Home security: Long Post: Ongoing Issue with Stalker- Please help |
- Long Post: Ongoing Issue with Stalker- Please help
- Disarming SimpliSafe SS3 by adding a PIN with a rogue keypad
- Quick question: Antimicrobial fixtures
- Attracting dangerous animals to my property for home defense purposes
- Need help please, affordable indoor cams with audio?
- Raspberry Pi Security Camera?
- What should you do when you buy a new house to prevent carbon monoxide poisoning? Like is installing a detector in every single room really economical/effective?
| Long Post: Ongoing Issue with Stalker- Please help Posted: 01 May 2020 04:31 AM PDT I've been reading the wiki and posts as they crop up regarding security options and approaches. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. First Incident This all started over 5 years ago when my SO and I moved into our first apartment together. The first few months were okay, but I gradually started feeling like I was being watched. I started to find the entry to our private, secured, fenced-in yard ajar. Not trusting myself, I made a routine of checking the gate right before we went to sleep, yet without fail it'd be open in the morning. It was a heavy gate that required a lot of strength to open, so it definitely wasn't the wind. My neighbor commented that he noticed it was open when he got home from work around 5 AM, and he felt concerned because he noticed I always checked it. I decided to add a second lock to the existing one, a bike lock that I looped around the gate several times so there was no give. It didn't work, as I'd find items under our bedroom window. Then I started smelling cigarette smoke, but only in the early morning hours when it was dark out, and we started finding butts in the foliage next to our windows. I took pictures and jotted down my observations to keep track. Then I saw a cell phone aimed into our bedroom window late at night. SO's phone was face down and charging and mine was in bed, so I called the cops who told me they could do nothing without video. We couldn't afford a video camera (they were more pricey and we were struggling college students), so we resolved to leave the light on outside our window and SO told me never to stay home alone. One day, not long after that incident, SO and I went out for several hours. We got home in the evening and the apartment felt eerily silent. We walked slowly through the unit until we got to our bedroom and I noticed the screen was missing and so were several panes. There was no broken glass, and my valuables (cash, jewelry, and laptop) were within reach and sight so I at first thought nothing was taken until I noticed my underwear was stolen. I immediately called the cops. The first officer did a walkthrough and told us that this crime scene was unlike all the other burglaries because it was carefully staged and the burglar bypassed underwear hanging on a line outside. The officer said he was frightened for us, and asked if I had anyone who didn't like me. The police officer told us he suspected there was a lot of biological evidence and said this would be transferred to a special unit. He told us we needed to seriously consider leaving. There was evidence the burglar had spent hours in our private yard. We saw that people recommended trail cams, so we got one. It would be triggered at 2/3/4 in the morning but was too slow to catch more than just blurs that looked human-like. Things continued in this vein until someone tried to break into our home through the door we were sitting next to in the early morning hours. They pulled on the door so hard the frame was lifting out of the concrete. We had the lights on and were talking, so it was obvious we were home. SO and I froze, stupidly thinking that if we did it would stop but they came back a second time. The next day we found gouges into the window and door frame. We asked our neighbors if they'd heard anything, and they said someone had walked through their yard but didn't take anything. We started looking for a new place the day after, and were making progress. We hoped that that'd end it. It didn't. We started finding stains on the wall outside our bathroom and our window screen. SO came home from work one day and called me in a panic. There was a freshly dead bird by our front door. No blood, no holes, and the bird didn't look ill. Its neck was twisted and its wing was bent. We called the police to report it and the cop said it was killed by a bb gun, but later said he didn't know how it died. Later that day I walked the perimeter of our rental and found a second dead bird outside our back door, and its neck was twisted and its wing was bent in the exact same position as the first one we found. We moved right after that, and everything seemed to have ended except for feeling watched every so often. Second Incident We had to move yet again due to the unit needing extensive repairs, and we foolishly thought we were safe. We spoke with our landlady and asked if we could install security equipment and the landlord initially agreed but later told us we couldn't because our neighbor didn't want them out of a concern regarding her privacy. It started with hearing someone outside our window in the late night/early morning hours and our neighbor told us she'd seen a car loitering right outside our bedroom window. SO and I assumed it was a fluke, but soon someone started knocking on our wall. This person started calling my name, to the point my SO was worried. We started finding things around our house again. When we called the landlord, landlord told us we couldn't install cameras but the owner agreed to motion-activated floodlights. The lights were installed and I checked every time they went off, but only found wildlife outside. Then we noticed the light wasn't being triggered anymore and we assumed this meant that no one was outside. It was only after I was trying to figure out what had hit our bathroom floor beneath my feet when we noticed someone had turned it so it wouldn't be triggered by movement. It was also around this time that I'd heard something near our backdoor and went to investigate, which is when I noticed someone yanking on our back door again. He saw me and ran away. Then things started to be moved in our home, and other things went missing entirely. Several of my treasured possessions that I kept near my bed went missing. We brushed it off because usually someone was home and what are the odds. Until one night I woke up because I felt like someone was staring at me and I saw a naked man. I screamed and startled SO awake so we both heard the footsteps running. We didn't take action because we didn't know how to explain to the cops that something had been moved from its place, and honestly we thought it was a dream at first. Until I found another dead bird with a twisted neck and bent wing. By this point we'd found another rental and were trying to move as discreetly as possible. One day I was sitting on our couch when I started to feel like I was being watched again. When I looked outside I caught a stranger in our garage staring at me. This person looked exactly like the person I saw standing next to my bed. He started to walk away but lingered on the property until he saw I wasn't alone and he started to walk away, staring at me the whole time. I was telling a family member about this when that family member said they'd seen this person too. Clean-cut and looked like a college student. Third Incident This time we'd found a secured building and assumed being off the ground floor would help keep us safe. But I got a call from someone who knew my name but snickered when I asked if I knew them (the people who know me call me by a different name), and we started to find things on our balcony again. Namely stains when it hadn't rained/no leaking plumbing. We started finding footprints on the roof near our balcony as well. Help with a solution We're freaking out because we've tried rigging up bells, stacking things in front of entry points, lights on, a trail cam, motion-activated lights, and none of these things deterred this guy. Our being there meant nothing because he kept trying to break in despite our cars being home and our lights being on. We're trying to figure out what cameras would be the best bet that would be inconspicuous and catch movement more than the trail cam we had. We'd need one that works well at night, is sharp enough to hand to law enforcement, and can be installed easily and allows us to access and save clips easily. We're also going to get a garage door alarm to give us some advance warning. Thank you for your help! [link] [comments] |
| Disarming SimpliSafe SS3 by adding a PIN with a rogue keypad Posted: 01 May 2020 07:46 AM PDT An attacker, with physical access, can add PINs without prior knowledge of the PIN. This allows the attacker to disarm the system. This is limited to insider threats. [link] [comments] |
| Quick question: Antimicrobial fixtures Posted: 01 May 2020 06:51 AM PDT I'm a chemical engineer by training and have been obsessed with material science for years. Copper has always been interesting because it (and its alloys) have naturally antimicrobial properties. It self disinfects over hours - but doesn't clean other surfaces it touches. Given the current concern around sanitization, I figured I'd start investigating ways to make my high-touch surfaces (like light switches, door knobs, faucet, etc...) antimicrobial, and copper seems like it will do the trick because the right alloy is also durable. It's a low-tech solution that should also look beautiful. I'm researching manufacturing and found some factories that can manufacture at spec, and am seriously considering drafting a business model on the idea. Wanted to reach out to this community to get some feedback on the idea, and see if this is something useful or otherwise covered elsewhere? [link] [comments] |
| Attracting dangerous animals to my property for home defense purposes Posted: 01 May 2020 02:18 PM PDT Title says it all. I have a major problem with trespassers on my property and I'd like to add deterrence measures. I live near a wooded area and am wondering if it's possible to intentionally attract dangerous animals to my property, such as raccoons, bears, skunks (not dangerous per se but highly undesirable to encounter), foxes, hornets, fire ants, and birds of prey, perhaps with food or audio recordings of these animals. Has anyone successfully attempted something like this? Is this legal? Note that I am not concerned with how these animals may impact me as I have several firearms at my disposal. I am mostly looking to deter others. Thanks in advance for your recommendations. [link] [comments] |
| Need help please, affordable indoor cams with audio? Posted: 01 May 2020 12:36 PM PDT Sorry if this question gets asked often, I just found this sub. I am afraid of my ex and need to install indoor cameras with audio in my apartment as soon as possible and need recommendations. I need one very small one to put outside my apartment door to see faces. I dont have a peephole or doorbell so its going to have to get mounted on top of the door frame pointing down. the smaller and more discreet the better. and then also one preferably with audio for inside. I am unemployed because of cv19 so I'm on a budget. thank you so much for any recommendations [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 01 May 2020 11:41 AM PDT So, a few days ago, there was a good announcement on a new camera module for the RPi (https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-high-quality-camera/) and it can be modded easily for IR. Give it a few weeks before some comes up with a 3D printer model for the RPi and the camera, but I was thinking that this could be a viable DIY solution for indoor camera w/ local and remote video recording. I personally hate all the camera kits out there that phone home to China or require some kind of storage subscription or even dubious OEMs reskining garbage cameras with security issues. For outdoor use, this would be a challenge to make IP-xx rated enclosure and worry about heat issues - maybe downclock the CPU or undervolt? Also the idea of putting a cheap battery bank on it or investing in the PoE hat + backup power for the PoE switch would help with power outages as well. There is a purpose built RPi Linux distro called MotionEyeOS as well that would work well for this. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 30 Apr 2020 11:53 PM PDT |
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