As with any neighborhood, we have mischievous teenagers. Right now, they aren't doing anything harmful or illegal, and I hope that trend continues.

What they do is to ring our doorbells at 2 AM and run. Annoying, but not scary.

I am thinking of rigging up a trail camera above my door, and, if my doorbell rings at 2 AM, harvest the pictures. I would then consult with a juvenile detail officer about his/her best advice. The info may be way more valuable to them than to me.

Trail cameras operate on infrared in darkness, so the prankster would never know he was identified.

Anyone had any experience with this?

 

Invite them for a backyard barbecue instead of informing the police if you do identify the pranksters.

 

Invite them for a backyard barbecue instead of informing the police if you do identify the pranksters.

Good idea, but no matter how they are cooked, mischievous teenagers taste bad.

 

Good idea, but no matter how they are cooked, mischievous teenagers taste bad.

First you tame them by feeding then you need to age them to remove that wild taste.

 

First you tame them by feeding then you need to age them to remove that wild taste.

 

As with any neighborhood, we have mischievous teenagers. Right now, they aren't doing anything harmful or illegal, and I hope that trend continues.

What they do is to ring our doorbells at 2 AM and run. Annoying, but not scary.

I am thinking of rigging up a trail camera above my door, and, if my doorbell rings at 2 AM, harvest the pictures. I would then consult with a juvenile detail officer about his/her best advice. The info may be way more valuable to them than to me.

Trail cameras operate on infrared in darkness, so the prankster would never know he was identified.

Anyone had any experience with this?

Haven't had any experience using an IR trail camera to discourage teenagers, but I guess it is difficult to know what to do to discourage the behavior without the possibility of encouraging escalation.

There's a simple motion-detector light https://www.banggood.com/LED-Outdoo...-p-1217437.html?rmmds=search&cur_warehouse=CN

or the full-on camera https://ring.com/

....or you could build a circuit that changes the function of your doorbell after 2:00 AM, for a few hours

 

hi,
Please try to help with the TS request ' for anyone who has any experience on his Topic'.

Moderation.

 

You may mock his idea, but I think it has merit. Getting to know the prankster, and befriending is a good idea.

In my misspent youth, I had been known to do the flaming dog poo trick. I never graduated to mailbox baseball, but I did soap a few windshields. Glad the cops were never involved.

Trying to get off cheap. A trail cam, used, is under $50. A full lighted security system with paid monitoring, it hurts my wallet just to think of it.

 

You may mock his idea, but I think it has merit. Getting to know the prankster, and befriending is a good idea.

In my misspent youth, I had been known to do the flaming dog poo trick. I never graduated to mailbox baseball, but I did soap a few windshields. Glad the cops were never involved.

Trying to get off cheap. A trail cam, used, is under $50. A full lighted security system with paid monitoring, it hurts my wallet just to think of it.

Really not mocking, just joking. The trail cam could work I guess....but if the trespasser does not know it exists, doesn't that invite a confrontation at some time? By your own words, "Glad the cops were never involved."

If they do know it exists, it could lead to some escalation.

I don't really know that there is a sure-fire answer and I know that you are just considering options. On the one hand, one option is to just ride it out...if you never let on that it was having an effect on you, they might tire of the pranks.....or not. The motion detector light is pretty cheap and it can be a good idea in general...in my opinion, but I really don't know. Sorry if it sounded like I was mocking.

 

Just add a very cheap microcontroller that disables the buzzer circuit through a mosfet after a certain time. That should get rid of most of the annoyances.

But you could also get some servos, a laser diode, and a very loud speaker. Put a sign saying absolutely don't press 11:00PM to 7:00 AM. It should be able to detect if it is pressed between those times. Maybe use a MOSFET with resistor parallel to the buzzer for cheap detection.

The servos can be weak but should be precise. You configure the servos to give you 180 deg motion (servos have limited range of motion) horizontally and vertically. Attach a laser to one. Have a microcontroller control the servos and laser. Make the laser not too powerful. The microcontroller should control the mini laser turret. Then if the doorbell rings, have a lidar find the teens. Have it move the laser (which should be well enough concealed and far away) to track a teen. Have it then move randomly around the teen. Have a speaker play a very loud gunshot sfx. They will think there is a sniper and run. It will certainly give them a good scare.

 

Wow! Imagination running wild! Then there's Robby the Robot ("Forbidden Planet" 1956) carrying a paint ball gun, and emitting sounds like a lion. An easy build, given my machine shop skills (grin). Shouldn't cost more than $1,000.

I plan to paint the unit the same color as the house. I think they operate silently, so not to disturb the game you are patterning. The only downer is they love batteries. 4 to 8 AA batteries.

 

Figure out the connections and replace the batteries with a mains adapter that can supply the same voltage and current. Unless you need potability.

 

Game cams being used in our neck of the woods. Lots of problems with rural theft, trespassing. Check eBay for survelance equipment close to your location that offers free pickup. I purchased 6 Pelco cameras and a recorder for a total of $25. The old stuff is being replaced and it’s going cheap.

 

I looked on Ebay. At least two kinds. First is coax wire network. Lots of drilling and crawling around the attic. The second is the stick on "wireless". OK, brand name? Model number? No. No good description. Nothing I can Google.

I think a trip to a security store is warranted.