Driveway Monitoring for Home Safety

69hurstolds

Geezer
Supporting Member
Jan 2, 2006
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Last week, there was an "almost" incident at night right before we retired to bed. We live out in the country, about 5 miles from town, and mostly it's serene and no monkey business. Typical evening, let the dog outside in the back yard right before bed, and when that happened, my eye caught a glimpse of a reflective license plate near the corner of the house. WTF? About a second later, I realized it was a car, and wasn't mine. Had no idea who it was, how many of them were there, and what they were doing there.

I immediately went and got some "personal protection" and closed and locked the back door. Monitoring the situation from inside the house, it was soon discovered only one person was in the car, and they came to the back door and rang the door bell. I took a defensive position where I could see all entry door points and was ready, in case it was just a diversion tactic. I yelled out to identify themselves and a woman blurted out her name, and she said she was running and trying to hide from some guys in a car that was harrassing her. I told the woman that that I was going to call the police for me, and if she needed help, to go back and sit in her car to wait for the deputy, or she can just go ahead and leave now. She got in her car and left. I didn't call the sheriff's department, but I did go back and review the incident. She had no idea how close she came to meeting Jesus as I had a straight bead through the glass on where she was standing from 20 feet.

The driveway is a few hundred feet from the street to the house, so I was wondering how she got back there without being noticed? She turned her lights off and floated down the driveway and parked right behind my truck which was in the driveway. So her trying to hide is plausible. However, nobody seemed to be chasing her as no other cars were seen on the road out front. She was out there about 2 minutes before I walked out on the back deck with the dog. The big issue was that I wasn't sure of her intentions, or how many people could be involved, or anything. I even thought maybe she was on a reconnaissance mission to see what they could come back for later. I dunno.

Then it occurred to me that although DVR is a good thing to have, it's more of an after-the-fact deal that only works as a deterrent of sorts if you're actually checking the monitors as whatever situation is happening at that time. I didn't want anyone "sneaking" down the driveway again, so I started looking into the driveway alarm systems. While the "buried bone" systems seem to work fine, they're pretty expensive, and require you to basically plant them in one place.

So after watching many videos of the subject and doing homework on the systems, I found none that were "perfect." But I did find one system that seems like it might do much of what I want for a reasonable price point. The long-range Guardline 4-sensor perimeter system, which uses adjustable sensors which can be mounted about anywhere within 1/4 mile of the receiver, and requires no wifi or subscriptions or anything. Completely tune-able, expandable, and even works when the power is out. Only little drawback is that the sensors use 4 AA batteries (not included) instead of solar recharge, but they claim they should only need changing once per year. So we'll see. The receiver even has a battery check feature for the sensors. No idea how that works. It can also be put to sleep during the day and only work at night with the sound, or you can add a strobe light to it if you just want a silent alarm or in conjunction with the 32 changeable alert tones. And you can do a pause on it if you're working in the yard around the sensors, so you won't keep setting them off. I like the versatility.

Was able to install and set up the system in about an hour with 4 sensors. Driveway is covered, as well as other points of access. Had the system now for about a week, and I can say with a bit of tuning on a couple of the sensors as far as range and sensitivity, I haven't had any false alarms, and nobody's been able to "sneak" down the driveway without us knowing. I did a test and even walking through the points of access, I got "caught" every time. The sensors are small enough and even with me knowing where they are, they're virtually invisible unless you know exactly where to look. I call them Preadator sensors because they activate with movement AND heat, so the occasional leaf or branch movement from a tree won't set them off. If anyone gets close to the house, unless there's a malfunction, there's no way we won't know about it. Each sensor has its own distinct tone so we know exactly where they're at. I'm sure a deer or other animal going by may set it off, but I figure that's not going to be a huge problem.

You can even purchase a separate receiver to clone the included receiver to put it in the garage, basement, or shop in case you're in an area where you can't see or hear the first one. So far, so good, and I like it a lot. Nothing is 100%, but it makes the wife feel safer, and that's a major win for me if that's the case. I'm sure there's some out there equally as good or better, but for $160 shipped from Amazon, I'm feeling pretty good about this system.
 
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Streetbu

Know it all, that doesn't
Supporting Member
May 22, 2011
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Central NY
Thank you for posting this. We had a theft issue last week. We have cameras but they don't cover everything and of course this was one of the only spots that aren't covered. Wasn't huge, but you still feel violated.
Glad your situation worked out as well as it did. And I would agree, she was definitely casing the place. Thieves aren't deterred by motion lights any more either :/
 
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mikester

Comic Book Super Hero
Mar 10, 2010
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Small town NY
Thank you for posting this. We had a theft issue last week. We have cameras but they don't cover everything and of course this was one of the only spots that aren't covered. Wasn't huge, but you still feel violated.
Glad your situation worked out as well as it did. And I would agree, she was definitely casing the place. Thieves aren't deterred by motion lights any more either :/
We've been lucky so far but our area has been getting hit pretty hard for the past 4-5 years. These guys walk into yards between 2-4 in the AM and check every car door. Money, personal items. It sucks. Theyre all wearing hoodies. Some Ring cameras have good views of their faces but it does no good.
One woman caught a guy in her yard but the cops told her unless he was actually holding something that belonged to her he was breaking no laws. They told her if he was sitting INSIDE of her car as long as he didnt get out holding something he wasnt breaking a law. Believe me, I was shocked. What the heck happened to our legal system ? You beat the crap out of them and you go to jail for assault. Theres something wrong with this.
My house and garage are alarmed. Six sets of motion lights. Its like walking around a prison yard. We're thinking about adding cameras but at this point Im not even sure if its worth the money.
 
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86LK

Royal Smart Person
Jul 23, 2018
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since I'm looking at buying rural property, this got me interested in looking up the law here in Texas. there's Force and there's Deadly Force (using a gun)

interesting.....essentially, Burglary of a Vehicle/Residence is basically a Felony while Trespassing is a Misdemeanor.

what was also interesting was what constituted notice of trespass warning (purple paint, trespass signs, growing a crop...)

 
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69hurstolds

Geezer
Supporting Member
Jan 2, 2006
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That is a thought, but that's also a bit over and above our deterrent level needs at the moment. With the motion monitors and DVR, provided they don't fail, we also have other means of secondary deterrents for any breaches, before things get sideways. I want to live in my home, not a fortress. Again, after nearly 20 years here, this is the first weird thing to happen to us. Of course, nothing is off the table should we feel the need may arise.
 
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Northernregal

Sloppy McRodbender
Oct 24, 2017
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Red Deer, Northern Montana territory
That is a thought, but that's also a bit over and above our deterrent level needs at the moment. With the motion monitors and DVR, provided they don't fail, we also have other means of secondary deterrents for any breaches, before things get sideways. I want to live in my home, not a fortress. Again, after nearly 20 years here, this is the first weird thing to happen to us. Of course, nothing is off the table should we feel the need may arise.
You mean remote controlled hardened gun turrets don't scream friendly neighborhood? 😆😆😆
 
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melloelky

Comic Book Super Hero
Oct 22, 2017
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mass
this thread's really gonna cut down on my trick or treat haul this year..
 
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Northernregal

Sloppy McRodbender
Oct 24, 2017
3,359
12,826
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Red Deer, Northern Montana territory
That could even be good for family visits. Since you didn't copy a pic I'll do it. Does give a Star Wars vibe.
View attachment 207638

The other classic option is The M1 Garand.

GIF by SundanceTV
 
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