Security for remotely-stored RV?s, etc

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Boonieman

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 19, 2017
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382
Location
Meade County, Ky
Our driveway is about a half mile long, winding down thru woods and thru a covered bridge, no way to get our 5th wheel toy hauler down to the house. We also have a few acres across the county road from our driveway, so when we had a pole barn built that?s where we put it so we could store the RV and some other stuff in it.....easy access, close to the paved road. Unlike our house which is armed with great alert dogs and other deterrents, the building sits up there unattended and potentially an easy target. We did install an alarm system with motion detectors and door sensors (no WiFi) and this system will text our phones in the event of an alarm condition. It is a 3G based system and works pretty good, but we have had an occasional false alarm.....a couple of them in the wee hours of the morning. That meant getting up, driving up to the building to check, and so far false alarms thank goodness, but a pain. I can get WiFi up there for a camera system, but down here in the sticks it?s a locally owned phone company and WiFi for just that building is about $70 a month. I?m not doing that. My better half was researching game cameras this fall. We ended up mounting one high up on the building. It is set up to use a 3G phone modem (way more secure than WiFi, no hacking) and when the camera takes a picture, it sends a message to our phones saying that the camera just took a picture and the modem transmits the picture. The camera is designed to be outdoors and has a flashless infrared feature for night pictures. You do have to pay a month fee for the 3G access, but it?s like $10 a month, more if you get a higher data plan, but reasonable. I like this system because if someone destroys the camera, too late, the picture is already on the way. Right now we are using AA batteries and they have been in there a month and still showing 70%. Since it looks like it?s working acceptable, I?m going to install an external power supply, but it still has battery backup. I know I can?t be the only one who?s has to store something out of our line of sight, so just wanted to pass along how we cope with it. I?m sure there are as good or better ideas out there, just what we are doing, for now anyway. I?m attempting to attach a photo of when I was pulling up to the building as an example.
 

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The picture is good enough to get a license plate number.

How long after taking the first picture does it take another?

Tom
 
The cellular 3G based systems are very popular and effective as long as you have good cell coverage in the location that the alarm system is located.  It's been used on professionally installed alarm systems for quite a few years now, as lots of folks have gotten away from the traditional phone lines coming into their houses, and the phone lines can't be cut to disable the alarm monitoring to not work.  And since the cellular system is a dedicated service for the alarm, the cost per month is pretty reasonable.  It sounds to me like you've got a pretty good setup and I would probably do as you are going to do.....add an external power supply with the battery as a backup. 
 
A friend of mine is manager of the Chevy dealer in town.  They have all sorts of cameras.  He said that the problem is that some of the people stealing use hoodies and are difficult to catch specially if they don't have previous records.  There are several break-in recorded but still unresolved.  Pretty sad. Just  FYI
 
    First and foremost, I apologize to the paragraph police for my previous rambling post.

    To answer a couple questions, the camera settings can be changed at the camera or from a smart phone app. You can change time delays, camera resolutions, and a few other minor functions from the phone app.
    It is true that if potential intruders were disguised in some way there would be little chance of a criminal prosecution. In reality, as rural as it is here response time from local law inforcement is so long that 911 is basically irrelevant. I?m mostly using the camera to help verify when I get an intrusion report from the building alarm system whether it is false or potentially valid. I don?t really need police assistance to run off a couple would be thieves.
    I would love to have a full blown camera system, but the list of things I would love to have far outpaces my poor old pocketbook. ?
 
 
  I have a buddy that texts me and doesn?t use capitalization or punctuation marks or anything and it drives me nuts. When Claimjumper called me on my crappy paragraph, I had no defense. I considered it a friendly poke in the ribs, nothing more. I don?t waste my time sweating the smalll stuff. ?





 
aguablanco said:
I have always felt that my best security was a good insurance policy. Can't stop thieves.
RichH

So true...but I do like the idea the OP presents here.  I've been thinking about doing the same myself at my S&B house and maybe at the offsite RV too.
it aint gonna stop anyone
and the big problem is that you'd have to be awake to immediately check the text or email that you get on your phone.....AND be actually close enough to get there in time.
But I recon the camera idea is in a sense complimentary to the insurance policy....more so than actually something preventative.
IF someone breaks in, you have a higher chance of getting them arrested
and if they steal something you'll have a higher chance of getting your stuff back
and while it won't eliminate the potential of feeling forever violated, it may hopefully allow you to get some sense of closure and justice when you do get the slug arrested.
 
aguablanco said:
I have always felt that my best security was a good insurance policy. Can't stop thieves.
RichH

Insurance is great Rich but Smith & Wesson is the BEST security.  However, it depends  on some system to get your attention.  I have been looking at the Ring system that has the camera, reports to your phone and can turn on bright lights.  But Boonieman's wif-fi expense may negate that system.

Bill
 
Bill N said:
Insurance is great Rich but Smith & Wesson is the BEST security.  However, it depends  on some system to get your attention.  I have been looking at the Ring system that has the camera, reports to your phone and can turn on bright lights.  But Boonieman's wif-fi expense may negate that system.

Bill

Not so sure about the S&W defense.  When we awoke in a campground to find our toad had been stolen overnight, one of the deputies who responded said, "too bad you didn't have a gun".  I responded, "no, too bad the dogs didn't wake me up."
When the people were caught and the Jeep recovered, we discovered the thieves were already wanted for murder in Ohio.  At that point I figured he'd have been a lot more ready to shoot than I would have after awaking at 3am and stumbling out of the RV door. 
Rather glad it played out the way it did.  They're in jail, I got my Jeep back, and the insurance paid for the stuff they stripped and sold off the Jeep.  And best of all, no one(else)ended up dead.
 
Likely that S&W should be used for defense, not offense. Always the chance they will shoot back!
A shotgun is more effective, and will not kill someone in the next 2 or 3 RVs over! Much better for defense, and if you run out and shoot someone stealing your Jeep, imagine the explaining you would have to do.
 
  Shotgun is great....if it’s use is warranted! Low brass (field load) #8 shot is my recommendation, it will certainly be effective at close range ( which should help your self defense case in court), and minimize chance of injury to someone in the next room (home use) or in the next RV. Much safer and extremely effective (at close range). Also, with the light (field load), a quick repeat shot is much easier...should it be needed (not likely)!  Also, shotguns are legal in most areas, even “blue” states!
 
Memtb said:
  Shotgun is great....if it?s use is warranted! Low brass (field load) #8 shot is my recommendation, it will certainly be effective at close range ( which should help your self defense case in court), and minimize chance of injury to someone in the next room (home use) or in the next RV. Much safer and extremely effective (at close range). Also, with the light (field load), a quick repeat shot is much easier...should it be needed (not likely)!  Also, shotguns are legal in most areas, even ?blue? states!

Boonieman's description was  of an isolated area, not an RV park. so that is not what I am suggesting.  But having a S&W in your hand when you yell at somebody is better than having a cell phone.  As they say, police are just 5 minutes away but Mr S&W is 5 seconds away.  I know how to use the weapon and have enough smarts to know when to use it but I want to HAVE IT when needed.  Shotgun is hard to fit next to the bed.  If my idea is to inflict minimal damage I would use a shotgun as you say.  But if the opponent is using a pistol, it would be like me bringing a knife to a gun fight.  No doubt there are multiple opinions on this whole issue.

Bill
 

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