So where I live in nyc package thieves often also steal security/ doorbell cameras. Idk why. Maybe resell or even just so the person doesn’t have one anymore. Anyway, how should I go about protecting my outdoor cam from being damaged or stolen? Obvious answer is place it high enough so they can’t reach, however, then you won’t see the persons face. Thieves would most wear a hoodie or hat to cover their face. So, eye level is where I’d really want to place the camera but it’d surely be gone in a matter of days. You can find a lot of this happening with Ring doorbell cams.
The outdoor camera has a 1/4 inch screw (standard for many dslr cameras) in the bottom. You could find some sort of tamper resistant screw but would need to find a way to mount and position it the way you like.
Depending on the buildings exterior wall, you could make a lockable box to cover the camera. You would need a hole in the front just big enough for the lens. Just don’t use metal for the box, for obvious reasons.
When the camera needs to be charged, unlock the box. If you have 2 cameras, then you could swap one out to charge and not lose the video coverage.
Just an idea.
Another user posted their use of a Wyze motion sensor facing a mouse trap so they would know when to check the trap. You could probably use a motion sensor or contact sensor to create a notification if camera theft occurred.
I’m on the lookout for a product that can protect an outdoor security camera definitely something like you described. And hopefully something that’s “apartment building friendly” lol
You might be better off getting something like a peephole camera or having a camera looking out your window if possible. I’m not sure that there are any apartment friendly mounting options that are secure enough to stop a motivated thief from ripping something off a wall if they can easily reach it.
A cover or box might mess up the PIR detection as well as block the night vision IR.
Another security feature that Wyze added was a WCO cannot be added to a second account, if it is still assigned to the first one. (This is not to be confused with SHARING your WCO. That is the same as other Wyze devices.)
For example, I have a WCO registered to “mike@anything.com” and the kid down the street thinks it’s cool and steals it. When he tries to add it to his Wyze account he will get a message that the camera is already assigned to another account and to contact CS. As long as I don’t delete the camera from my account, that punk kid (yeah, I know who you are) can’t use it. I have actually tested this with 2 Wyze accounts that I created.
There are 2 things that I don’t know. The first is what if the camera is factory reset can it be reassigned. My suspicion is it wouldn’t matter. I think it is based on either MAC address or camera SN. The second is if Wyze is doing anything on the back end when someone attempts to register a stolen camera. I tend to think they don’t, but can’t say for sure.
I would put my outdoor camera up high enough and I would also purchase smaller cameras to place indoors either in your window or somewhere else inside facing out. That’s what I’ve done instead of looking in my house there facing outside and it works great.
I have one in the living room and one in the bedroom and I love it. I’m waiting on the outdoor camera to arrive so I can place it up high and I hope that it gives me a wide enough angle so that I can see both ends of my house.
And then I plan on purchasing 3 more cameras one specifically for the inside, one for the opposite side of the house and one in my son’s room that’ll be facing out toward the back of the house.
My brother purchased the cameras and he loves them. He was like thank you sis! I actually have to thank my husband who gave them to me and I have to say thank you WYZE!
I thought the outdoor cam was connected to its bracket with a magnet, similar to the indoor cam. This makes it easy to remove when it is time to charge. If there is a 1/4-20 screw for attachment, couldn’t you simply grab the camera and ‘unscrew’ it from teh bolt?
The outdoor camera can connect to the provided stand via magnet or to a third party mount via the 1/4 thread. You could unscrew the camera from the bolt but it would be more work than just pulling it off the magnet. I’m not sure how easy it would be if you made it really tight. If it is too easy you could thread lock a camera D-Ring to the bottom of the outdoor camera and run some kind of chain through it. Then you can use the included stand to magnetically hold up the camera from the top (there is a metal plate in the top of the camera).
Thanks for all the help!!
I’ve been looking into super strong magnets but worried about it damaging the internal parts of the camera.
But also maybe use said magnets to hold up some type of cage or similar so I wouldn’t need to screw anything into the building.
I live in a brownstone in Brooklyn. We have burglar bars that extent out enough to have window flow pots.
Still need to decide on what height. I know higher is safer. But the want to get any potential thief(s) face on cam is really strong. Because, let’s be real, in nyc anything short would only have the police tell me how “it could be anyone, maybe it’s you( myself)!! Haha but seriously.
Definitely check out videos of people stealing outdoor cameras if you live a city. Or just search for ones happening in Brooklyn. These people bring hammers, screw drivers, whatever tools they’ve stolen from god knows who/where. (Tbh you’ll probably find a few hilarious attempts gone wrong videos too. Enjoy )
Either way, still working on this project. All the while wishing I went into engineering. What was I thinking?! Teenagers, smh…
I’m in the midst of designing and building a high security mount that can’t just be yanked off its mount. I’m using a deep metal octagon electrical box. I can’t remember the name for the type of security bolts offhand, but they’re the type that Dish and att use to mount their equipment. If all goes well, I will definitely make a video tutorial
I’ve done quite a bit of testing because of the metal. It all comes down to the router and placement. I can get a good 50’ ft before I start having connectivity issues. If I use a WiFi extender, I get 100’ ft. +/- 5 ft
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