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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?

10 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. Use a Drone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    You know you could ask the Govt if their drones are for rent...they have night vision, missiles and everything.

  2. Re:Hunters have the right gear by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    Check around for concealed hunter camera gear.

    How's he supposed to find that?!

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  3. Fuckin' boot lickers by 0xdeadbeef · · Score: 4, Funny

    And any idea of what my legal rights are to videotape or record?

    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?

  4. Re:Deer cams by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Put up the IR deer cams. Hide them because they will steal them."

    Deers steal cameras? Never would have thought.

  5. Re:Shotgun. by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nah, you're not thinking. This is Slashdot - the home of the BSD toaster.

    So, you get the aforementioned hunter cam, then you open the case, find the signal to that fires the camera, rig a opsoisolated switch to another relay circuit that fires off a couple of M80's and a small amount of thermite. Take the pics, wait a few seconds, fire off the M80's and the thermite. For extra fun, take a few more pics.

    Bonus points for rigging explosions down the road on a tripwire or such so that you continue to 'fire' on the miscreants as the run screaming for their lives.

    Use some imagination here, folks.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  6. Re:Do you have a sign? by i.r.id10t · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago, was on - two years ago on Thanksgiving, when my friend and I went up to visit Alice at the restaurant, but Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and Fasha the dog. And livin' in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of room downstairs where the pews used to be in. Havin' all that room, seein' as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn't have to take out their garbage for a long time.

    We got up there, we found all the garbage in there, and we decided it'd be a friendly gesture for us to take the garbage down to the city dump. So we took the half a ton of garbage, put it in the back of a red VW microbus, took shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on toward the city dump.

    Well we got there and there was a big sign and a chain across across the dump saying, "Closed on Thanksgiving." And we had never heard of a dump closed on Thanksgiving before, and with tears in our eyes we drove off into the sunset looking for another place to put the garbage.

    We didn't find one. Until we came to a side road, and off the side of the side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we decided to throw our's down.

    That's what we did, and drove back to the church, had a thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, went to sleep and didn't get up until the next morning, when we got a phone call from officer Obie. He said, "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." And I said, "Yes, sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie, I put that envelope under that garbage."

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    Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
  7. Re:Do you have a sign? by orgelspieler · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why not buy a broken camera from your local junk store and very visibly install it?

    Why buy one? I'm sure that these guys have already dumped one on his property.

  8. An uncle of mine had the same problem by doginthewoods · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
  9. Re:Where Do You Live That That Is Considered Okay? by ClayDowling · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did you provide them with color glossy photos with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one?

  10. Re:Deer cams by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ornithological sex-tapes. Duh.