Get a security system ASAP.

Something like this happened to me one day when I was home alone — sick day. Maybe I will tell more about it later.

Meanwhile, I hope you're feeling secure now.

I’ve sometimes wondered if I should have an audio - sound effect ready:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGzcSSGZzqM

Petalique, that reminds me of Home Alone!

Years ago, my roommate had a miniature dachshund. An intruder’s greatest risk would be tripping over her, but they wouldn’t dare enter because she had a bark like a doberman! When someone knocked and we opened the door, they fell over laughing at the — relief? — that this little thing couldn’t reach higher than their anklebone.

I never saw the movie “home alone.”

Rob, that photo! Looks like it was taken at dusk (?). Really smart to wear a red buffalo plaid jacket and white striped athletic pants.

I have a bias against these sorts of striped athletic pants. In my experience (TV News, and a couple of in real life observations) it seems that low lifes have an affinity for these sorts of pants.

For whatever reason, different from criminal, I’ve observed that this style of pants are perhaps not as popular with Americans as they are in certain areas of Eastern Europe.

I find these pants w stripes butt-ugly.

Yeah, I agree about those pants and I bet he's wearing a "wife beater" underneath.

https://www.snopes.com/articles/465371/wife-beater-tank-top-origin-of-phrase/

Looks like light complected male, light to medium build, his height can be approximated.

Is that a moustache, mask or shadow?

The problem I note with a lot of security cameras, especially ones at cash register counters, are that the often fail to show the face clearly, particularly if the person is wearing a hood or brimmed hat.

I think the camera lens should be angled upward a bit to better show the face of someone. In stores that are vulnerable, get better lighting or pay more for better lens.

I edited the image to better illuminate the person’s face. Perhaps an addict looking for fast valuables or cash.

Could be female.

He's not trying to be unnoticeable, that's for sure!

When I saw the picture this morning, I thought it was a mustache. I also immediately thought, there's a meth head.

oly, I found everything about my would-be intruder to be brazen. So I think it's the same person.

Desperation rules.

I was told a story by someone who tried pepper spray on someone under the influence of some drugs. The pepper spray did not deter the violent criminal jacked up on whatever.

As someone who also lives alone, I have given this much thought. I decided that I would yell "Michael, there's someone trying to break in. Get your gun. I'm calling the police". And then I would call the police. They are less than two minutes from my house.

"The pepper spray did not deter the violent criminal jacked up on whatever."

Hence the I'm going to buy bear spray. I'm pretty sure it would even stop a meth head.

Three cameras ordered and on their way. Thanks for the Blink suggestion Amy. I just got the current version of the outdoor camera, three of them, on sale. From $270 down to $99. 🤞🏻 That I can install them. I want to put one higher up on the house, catching the entire street beside my house. I'm just sure that someday, police are going to need it. People fly up and down it, and there's going to be a really bad accident someday

It's sad to prejudge a person's character by their clothes. Some of you had better not visit the UK or many European countries. Tracksuit trousers are everyday casual garb and no indication at all of "low life". Many brands, including very expensive ones, have side stripes.

I'm judging the person breaking into houses. There he is on display! It's odd that they have a sort of uniform? Not all tracksuit wearers are bad. But a lot of criminals wear tracksuits.

Just a coinky-dink!

Clothing is certainly regional. But I suspect you need athletic-type wear to make quick getaways!

well, around here lots of these low-lifes shoplift their outfits (and everything else) and Dicks Sporting Goods and Big 5 are hit often, so maybe there is a correlation between what they can steal and what they are wearing

Floral, I appreciate that. I tried to qualify and said that my bias is from my own experience. I also said my area, not in other parts of the world where they are popular.

People should see what I wear. My favorite clothes are garden and project clothes. Worn, patched.

The person in the photo has on clothing that looks clean. I have no idea if he/she is fixing his own door latch, locking his door or saying goodbye to his aunt after dropping off a gift.

Well then you might want to know... This house has been hit three times recently (I don't know if anyone's been successful or not). They're on the main road, which I am not. He's actually trying to break in. I don't mean to judge, but that's what's going on.

I'm on the fence about the other part. I think it's just a ribbon from his waist, but others think that he's holding a knife. I think it's okay to judge somebody with a knife who's actually trying a knob that doesn't belong to their family or friends

rob333, do those cameras communicate with your smart phone? with the internet?

Do they have a way to store and save and recall footage? Video too?

Do they record audio or just images?

Can you communicate remotely to anyone at the door or in the image? Or only real time while you are home and someone is being displayed on the camera?

We now have too many tree and foliage between our house and the road. Also, the road curves. I want to get some cameras for ? security, but also wildlife. I sometimes have a game or trail cam set up way out back on the other side of a stone wall where we have a compost pile. Raccoons, opossum and coyotes come to it for peelings, veg scraps, coffee grounds. But I have cautioned DH about putting anything possibly edible there until after a good long freezing period of weather. I do not want anything to attract black bear. This time of year they are trying to fatten up for winter sleep.

Link for where you bought you Blink cams?

It says it has every ability. I can use the app to talk to people. It stores things in the cloud for 60 days. I'm hoping Amy will pipe up here!

It's actually an A#azon product. I'm exceedingly happy about the price. You should buy right now if that's what you're thinking about.

P.S. bear spray does not attract, it's a deterrent

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_spray

Petalique/rob, the blink cameras come with a sync module that connects your cameras to the app on your phone. You can set each camera for how sensitive you want the motion detection to be, how long you want it to record once it is set off/etc. You set it to send an alert to your phone when a video was created due to motion detection. And it does store them for a time. It is easy to download the videos to your phone in case you want to save them for longer than Blink stores them. Mine record both video and audio. It is extremely easy to set up. The downside is that the camera will only work within a certain distance away from your WIFI. The range is actually quite good on mine, all of my 8 cameras are outdoors and some are quite a distance away and they still work.

i have several different security camera, some inside and 2 outside.

these are the views of my 2 outside blink cameras. i have them set to record motion clips...

Since you have cameras and maybe voice. Can you record a greeting in the best caveman baritone voice? With very scary dog barking?

you can't record anything on the blink cameras but you can speak through it in "real time".

any time someone pulls up to my house, the danes fly out the dog door and stand at the gate and bark bark bark. i can almost always tell, just from the sound of their barks, if it's friend or foe (i.e., stranger). lots of times, when it's a friend, they will come back inside and wait at the door for them to enter and get the full great dane greeting. if it's a stranger, they'll stay outside and bark until i go out to see what's going on.

FWIW, I think it's a good idea to check before positioning a security camera to record a public right of way like the street or sidewalk, since it may be illegal.

My side yard about the street, so it's just sort of that direction. It's a big side yard. I'm not sure I could avoid the street.

I just read. You can't aim at any private areas that don't belong to you. You can't film where there is some expectation of privacy. But in a public place, there is no expectation of privacy, so it's okay. As long as you're not targeting people, you're okay.

Just a comment..... if you order a lot from Amazon, they can deliver 24 hours a day. One item I recently ordered said it would be delivered between 4 AM and 8 AM. So yes, there may be strangers around your door at odd hours of the day.

As long as they're not trying to get in my house, I'm pretty ok with "strangers around my door".

Strangers at my door, trying to get in is an automatic 911 call

debra

I think I was just second-guessing myself because the cops were so dismissive. I feel like I did the right thing now (they said they looked around and didn't see anything. Well you know, if you gotten there sooner, you might have seen something). Now I'm beginning to think they're really crummy. Bad law enforcement!

"Now I'm beginning to think they're really crummy. Bad law enforcement!"

No, not bad law enforcement. You couldn't give a description of anyone so how do they know who to look for? Randomly walk around? They probably did that but without a description of who tried to open your door, what do you expect them to do? Even if they did come across someone, you can't positively ID them.

Yeah because the same crime occurred a block over the next day was just a coinkydink. Please. That's not coincidence.

"The next day"

So when the police responded to you, the same thing happened the "next" day a block over?

LOL, so you expect the police to be psychic too? Respond to you and know who to look for before the same thing happened the next day? That doesn't even make sense.

Yeah because that's how it works. They never connect one crime to another. 🙄

Keep on, but you're not convincing me? Nor does the neighborhood agree with you.

I don't need your approval. It's obvious what was going on. Don't care if you agree 🤣

P.S. I expect the police to be, I don't know, detective. In nature. If they can't do that, maybe they need to try harder. Need more training? It's their lack, not mine

I read your story to my SO, a retired sergeant with our county police. What I wrote were his comments.

But as is typical with your posts, you've probably left out pertinent detail. His comments are based strictly on what you wrote.

And why would you ever think you need my approval? Approval for what? 🙄

That's really rich. A cop approves of other cops' stupidity?

Now I know I'm right. They failed, and they are trying to cover their tracks. Everyone can see what they're doing. Which is blaming the wrong person.

And your experience in law enforcement is what, exactly? Please cite your credentials and relevant experience. Calling cops stupid is also really rich.

Of course you're right. You always are.

I'm sorry?

Why would anybody try my door knob? Or someone else's the next day? Within the same area. I may not always be right, but you didn't offer any reasons that I was wrong. People normally try door knobs? So they're not a tweaker, looking for some easy score?

Ok. Right. That's so common.

P.S. you know somebody who knows somebody so you have experience in law enforcement? Wow, that sounds familiar

I never said I have experience in law enforcement. I asked someone who does. I asked the person I live with. Never claimed to have any experience or expertise in that field.

You need to work on your reading comprehension. Or cite where I claimed that I have law enforcement experience.

Rob, I hope you are having at least a security doorbell installed by now.

Would also like it if you have a few security cameras an alarm system.

Because you do live in a nice area, your neighborhood is a target.

As a person living alone, esoevially female, you can be careful enough. Not to the point of paranoia, but just street smart.

Rob, I get what Sephia is saying about the ability of the police to investigate what happened at your house, with no eye witnesses, no pictures, etc. unless they find the suspect from the following day and he confesses to trying your doorknob. Even then, I'm not sure what crime they would charge him with? Detectives need something and a suspect a block away isn't really any kind of evidence he was at your house. Circumstantial, maybe, but not really evidence, nor is it certain a crime was even committed. Trespassing maybe? But, here, you have to have either a sign posted or you have to have told someone to stay off your property. If they come back they can be charged with trespassing. So, it's unlikely, even if there was a positive ID of the guy that he could be charged. It's not the cops' failure, it's simply the circumstances of the situation.

^^^ this. Yes, Olychick, you said what I was trying to say better than I did. And by the way, being you're fairly close to me, my SO retired from King County. Was also on SWAT for 12 years.

We’ve had ACTUAL crime and it doesn’t get much more attention. Stuff stolen out of unlocked cars. What are they supposed to do? They do encourage us to report it, at best they might patrol the area a bit more, or they may be able to tie stuff back to us if the criminal is actually caught, but expectations are set very low. Deservedly so, I’d say.

You want to hear what’s really frustrating? Having a brand new Macbook stolen, tracker showing where it is, police saying s lot of stuff ends up at that address but the trackers aren’t deemed precise enough to get a search warrant. That’s my son, at college. Shared because hopefully it’ll put some perspective on rattled doorknobs.

Sharing the warning with your neighbors so they’re aware and are sure to lock their doors is smart defense.

FOAS I have heard from others that the police will not search a house even if a tracker puts the item there. It makes me wonder why people buy trackers, unless perhaps a screen shot showing the location along with a report to the police would help with an insurance claim.

I do think that cameras are worth the money, these days they can be very reasonably priced and you can install them yourself. And when I had my house, I had motion activated lighting outside at night I installed myself; again a fairly inexpensive tool to help.

I read neighborhood posts about theft in Nextdoor, way too many of these happen when owners do not lock up their vehicles or homes.

“It makes me wonder why people buy trackers, unless perhaps a screen shot showing the location along with a report to the police would help with an insurance claim.”

Not everything misplaced is stolen. l’ve successfully tracked and recovered things over the years. Backpacks, phones… I just lost my keys for four days, would habe found them faster if they had and airtag on them.

I've posted before about a friend who was burgled and his Macbook laptop was stolen (along with his desktop and much more). Mac's have a 'find my' feature and he tracked his laptop to the Apple store nearest him. He notified the police but they wouldn't do a thing. He suspects someone working at Apple was in on a theft ring and perhaps knew how to bypass passwords to wipe the computers clean so they can be resold.

I just got the current version of the outdoor camera, three of them, on sale. From $270 down to $99. -------------------------------------------------------------------

- Link .....for anyone that wants THIS AMAZING deal! For $30 more you get the doorbell w/ 3 cameras. Mine arrives tomorrow.

WOW! Great deal on cameras Rob! I don't think it requires a subscritpion?

update I found this: "Without a subscription, clips display no still image, merely a 'Play' arrow. More seriously, there is no method to delete multiple clips at the same time. (another poster says, "Take out the usb, put it in your computer, format it, put it back in the camera")

The reviews say THIS is the best system on the market for the money. Better systems cost more.

Blink cameras can record in color, but if your images are black and white, it might be because Night Vision Control is on. (Very cool!)

I keep a can of hornet spray by my front door - those things shoot 20+ feet! Be safe.

I've heard wasp spray, and I'm going to buy that.

I will install the cameras tomorrow. I think they were a Black Friday deal that's early? Yay for me!