy L-50 5.0 Megapixel Digital Game Camera
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Moultrie-Game-Spy-L-50-5.0-Megapixel-Digital-Game-Camera/16386227#ProductDetail
Buy 20 foot chomping bear traps and set them wear the dumpers normally drag their crap. Check on the traps daily.
Depending on your state and locality, you might be able to hire a private investigator for less than the cost of a new camera. Ask around until you find one that already has that equipment and pay him to go do the set-up for you. If this is happening more than a couple times a week, he/she could hang out on or near the property and catch them in the act.
It never occurred to me to use a PI until I became an attorney -- now I get to use them all the time. I've found a few in the Chicago area that are very resourceful practical people with good people skills -- excellent people to know in almost any walk of life.
in addition to the camera, I would recomend anything chambered in 45-70
Fuck the 'NO TRESPASSING' or 'NO DUMPING' signs, what you need are a couple signs that read DANGER: LAND MINES.
Cheap car-cams are all over ebay - for about £30 + sd card, you can get motion activated, hd cams with substantial lithium batteries and a range of features. Some are crap, some are awesome - use common sense when sorting through ebay... Most can also chop (e.g. 1 hour blocks) and cycle (e.g. auto-delete oldest). Depending on your quality settings, sd card size etc, you may be able to leave it until there is something dumped (as long as you check and recharge / replace battery occasionally). Beware of trees though - wind can trigger motion sensors and easily eat up batteries.
Just buy a game camera. You can pick it up at most outdoor hunting stores or over the internet. They don't cost much, and run on motion.
There is an obvious solution in American folk wisdom
The October 2012 issue of "Nuts and Volts" magazine has: Remote Data Logger & Surveillance Cam Audio/Video by Andy Sullivan Need to keep an eye on something but can’t be there in person? This remote monitor features visual and messaging feedback. Page 40
with a sign:
You are being recorded via an Uplink camera.
Illegal duping will resort in a $2200 Fine
See what happens.
If you are in a truly small town, have someone from the other side of the country send you something. n in a box from the "Uplink Camera Corp." Just have them put a phone book in it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
There's a piece of free software called "motion", which takes JPEG snapshots when something moves in the picture. It works reasonably well if you don't point it at vegetation that moves in the wind. You can also define an exclusion mask. The webcam may be damaged by the sunlight (the colours will change).
I used one for some weeks, just to take picture of "wildlife" like squirrels and cast.
If you' want to go cheap you could get a raspberry pi and an ordinary webcam, but you'd need a solar cell and a batter, which may be expensive. It may also be difficult to waterproof (but if it's cheap, it doesn't matter that much). A benefit would be that you could hook it up with a mobile data card and have access to live streaming and look over hte pictures daily.
If you don't go at least that far, sometimes it finds its way back home.
Its best to marry your daughter off to someone at least two counties over.
And a handful of vacation days
i use dropcam, color during day, nightvision at night, 200 dollars and it records videos to an online server if you pay the monthly charge
runs on solar power, super easy to use. expensive though wink transporter
I thought a gate that can be crashed through by emergency fire vehicles was OK to block a road. The gate has a lock for you, and should be enough to keep out unwanteds, but any firetruck would knock it down without blinking.
The October 2012 edition of Nuts and Volts magazine has just such a project. If you are lucky it is at your news stand now. You can use the "deer cam" as others have suggested. You could also use a Canon Power Shot digital camera in a water tight box with the "updated" firmware. Go to: http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK and see what they have to offer. This software DOES NOT harm your camera or modify it. The "hack" is removed when you remove the SD card. You can get used Power Shot cameras on eBay for sub $50. You then place this in a wooden "bat box" or similar item with a small window. You want it to be water proof and obscure. Big battery pack (possibly solar charged) may be useful.
Any commercial infrared camera (game cameras) can be detected at night by simply turning the bright lights off. You'll have to spend $$$$$$ for motion sensing night vision gear if you don't want your evidence to "disappear" as the trash appears.
Lots of models to choose from. Many are already camoflaged. As someone else mentioned, you can (somewhat dimly) see the IR LEDs if the ambient light is dim enough. To avoid having your trail camera stolen, one idea might be to put it inconveniently high up in a tree. So unless one of the things they're throwing away is a really long ladder, they won't be able to retrieve it, and its presence may act as a deterrent.
(You could also have multiple cameras watching each other, but at $180 apiece, maybe not a lot of them.)
Good luck. The bastards deserve to be arrested.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Move away from California.
This was a topic I had researched some time ago for another purpose. Basically, the game cameras don't have enough resolution for the most part, to use in prosecution, if that is your aim, so I'd test first and ask that kind of question of the manufacturer. There are several products that pop up in the RV security space that would probably help, but be prepared to spend a little coin - about half a good sized Mac Book Pro or so. I'm currently evaluating a solution in this market that says it can send videos from each camera and conserves battery by only turning on the cameras when someone is in range of a motion sensor. You may way to search for RV security systems and look for those with 3g or similar capability. There are only a couple. If you are handy with electronics, you can get an arduino board that has support for 3g, cameras, and what not, but that would require development time - again cost. You can also get some units out of china similar to the game cameras that have support for cellular, but personally, I'm not that brave.
Check out these time-lapse cameras for nature recording. Seems like just the thing for you...
http://www.wingscapes.com/catalog.aspx
Oh shit! I forgot to click "Post Anonymously"...
I've been in a similar situation.
We called the DA office where I live and asked if they would prosecute dumpers if we had video evidence. The answer was no.
The only satisfaction you may get is tracking them down yourself and dumping their garbage on their lawn.
You'll have highly-trained govt surveillance teams monitoring your site 24/7.
Buy a second hand Canon compact camera with AA size batteries, install CHDK and use a motion detection script.
Hook up a more powerful battery pack for longer time.
You can put a simple removable roadblock, which has a clear sign, that dumping is not allowed. So, that every car coming must stop and read the sign, but the roadblock is easy to remove in emergency if necessary.
We must use that kind of roadblocks to seal of the area, when we launch our big hobby rockets in an army artillery shooting area in Finland. The army lets us use their shooting area during a couple of days in a year ( when they don't need it ) with a couple of conditions. One of them is, that we must post temporary roadblocks on roads.
Here is an example:
http://aapo.iki.fi/kuvat/raketti/pahkajarvi_12_03/roadblock_small.jpg
Later, if the dumpers remove the roadblock, you can put cameras nearby the roadblock. Actually, the roadblock can be triggered electrically in such a manner, that if someone removes the roadblock, cameras start taking pictures, an alarm is sounded and a sms message is sent to you. Or maybe even to police or security company.
"And any idea of what my legal rights are to videotape or record?""
No idea, as you fail to tell us in which country or state you live.
step 1: Find a good vantage point.
step 2: Wait.
step 3: Take out engine block.
That should do the trick....
These people have self powered video cameras that can survive a hurricane.. You might want to look up storm chasers on YT and contact one of them if they know where you can find this kind of camera. HTH
Put up a chain, gate or otherwise block the road. Place a lock on it. Pay a visit to your local fire department with a key to the lock with the address attached to it. If the fire department is like the one I used to serve on, the first fire engine has a set of keys on a large keyring, all with addresses and usually phone numbers too so if there is a need to access your road, they can let themselves in and lock up when they leave. We would also place a courtesy call afterward to let the owner know we had used the key. If you find a need to change the lock, update the key and information with the FD.
"If stupid things work...then they are not stupid."
If you are after a commercially tested product have a look at the following: http://rmtek.com.au/
http://www.defendec.com/
A little more than what's needed in this case - these things are autonomous for 400 days or 5000 images.