Can a IR Day Night Camera be rendered useless with a beam of light? from Harrasment Victim

by Arby
(New York)

Daylight

Daylight

Daylight
nighttime with floods on
nighttime - no extra light

Question:

We are having problems with trespassers harassing us on our property and we bought some of those multi-LED day-night vision cameras.

Is it possible to aim some kind of light or beam at them to render them unable to work in the dark any more?

We noticed them flashing brighter and dimmer and now, though they still work during the day, at night all we can see is a blurry fog. We wondered if our harassers were disabling them with some kind of beam.

NOTE: cameras 7 and 8 are camcorders (2d line at end), not IR

Answer:

First of all let me say I am sorry that you are being harassed on your own property. I hope I have some thoughts that can help.

The simple answer to your question is YES. Day/Night IR sensitive security cameras can be blinded by strong IR light or bright lights. In Night and IR mode they become much more sensitive to the available light.

I would guess that you may have purchased some lower end cameras with your system. The IR cameras look like they do not even show good color even in the day time. The clouding that you are seeing is most likely the IR reflecting off the inside of the lens cover. I would try to get the cover on tighter or see if there was some type of rubber insert that separated the IR from being reflected off the lens cover.

I know you have flood lights and being out in a wooded area like that you probably get a lot of natural wild life. However, it may be a good idea to get motion sensors attached to the lights. That should help in getting better video and possibly scaring people off.

You might try to replace one or two of the more important cameras with something better and see if you get better results. (see my recommendations below by clicking the links)

Or if you can afford it hire an armed guard a couple of nights to see if they can do anything to help.

Those are my thoughts. Please let us know how things turn out.

Peter Brissette
Security Camera Expert



Color Night Vision Camera 5-50mm Varifocal Lens

Color Night Vision Camera 5-50mm Varifocal Lens


All-Weather High Resolution Color Sony CCD - 100' IR

Color Nightvision Camera 8-12mm Varifocal Lens


Color Nightvision Camera 8-12mm Varifocal Lens

All-Weather High Resolution Color Sony CCD - 100' IR

Comments for Can a IR Day Night Camera be rendered useless with a beam of light? from Harrasment Victim

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May 21, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		IR healing lamp
by: Anonymous

Try an infra-red healing lamp. It outputs a lot of strong infra-red light. Just beware that strong infra-red light is harmful to the human eye.
Jul 19, 2010
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Go Covert
by: Peter

Well I am sure you have thought about this but you must have some friends that would be willing to help you.

I would see if you can get some hand held video camcorders that are IR capable. They might be hard to find but you could check on Ebay.

Then see if a couple of friends would be willing to help you. Make a couple of hidden spots where they could hide out and have a good view of where these people are coming from. Then catch them on video with the hand held cameras.

If you can't do that see if you can put some of your cameras in a hidden or covert spot. Cover it up with something or hid it in some way so they don't see it.

Some how you have to catch them on video. Again I know this is a difficult situation but work hard on being creative with hiding the cameras and finding a way to catch them on video.

Hope that helps and if you are successful with that please let us know.

Jul 19, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		Follow-up
by: Arby

I'm afraid we can't afford $300-$400 each for our cameras; neither can we afford armed security guards. We are a retired couple living on 40 acres of heavily wooded and rugged terrain in a remote lawless area of upstate New York. Our harassers use night vision equipment to locate our cameras, and then avoid them. They know where all our sensors and alarms and floodlights are, and avoid them. Then they "sneak up" on our sensors and set them off, and fly fake "moths" etc in front of our cameras, dangling them with thread from long sticks or poles. We have never caught anybody on our cameras because they know how to avoid them. This is a big game for them, and part of a psychological siege intended to drive us out. It goes on for as long as there's no snow on the ground--8 months a year. And nobody believes us and nobody can or will help, including the police. The whole idea is to strip us of all sense of privacy and security, and to let us know that they can constantly trespass on our property and watch us, and that there's nothing we can do about it. We think their ultimate goal is to get into our house, and let us know they were there, but never leaving any solid evidence that could be shown to the police. It's just one phase of a campaign of hatred and harassment being done by the locals, including but not limited to: horn honking, shooting guns into our property, digging up our driveway with their trucks, making our dogs bark, snapping off our mailbox post, throwing trash, telling vicious lies about us, etc. Our only crime was that we didn't want them hunting & trespassing on our property.

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