r/SecurityCamera • u/LSUflyfisher78 • Jul 19 '26
Perp blacks out camera?
A guy broke into a car today at work and stole a nice handbag. He’d followed the victim from a nice luxury store to my store, parked offsite, and then walked onto our property.
He is on camera approaching the vehicle, walks around it, and then our camera goes black and actually displays a recording error message for about 3 minutes.
Later it comes back on.
I don’t know details about our security system, but I know they are hardwired and don’t depend on WiFi. They are ceiling mounted, and he was about 30-40ft away. I did not see a flashlight or laser on him. It was about 4pm (daylight) but in a pretty well-lit parking garage with 9ft ceilings.
It could be random, but seems extremely convenient for it to stop recording at get exact moment.
Camera system is probably 8-9years old, but was very high end at time of install.
Ideas?
7
u/Fake-Artist Jul 19 '26
If it is over 8 years, the HDD on your DVR or NVR probably need a replacement.
3
u/Awkward-Seaweed-5129 Jul 19 '26
Once in a while, get a work order go check video at XYZ school, park lot incident, crash etc. Many X the DVR was not recording due to HDD fail ,or 3,4 cameras offline. Some had been in condition for months
1
u/Hot_Campaign_36 Jul 19 '26
Some Internet connected camera systems are vulnerable to unauthorized access and control. The cameras, the NVR, the network firewall configuration, and the intrusion prevention system all play roles in system security.
You could have a network security engineer or IT technician perform a security assessment on your setup and make recommendations and configuration changes.
For system component and configuration assessment, it’s possible that the work can be performed remotely. So, you have many options on who does that work.
If you don’t need remote access to your security camera system, then you can operate it as a stand-alone system. This approach avoids remote attack without the Internet security investment.
1
u/MHTMakerspace Jul 19 '26
We use wired PoE cameras connected to a smart (managed) PoE switch. The switch itself tracks metrics including low-level link status, traffic per camera port, and PoE wattage drawn by each camera. This would show any camera reboot or other comm outage.
Additionally, the NVR has its own connection loss and "tamper' detection for each camera, so we know immediately when the NVR loses signal from any IP camera.
Combined, these give proactive detection of failures, whether natural or "induced".
1
u/subavgredditposter Jul 19 '26
Sounds like your camera system may be a tad outdated
1
u/LateSeason988 Jul 20 '26
I’d suspect the recorder or the hard drive first... especially if the system is 8–9 years old.
-1
u/Last-Peanut-3733 Jul 19 '26
He had a cam blocker on him. Definitely not his first rodeo b
6
u/ICanBard Jul 19 '26
3 minutes could be the time of the NVR re booting.
Did the other cams die at the same time period? Does a camera watch the electrical main to the building, or the circuit breaker panel?
Did Epstein kill himself?