A couple weekends a go while my kid was playing in the back yard (2 acres) I saw a man standing in the treeline at the back of the garden, 300' from the house. He appeared to be staring at my kid, and ran off when he saw me.

After doing some research I found that the house on the other side of the property line has a convicted child sex offender registered there.

When I called the police they came out and told me that unless I could identify the person or establish a pattern of suspicious bahavior they woudl be unable to confront the man. I was too far away to identify the person, but the officer did take a report so that we have a official written record of my report that could help show a pattern later.


So, back to CCTV... I need to be able to do 2 things...

1) Find out if he comes back
2) Be able to match the person to a photograph I have of the sex offender

I'm gonna find out if he's coming back before I try to get a good facial ID.

I have a 60mm lens lying around here that should get me about a 25 or 30' wide view at 300'. That's about how wide the clearing in the trees is. I already have the DVR set up to FTP images if there's motion - so a single person walkign through a shot that is 30' wide should show up on a sensitive motion detection. Then I can glance through a folder of thumbnail images of the motion and see if there's someone there. it only takes a few seconds to review the tumbnails at the end of the day.

The big problem will be at night - the 60mm lens is no auto-iris so I'll get terrible images at twilight and nothing after dark. I'l thinking that maybe running an IR illuminator attached to a tree out there adn connected to a motorcycle battery would give me a few days at a time of illumination - just enough to see if there's a figure there at night.

If he's coming back then I'll work on getting a closer pic - but that probably means running a 300' trench or something. ugh!

Right now my approach is tokeep my kid safe and in my sight at all times when out in the garden, and my main aim with the camera is to find out if he's coming back. I don't expect a camera to keep my kid safe, but it will hopefully give me some insight into the problem. If I can catch him watching my kid then maybe he police can so something about him.


Any advice or guidance? Either on camera/lens selection or ammo selection? If someone presented this same problem to you then what kind of camera configuration would you recommend, if any.

Think I would be tempted to use the paint ball mines that have been discussed with a good day-glo ink for paint... don't want it to wash off to easy. :D

Geez, what an unpleasant situation to say the least!

If your child is aware of and able to react to and report the potential danger I would imagine that's a major step to being safe during the day.

I'm not sure why he would be standing in the clearing at night in any case, since he probably couldn't see either! Perhaps at night it boils down to the same sort of security you would need for any sort of intruder. I'm thinking an IR beam surrounding your property to let you know immediately if there is an intrusion. I have a wireless doorbell and sensor on my back gate 120' away and it gives me a sense of security far beyond what I expected since I'm always home and nobody coming through the gate has any idea I know it was just opened.

There is a device available that combines a cheap digital camera with a motion detector, designed to photograph wildlife. Perhaps that would work nailed to a tree to get the evidence you need? 300 ft just seems like a long way to get an image good enough for reliable motion detection.

300' is a long way to get a picture of someone that is clear enough to identify them. I agree the wildlife cam would probably be the way to go. They do have them now that have ir and motion detection so there is no flash when the picture is taken. There are also some low cost wireless cams that are small enough to hide in the trees and give you a picture that would be good enough to identify the person on the video. If you put a small wireless cam out in the trees and do what you said with the illuminator I think it would work well. The small wireless cams can transmit 400' line of site but you would want to find a place in your yard close to your house that you could hide the reciever. Then run the wire into your house and into your vcr for evidence.

The wireless gate sensor is also a good idea. You can turn your tv onto the wireless cam input when you hear the sensor. Then start record on your vcr.

PM me and I can give you sources and costs for the equipment. (shouldn't be more than a couple hundred bucks.)

Sorry to here about your problem. You and your family stay safe.

I would start with beams and get the alarm up to speed ..
Also, can you run cable out there for the cameras, to tie into the DVR?

you might want to checkout that solution from videofied - its battery powered and will send the video to you via cell line... but then you gotta guess right on the location of the shot... hmm i like the photo beam idea

If he is just in a particular spot then I would use this as the detector is powered by a 9 volt battery.

You can use up to 4 detectors with this.
http://www.optexamerica.com/productpage.aspx?l1=2&l2=&id=38

For perimeter protection then this might do the trick:
http://www.optexamerica.com/productpage.aspx?l1=2&l2=&id=9


Yes! I would do the paint ball land mine. If you spot him, and call the police, then he could deny it when they knock on his door. The paint could be UV paint so that it could only be seen with a hand held black light.