Using Video To Catch a Nasty Neighbor

Living in the Northeast has its pros and cons. We have the four seasons, great food, entertainment, sports, everything is at your fingertips, and for me it’s where business gets done.

Drawbacks include lots of congestions, crime, traffic, bad attitudes and nasty neighbors. Most people I know have a neighbor they are in some kind of entanglement with. It’s everywhere. When houses are stacked on top of each other people get territorial and stuff happens.

A New York Times article highlights a few of these nasty scenarios that I’m talking about. One person from the article was quoted saying “I’m not sure now, whether to worry more about my neighbors or strangers.”

I hear you man. I HEAR YOU!

Installing video surveillance outside your home can be a deterrent to a burglar or home invader. Cameras are another layer of protection. But they can also catch a person doing things they shouldn’t too.

For example:

My cameras caught one of my neighbors attacking another neighbor. The film was used as evidence in court and the attacker moved.

Man catches a neighbor who “had been tossing plastic bags of dog excrement into the sculptured shrubs around a palm tree in his front yard.” Man gets a fine and is shamed on Youtube. He moved.

A former state district judge, is caught scratching the back of his neighbors car. The video, was posted on YouTube. Shamed.

One man used the cameras to document a “neighbor’s cats prowling and fouling the yard around his mobile home. He also discovered neighbors looking in his windows while he was away.” Posted to YouTube.

Another man who had items missing from his home caught his neighbor on film entering his basement and rooting around which was enough for the police to arrest him.

Video is available through ADT Pulse which provides customers with anywhere, anytime access to their home via smart phones or personal computers, including an iPhone application to:

• Arm and disarm their home security system.

• Get notified of alarms and selected events via email and text messages as well as video clips.

• View their home through cameras and watch secure real-time video or stored video clips of events from monitored areas of the home.

• Access lights and appliances or set schedules to automate them.

Robert Siciliano personal security expert to Home Security Source discussing Home Security on NBC Boston. Disclosures.