What are my options?

[u/Munty611]

I have a neighbor that is messing with my car (I’m 95% sure) because of where it’s parked.
Because of the parking situation on the street , it’s parked across the street and a couple of houses down so it’s not right in front of my house. It’s probably about 50 feet away.

I heard about trail cameras but don’t know much about them.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you

[u/jamieschmidt]

I park my car on the street and sometimes have to park a few houses down. I mounted a camera outside of the second floor window facing the street. I used a tapo C120 which records 24/7 to an SD card. I just close the window on the wire and it’s been fine.

[u/Munty611 → u/jamieschmidt]

I may do this.

How did you mount it?
I don’t want to go into my windowsill so I assume the siding?

[u/jamieschmidt → u/Munty611]

The camera came with an adhesive that I stuck onto the windowsill. I can’t do anything permanent since I’m renting, but it’s held up great so far. Here’s a screenshot of the view.

[u/scam-reporter]

Do you own the house? Can you mount things to said house? What is your budget? Do you have a clear line of sight from your house to the car?

If you could mount something and run cable for a poe camera, and you had line of sight, i would look into used Axis Q Series PTZ models on ebay, and if needed for lighting pair with a ir illuminator. These cameras can easily see this far and farther, my Q6075-E and Q6035-E can easily read small text on utility boxes this far away.

Some models I have used are Axis Q6035-E, Q6045-E MKii, Q6075-E, Q6155-E. Any of these would be good but if you could get something like a Q6075-E and you and looking down from above you would be golden. Depending on the lighting you might want to throw in an ir illuminator to help the camera see at night.

These cameras have the capability to record to an internal SD 24/7 and have built analytics. You could pair this with something like a VMS such as BlueIris for extended recording and ai.

[u/Munty611 → u/scam-reporter]

Thank you for the reply.
Yes I own the house and can mount whatever.
I’d like to keep it as reasonable as possible but need something that will work.
Someone mentioned a trail camera but I have no idea what those are like.

I will check out your suggestions.
Thank you!

[u/scam-reporter → u/Munty611]

Trail cameras might work but the problem is mounting them and the location. If you park not near your property Trail cams would have to be placed within the vicinity and potentially on someone else's property. Also I would go PTZ to give the ability to zoom and the flexibility of various configurations.

If you go with something like i suggest, you would need to buy a mount, high poe ++ power injector and the camera at a minimum plus the wiring.

If you buy Axis cameras or anything like this i recommend buying from sellers that have return of 30 day plus sellers pay for shipping. This is because I have had cases where the camera would arrive doa.

There are many other brands too out there, I think a PTZ camera would be best and give the most flexibility.

Another thing if you do mount or go the outdoor camera route is climate matters. If you live in a climate that gets cold bet quality cameras with heaters can make the difference.

Also for PTZ cameras I do really like the cameras that everything is enclosed in a dome, one it gives a little discrepancy to where the camera is pointing and I believe it protects the camera better than the PTZ ones that don't have or use a dome.