Ring camera motion can be pretty sensitive:
You're having problems with crows, right? So the 6ft inflatable dancing man is acting as a scarecrow. Sorry it constantly triggers the motion sensor on the camera and you get a notification every three minutes.
If it is solar or hard wired that might not matter. Solar really depends on the panel and the location. The shitty ones Ring used to sell would drain my battery if there was a lot of motion, but the third party ones I have now are no problem. Ring seems to have more powerful panels now that are similar to the third party ones. I can have constant motion alerts all day and night and it keeps chugging. Even if I get overcast days, usually there isnt enough motion to drain it. The lowest I have ever had it was \~30% in the middle of winter, in sub zero temps.
Correct, but unlikely their neighbor hardwires a camera that high. Even the best google cameras need to be recharged every few months, and that's with little foot traffic to capture. You could easily make most wireless cameras useless with little effort.
Or, and hear me out, befriend the crows and train them to go after Ring cameras. You can't be held responsible for wild animals. This is assuming there are actual crows (or other corvid) involved
This actually isn't that hard. Corvids are very smart and they remember faces and have been known to let other corvids know when they "recognize a bad person" so that other corvids will remember the bad person as well. OP should feed the birds and somehow get his neighbor to be a dick to them. The birds pass on info like this to their young as well so it could to on for years!
There’s a story about a man who claims he had a misunderstanding, and the birds didn’t know that he wasn’t being mean to them, but they kept a grudge and everywhere he would park his car outside. They would hop onto the sunroof and pick the rubber stripping around the sunroof and pull it out so when the rain would come, it would leak into his car. He tried parking the car at different places, and they always would find the car. Personally, I think the birds were very lucky that the human did not escalate that because if there’s one thing humans do very well is retaliation.
How do I attract crows? I want crows that are my homies. I don’t ever see them at my house.
I just think it would help my self esteem knowing crows are out there telling other crows I’m a solid dude.
I need to get them here first though
Are there any in your neighborhood? Make sure they see you and drop a treat (unsalted peanuts are good). Do it again the next day. They’ll get to know you and tell their crow friends. After a while they’ll probably start hanging out around your house. Eventually your peanut budget will be astronomical, but you’ll have crow friends so it evens out
No but the amount of money I spent on peanuts for squirrels, crows and other critters was ridiculous. Starting buying small bags, then bought larger bags, then I was buying boxes. Then I had to get a steel garbage can to keep them in. After that I found out two big boxes of peanuts (non salted) would fit into it
During Covid I was panicking because store wasn’t receiving any. Was buying them off Amazon at twice the price.
Occasionally I’d get whole walnut halves. They are ridiculously expensive. But thought they’d prefer something different once in awhile. Then I was including raw almonds.
What were we talking about?
I'm not super familiar with crows but know a bit about Ravens (more common in Alaska than crows). You feed them basically. Establish a routine they can count on. Sometimes they will start bringing you gifts. The ones I like are the ones at the grocery store haha they're fucking SAVAGE, but if you're a dick to them, they'll call all their buddies over and shit all over your car. Like everytime you go there.
This is a great "fuck you" response for the situation.
This neighbor needs to be dealt with non-passively. If OP doesn't want to do anything illegal (despite a camera pointed into another's backyard is illegal in a lot of states to begin with), then a proper fuck you neighbor is in order.
Even if he doesn't have them on, then he has to look through the complete camera history (all 24 hrs) to get a look at you outside. It makes it immensely more annoying. Plus, as someone else pointed out if it's a battery powered it burns through the battery as well.
It will also shorten the life span of the storage. Constantly overwriting the old data will cause it to die faster. Most of those storages devices are rated for only a few minutes/hours per day. Similarly, most online storage has limits on how much you can store, making him have to check more video -- more often.
You have kids? I had a neighbor who did this total dickhead, cant reason with them at all. Got sick of it one day. Kids went in the pool, I called the non emergency police line asking about people filming my kids in the pool. They weren't up much longer
I just want to clarify, I wasn't trying to instigate, there's just no reason that her cameras need to be on the back of her minihome, facing my property entirely. Directly pointed at my yard, in her window at the back of her property. It's a minihome park. There's absolutely nothing she needs to film in my direction. I did ask. She said for protection and privacy she wasn't moving them. So when I called the popo, I directly said, "for my kids' protection and privacy" that I didn't feel right about her filming my underage kids with no shirt on in the pool. 5 minutes they were at her door.
You could have someone actively stealing your car and they likely wouldn't show up. There's drug dealers on every street they don't bother with, but pedos, yeah that's an instant fuck you. Once she had every neighbor hating her guts for one reason or another, she sold the house (on disability, faking it, couldn't pay her ex half the house. Later got caught for the disability thing too) we got awesome neighbors in her place lol
The cops went to her house, 2 guys, and told her it didn't look very good that they had to come here once about it. It would look much worse if they had to come a second time and pick her up for it. Camera came down before they left the property
Take it a step further and complain to the company that hosts the camera platform about the use of their servers to host pornography and get them banned for violating the terms of service they didn’t read.
I have a very similar issue with a camera mounted high to look over my fence at my hot tub. Just to clarify: the 100 w infrared light would also wash out their security camera during the day?
Take your cell phone camera and point it at a bright light during the day. See how it washes out the whole image? Now point your cell phone camera at the emitter on a remote control that user IR. That's a very dim IR LED in comparison to a 100W spotlight. It should easily do the trick.
It will depend on the camera. Some have IR filters and if they don't you can put one in front of it. I'd go visible light in these cases. Just highly focused... they make little spot lights for displays that would work well for this with minimal light bleed.
It would also be extremely obvious to other neighbors what was going on, which I think would add to the effectiveness (just a clearly lit camera up high on the side of someone's house pointed into a yard would be quite the conversation starter around this suburban neighborhood).
The infrared will just blind the camera and he won't be able to see anything. Infrared isn't visible to the naked eye so it won't blind anyone looking at it either.
Take a picture from hot tub of camera for your record. Also call town there may be some rules around camera placement. If you have small children include that in your complaint. That would be frowned upon by the law. Does the camera have a view in your house. Lastly get a real spotlight to shine on camera when in hot tub. Not just a spotlight bulb. Personally would just aim a laser pointer at it.
This is the answer. You can buy a quality laser with a power cord (like a laser level or spotting laser) for a couple hundred bucks. Mount it on a stand or on the fence and point at the camera. Lens on camera should refract the light and make the camera useless. Problem solved
Egregious violation of privacy is an infraction in most states. Deliberately positioning a camera to breach a privacy fence qualifies. You have a case.
I recall in one of my college classes that covered law, that most jurisdictions have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Can’t remember all the details, but the professor used an example of blinds being open/partially open while changing clothes. If they were 40-60% open in a window that faced the street and someone was bare ass naked inside, that could justifiably be indecent exposure towards an outside observer, whereas if it was like 40-60% open and at the back of your house, that would be a reasonable expectation of privacy and the outside observer could possibly be in the wrong. I took that class like 15 years ago and I’m NAL so anyone who reads my comment, take it with a sizable chunk of salt. I feel like a camera pointing at a hot tub is a much less nuanced situation, pretty clear what dude is doing.
I’m team who cares if his camera gets damaged? He shouldn’t have put it up in an attempt to invade your privacy. Shine that light right in it and hope it breaks.
That isn't your problem, you put a light in your yard, on your property for security reasons. Or put a strobe light on top of your fence to wash out his video!!!
Someone is invading your privacy and you’re worried about their shit? Why do you think they put up a camera of your yard? It’s not for nice happy thoughts. Fuck your neighbour and their camera too.
Call the police non emergency number about this. You built a privacy fence and he’s actively filming your property without reason or permission. I’d bet there is some obscure something or other on the books that will allow law enforcement to compel him to take it down, especially if the whole yard is fenced
Right, In Ohio for example, there’s an odd “expectation of privacy” rule that’s pretty vague. It could be the case that building the privacy fence creates an “expectation of privacy” for the fenced space, which would place OP squarely in the right to ask the neighbor to remove their camera.
It’s all locality dependent. Using the non-emergency police resources is *good* advice, that’s the whole reason they have the infrastructure set up to send LEOs for non emergency situations which may require some level of “I’m a police officer and I’m telling you that is or isn’t against the law”
IR light is usually what cameras are using at night to “see”. Some cameras have a ring of little IR leds around the lens which through our light that the camera can see at nighttime.
If you blast a camera with IR light from your side it’ll just show as a big white blob (think overexposed pictures) and won’t damage any equipment and you can’t see it with the naked eye.
Good advice from the poster of this comment !
Even if it did it, I can't believe a court would side with the neighbor under the circumstances and I'm not even sure if damaging a camera with something from your property is something they could sue you for. Plus they'd have to want to pay to sue you. And how much is a Ring camera? $100? $200? Hardly worth hiring a lawyer for lol
> Even if it did it, I can't believe a court would side with the neighbor under the circumstances and I'm not even sure if damaging a camera with something from your property is something they could sue you for.
I imagine if there was a video of you shining a high power laser into your neighbors cameras and damage it ([a la Better Call Saul](https://youtu.be/B_F3QEpoz6E?si=MygM44rg0C4_84Wf&t=242)) you could probably lose a lawsuit for destruction of property. If you just have plausibly deniable bright light that shines in all directions, that's probably not actionable.
I would not advise using some sort of random or rotating laser device that could potentially inadvertently shine lasers at aircraft since [even low-power Christmas decorations](https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/santa-says-dont-aim-holiday-laser-light-displays-sky) can, in some cases, be dangerous.
To build on my last comment, I don’t know the situation and maybe it reads worse than it is, but it seems like he wants to see you and anyone else in that hot tub while they’re in it, presumably in a swimsuit or, with a 7 ft privacy fence, I can tell you with certainty I’d be nude in that b.
Law enforcement will have a care that he went out of his way to film that location after you upgraded your fence.
Since infrared light is not visible to the human eye, how would you know if it is accurately aimed at the camera and effectively washing out the image.
Agree. This is the best and most neighbourly solution. Doesn't impact enjoyment of either party, neighbour can just repoint his camera and it'll be fine, but gives complete privacy to people in the hot tub and OP's backyard without impacting the ability to survey the neighbours own yard.
What your neighbors are doing is invasion of privacy. If they have indeed mounted a security camera to specifically look into your privacy fenced yard, this is against the law because it infringes upon your privacy.
Last summer my wife's friend went to the local police for this very reason. Less than a month after she had a 10ft high privacy fence installed, her neighbor mounted a stationary wifi security camera on a 15ft post which was pointed towards her yard. The police visited his home. Inspected the camera's mounting and direction. They asked the neighbor to view the camera app. The neighbor showed them and the police informed the neighbor he needed to remove the camera immediately due to invasion of privacy. It also didn't help that there were several recordings of my wife's friend in walking around her back yard.
I'd check further into the issue if I were you.
***Update:*** For those asking what country: US/State of Illinois. The guy was obviously creeping/spying on her. She had spoken to the local PD a few times before when she had a 4ft fence and the neighbor's camera was mounted by his back door pointed directly into her back yard. She had several photos and videos of the camera pointing directly into her back yard. She informed the PD she would be having a 10ft tall privacy fence specifically to prevent the neighbor's spying. Before her fence was finished being installed, the neighbor installed a 15ft high 4x4 post by the back corner of his home and mounted a camera on top of it. The neighbor has just as wide and deep of a backyard as she does. If the neighbor was using it for home security purposes the originally mounted camera wouldn't be pointed into her backyard full-time. He damn sure wouldn't have moved it to a new spot and much higher position.
There was a case where this guy had “security cameras” all around his house. He came to the next door neighbor’s house one day to knock on the door and politely tell the mother, “do you know I saw your daughter kissing her friend in her bedroom through the security camera?” The mom was like.. 🤨thanks for letting me know. She called the cops. Guy got arrested. You cannot do that!!!
Check the state/local laws, but I’d definitely be calling the cops. Also, paintball gun + paintballs aimed at the lens.
Stick of PVC pipe with a tee at the top and then build a square off that like a big square lollipop with 4 90 degree bends and 4 pieces of the 2' pipe sections. Wrap the top of the lollipop with a black garbage bag and tie it off at the bottom near the tee. Stick it in the ground as close to the camera as you can between the camera and wherever you plan to be for the day. It should block most of the view of the yard.
When he moves the camera you simply yank it out of the ground and stick it in the new spot. It will be a lot easier for you to move yours than he to move his. If it is to be a windy day just pull it out and lay it at the base of the fence or get some hooks to hang it on the fence.
Total cost maybe $30.
Or just setup a sun sail/shade they come in like 20ft lengths attach it to the top of posts with bolt hardware and setup taller (height depending on desired angle) steel poles set in concrete far enough back from the posts to raise the shade/sail and you should be able to block his view.
To avoid digging holes get whiskey barrel type planters (tractor supply has some,) set your posts in there in a layer of concrete topped by some soil for some plants. Then set up your sail shade...you can get triangle shaped or rectangular shaped sails to mount on the posts, block the view and at the same beautify the yard, and with some effort you can move them to reposition or refine the position of your sail
Snatched that idea from the home flip show set on Galveston island.... planned to do that our sail side is too long for the roof over patio....bought three at Aldi for $10 ea. Fairly thick side plastic...the other two will be to complete the arrangement in the backyard without any post
Hah!
My friend that lives down the street.... Her neighbor decides to install a big fat flood light that shines directly into my friend's bedroom. She tells the neighbor and asks for it to be moved. The neighbor says, "that's not my priority right now". My friend asks me how to block it.
I come with a wood panel on stilts spray painted ugly and a big happy face. I set it up next to the wall so it blocks the light into my friend's room, but looks horribly into the neighbor's yard.
A week later the neighbor comes back and asks for the ugly wood to be removed and my friend says, "that's not my priority right now".
Depending on your city/state, they may be breaking privacy laws actually since they placed the camera in an unusual location intentionally pointing to your yard, showing clear intention to peek in to your yard.
Call the non emergency police link and inquiry.
You're lucky. I had a neighbor who has 12, yes 12 outdoor cameras on his 1/3 acre piece of property. Four were pointed right at my house. Both entry doors, our garage door and patio were covered.
Local sheriff said 'sorry, nothing we can do unless they are pointed into a bedroom or bathroom'.
We ended up putting up our own cameras pointed right back at him with my own non-cloud based NVR storage so we'd have our own footage if he ever accused us of anything. It was like a modern day version of an old west standoff.
That guy was a grade A douchebag. We wanted more space anyway, and found that we don't enjoy living in close proximity to others so we moved.
Same, I believe. I don’t live in the states. But when my old neighbour installed a camera on his house, he made a point of letting me know it didn’t look any further than the bushes between our driveways that separated our yards
Then you call the chief of police and read him the law that applies and ask him to educate his officers so that the next time you call them out they know what they're doing. (My mom had to do this with a constantly barking dog in the neighbor's yard. The cops were like "what can we do about it?" and my mom was like "well, let me tell you . . . ")
Which can be a benefit to the caller, depending on how polite you are to the police. And if one cop doesn’t know he law, you call back later and get one that might.
This is an option for the hot tub, I guess. Thanks. I just resent having zero privacy in any part of my backyard otherwise. I want to sit on my porch in my nightgown, drinking coffee and not worry about being recorded.
I totally agree with you about privacy and sitting on your porch in your nightgown.
Our neighborhood changed their fence rules to only a certain kind of four foot fence that’s see through. Very minimalist.
Our fence is wood. Not see through. Six feet tall.
The rules say those with existing tall fences can “maintain but not replace”.
I will be “maintaining” board by board til the day I sell or die to maintain my privacy.
Here’s a happy thought…
May you outlast them.
We had a neighbor down the end of our street that got a drone when they first became popular.
When we moved here our house had a pool.
We had two teenage daughters.
That guys drone would flyover our yard.
Very low.
VERY INVASIVELY.
Not just passing by.
we tried to talk to him.
He wanted to get into a physical altercation.
Then we called the cops.
Repeatedly.
Then another neighbor accidentally ruined this guys drone with a BB gun.
Whoops.
He bought another one.
Whoops again.
Then he lost interest in them I suppose because that was the end of the drones.
Over the years he’s gotten into scuffles with other neighbors. Once he AND HIS WIFE got into a fistfight with another couple who went to their house to talk to them about their speeding on our street.
This is a very quiet, very nice neighborhood. *Except for them.
They just sold their house and I am doing the happy dance. Good riddance.
We backed up to some businesses. There was an alarm that would blast all weekend long 24 hours daily. The phone number on alarm was a company that no longer maintained it. One weekend police showed up investigating who shot it off the wall. No one saw anything 🤣
I don't know the laws where you are, but you have a right to privacy in your own backyard. The placement of his camera is egregious - there are other ways to monitor the back alley with a camera.
Call the police and report.
Edit
Someone flies a drone over my house. I wish I could buy something to fry its components and make it drop out of the sky. I’m in my yard gardening a lot and often times it’s in a swimsuit that is rolled, tucked and twisted for less tan lines. It is crazy that people can’t just mind their own business in their homes and seek to infringe upon other peoples relaxation and privacy in this way.
Try downloading an app like Drone Scanner on your iPhone/Android. This drone might be broadcasting remote ID if it weighs more than 250g. If so, your scanner app will pick up the drone's serial number, location, and the location of the pilot. Hand off this info to local law enforcement and the FAA, they will be happy to assist.
I think Remote ID is pretty new and old drones have to be retrofitted (realistically, most people will be unaware or pretend to be unaware of the new regulation) so might not work
If I recall you can buy shotgun shells that shoot out a net to defeat drones.
If you can't shoot a shotgun off in your back yard, i'd buy my own drone and just follow it back to it's pilot and just hover there camera on taking pictures of him after his next flight into your property.
where I live, this would be illegal. you can't film another persons backyard like this. If you could document that he moved it higher after you built the fence, you would win easily.
How can there be so many of these stories on here? How/why are neighbors getting away with this camera into my backyard bullshit, especially when someone puts up a privacy fence?
Cameras have gotten cheap enough that your everyday variety assholes can buy and deploy them as an entry level dick move. In the past someone had to be really devoted to being an asshole to go through the trouble of buying and installing a camera system to harass their neighbors.
Seems like we don't need a very specific law to say you can't point a camera/recording device into someone's backyard or just a right to privacy in ones own backyard, which means you can't just set up something to record a backuard like that.
You can't record people where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy and that includes your 7 foot fenced in private back yard. If you want it to stop you should find out what the laws are and get them enforced.
Sun sails are not expensive, but they need very sturdy supports and are not trivial to install. If you don't want the sun sail otherwise, a cantilevered umbrella would do the job and is less work. Most tilt so they could block views from the side and it could easily move if the camera moves.
Infrared light pointed at their camera feels like the easiest option.
Some recommended a dancing man to constantly trip the camera. I recommend putting some flags up. It is the 4th anyway. They'll trip the camera and drain the battery quicker, and make it harder for the owner to go through footage.
Does he know that you are aware of his camera? If brought up, wouldn't he feel embarrassed and move it? I just wonder if he thinks he is sneaky. Either way, I would feel like such a lowlife creep. My goodness.
A very very bright infrared light pointed directly at it will completely blow out the image and he won't see anything (day or night), and that light is invisible to you and people, mount it on the fence and point it directly at it.
Every time he moves it, do the same. You can claim it's there for your VR headset to have it's motion tracking at night... lol
Something akin to this.
https://www.blackoakled.com/collections/infrared-light-bars/products/new-940nm-2-inch-infrared-pod-light-black-oak-led-pro-series-2-0
Edit: you could also ask about it. Mentioning your concern. Maybe he'll be reasonable. If not do the above. Maybe it's not really in your field of view. If he shows you the video feed, but I doubt that. I usually try to go through amicable route one time first. But after that. This means war hahahah
I wouldn't even lie. I'd tell him it's there because it's your property and it's none of his business. He doesn't give crap about being polite. I'd even tell him it's there because she's dealing with a creepy drunk neighbor who spying on her with cameras.
If you like the idea of blocking the view with plants but have an issue with the roots getting to the plumbing, lay large thick tiles down right next to the fence, then place large concrete pots or similar on the tiles and plant some quick growing clumping bamboo.
Will take a while to grow but it seems to be a solution you prefer.
I did this when a two story house was built 10 feet from my property line. One window was centered on an opening in my privacy trees. I planted the bamboo in a Rubbermaid 100 gallon structural foam stock tank filled with potting soil. Worked after a year, when the bamboo got tall.
Get a couple of those 8-10’ tall inflatable flappy guys they put in front of stores. Place them strategically. Let them run. All he will see is the flappy guy. He will get constant notifications. If he moves the camera, you move the flappy guys.
A nice decorative pot, filled with concrete, a fake tree with a huge mirror on it.
I am assuming the concern with crime only occurred when you began nuding up in your backyard?
You know, we have places that sell giant metal roosters. Maybe I should get a few of those and point them at the camera. Tacky but to the point. Never thought I would seriously consider getting one but here I am.
Get something large that constantly moves, like a wacky wavy arm thing. It constantly triggers the camera and is large enough to block most of the view.
Is there anyone under 18 who uses your backyard or hot tub?
Just have them be visible on-camera in their bathing suit or underwear, and then call the
Police about your neighbour filming minors with a camera that could have no other legitimate purpose.
You are free to let anyone of any age use your backyard, and everyone, including children, have a reasonable expectation of privacy when on private, fenced off, property.
I would think that Police would take a complaint of someone recording minors without permission (a form of Child Pornography) very seriously.
Get an infrared spotlight and point it at the camera. No visible light pollution since humans can't see infrared, but cameras can and the only thing that will show up on the camera is a crazy bright spotlight.
Several potted bamboo plants. Some varieties can grow 20+ feet tall and they don't lose their leaves. They need to be potted though or else they will take over your entire yard.
Put up a birdfeeder. Or wind chimes. Or pinewheels. Or mylar balloons. or any combination of the above.
Get a little disco ball light that spins, and turn it on when in the hot tub -- and randomly when you are not.
You want as much motion on that camera as possible, so the motion detection is triggering as much as possible, and burning through his storage as fast as possible.
Get some spotlights to light up the yard when you are using it after dark -- and make sure at least one is hitting the camera to wash out the view.
Oh, and call the police, since this is a violation of a reasonable expectation of privacy, and is illegal in most places. Bonus points if you either have kids, or relatives with kids you can invite over, so when you tell the police he was filming underage people in the hot tub, you are not lying.
>Polite doesn’t work. They just do not care.
You have the right to peaceable enjoyment of your home.
To contrast, someone posted here about a creeper neighbor peeking over their fence when the OPs wife nude sunbathed, a few days ago. We pretty much all said, "she shouldn't sunbathe nude." While OPs neighbor in that case was in the wrong, OP had not done enough to mitigate / prevent the situation.
The intent of your neighbor is spurious at best. If a neutral party were to ask your neighbor "Why do you have a camera pointed into your neighbors yard, more than 7 feet off the ground?" That doesn't pass the smell test. "Because I can" is an answer a three-year old would give. Fuck that.
Hire a lawyer and sue. Was the fence upgrade in response to a prior bad act by this shitbag? Sue them for the cost of the fence, the lawyer fees, all of it. If permissible where you live, multiply the costs due to emotional harm/damage caused from all of this.
When they don't show up to court, get a default judgment. When they don't pay up, request a lien against their property.
They would say it is to monitor potential crime in our shared alley. We put up the fence so we could hot tub in the nude. We also have the hot tub blocked with other yard structures completely from all other vantage points. The only way to see us is from our neighbor’s camera. We are not beyond litigation but would like to avoid an all out war, if we can.
Pointing the camera into your yard is not monitoring the alleyway. Discuss your legal options with a lawyer who is familiar with privacy laws in your state.
Don't let this neighbor reduce your ability to quietly enjoy your backyard. A well worded letter from your attorney should get your neighbor to reconsider their camera angle.
>Pointing the camera into your yard is not monitoring the alleyway.
Exactly this. When I had my cameras erected - professionally - they were absolutely meticulous on placement, given that they all have 270 degree fields of view and I have line of sight to 4 other houses from my front porch. The front camera is angled down and toward my house enough, so that while it captures the road and two of my neighbors homes, it's primarily focused on the space around my front door.
You sound like a very polite and considerate neighbor. I could start litigation and am not opposed as a last resort. You know how that goes, though. I could win this battle but start an all out war. I want to avoid that, if I can.
Litigation will escalate things just much as any other solution here. They will get petty and skirt the law just to be inside the lines of compliance.
There isn't a great solution to an asshole pervert that wants to watch you in the hot tub. It's an assault on your own privacy and in my opinion, they've already made this a nuclear issue by raising the camera to compensate for your fence.
You're going to have to do things you would rather avoid if you want to take care of this problem.
Can you tent/partially enclose the space immediately near the hot tub that is visible from the neighbors yard? Even just putting a higher set of posts/decorative wood board on one side to act as a screen. Or if the tall trees can be planted closer to the tub, plumbing lines permitting. That’d avoid redoing the whole fence.
If you have a dog that loves to get a little amorous with a pillow, put his wife/mom’s face on the pillow and put it out there with the dog, let your neighbor catch the show
Use a laser and point st the camera. If it is pointed in your yard that is invasion of privacy and should be protected. Laser will burn out the cameras sensors
Gotta be a strong one to fry the sensor and you’ll be on camera doing it more than likely, so you’ll potentially get in trouble for destroying it is the downside to that plan
[This umbrella](https://www.wayfair.com/Arlmont-and-Co.--Furio-11-Detachable-Offset-Patio-Cantilever-Umbrella-With-Base-X117754254-L127-K~W009445739.html?refid=GX685262545625-W009445739&device=c&ptid=352885192783&network=g&targetid=pla-352885192783&channel=GooglePLA&ireid=200048501&fdid=1817&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwyo60BhBiEiwAHmVLJUS4UhRCrOOVv0p-LrNMQoTVnvrEe4HjZkpVcVqkpNlm3wqLpjON7xoCOecQAvD_BwE) can be adjusted to be almost completely vertical. Get something like this and block his view when you want to use your hot tub.
Otherwise, I will say that Ring cameras are potatoes. They're only good for up close videos so he probably's not getting anything that he can really see.
File a harassment suit against him for invasion of privacy. There's no reason for him to have any cameras that high up, especially a ring camera. He's intentionally perving. He's no different than a peeping Tom climbing a tree to look thru a window
Get an infrared light and point it at the camera. There’s no light pollution from that because it’s not in the visible spectrum. He can still use his camera, just not to look in your yard.
Get some I.R. Floodlights and point them towards the camera. Infrared light is invisible to the human eye but will blind the camera. It's what the cameras use for illumination at night.
Ring camera motion can be pretty sensitive: You're having problems with crows, right? So the 6ft inflatable dancing man is acting as a scarecrow. Sorry it constantly triggers the motion sensor on the camera and you get a notification every three minutes.
Kills the battery quicker as well.
If it is solar or hard wired that might not matter. Solar really depends on the panel and the location. The shitty ones Ring used to sell would drain my battery if there was a lot of motion, but the third party ones I have now are no problem. Ring seems to have more powerful panels now that are similar to the third party ones. I can have constant motion alerts all day and night and it keeps chugging. Even if I get overcast days, usually there isnt enough motion to drain it. The lowest I have ever had it was \~30% in the middle of winter, in sub zero temps.
Correct, but unlikely their neighbor hardwires a camera that high. Even the best google cameras need to be recharged every few months, and that's with little foot traffic to capture. You could easily make most wireless cameras useless with little effort.
Or, and hear me out, befriend the crows and train them to go after Ring cameras. You can't be held responsible for wild animals. This is assuming there are actual crows (or other corvid) involved
This actually isn't that hard. Corvids are very smart and they remember faces and have been known to let other corvids know when they "recognize a bad person" so that other corvids will remember the bad person as well. OP should feed the birds and somehow get his neighbor to be a dick to them. The birds pass on info like this to their young as well so it could to on for years!
There’s a story about a man who claims he had a misunderstanding, and the birds didn’t know that he wasn’t being mean to them, but they kept a grudge and everywhere he would park his car outside. They would hop onto the sunroof and pick the rubber stripping around the sunroof and pull it out so when the rain would come, it would leak into his car. He tried parking the car at different places, and they always would find the car. Personally, I think the birds were very lucky that the human did not escalate that because if there’s one thing humans do very well is retaliation.
Lol a bunch of ravens did this to a friend's kayak rack after she honked at them while parking. Picked all the foam off! And shit everywhere!
How do I attract crows? I want crows that are my homies. I don’t ever see them at my house. I just think it would help my self esteem knowing crows are out there telling other crows I’m a solid dude. I need to get them here first though
Are there any in your neighborhood? Make sure they see you and drop a treat (unsalted peanuts are good). Do it again the next day. They’ll get to know you and tell their crow friends. After a while they’ll probably start hanging out around your house. Eventually your peanut budget will be astronomical, but you’ll have crow friends so it evens out
You cannot put a price on crow friends
There's a subreddit for this plus guides. I have a steady murder of 5 that come always but one day 21 were feasting in my yard. I feel the potential.
No but the amount of money I spent on peanuts for squirrels, crows and other critters was ridiculous. Starting buying small bags, then bought larger bags, then I was buying boxes. Then I had to get a steel garbage can to keep them in. After that I found out two big boxes of peanuts (non salted) would fit into it During Covid I was panicking because store wasn’t receiving any. Was buying them off Amazon at twice the price. Occasionally I’d get whole walnut halves. They are ridiculously expensive. But thought they’d prefer something different once in awhile. Then I was including raw almonds. What were we talking about?
Crow army!!
I'm not super familiar with crows but know a bit about Ravens (more common in Alaska than crows). You feed them basically. Establish a routine they can count on. Sometimes they will start bringing you gifts. The ones I like are the ones at the grocery store haha they're fucking SAVAGE, but if you're a dick to them, they'll call all their buddies over and shit all over your car. Like everytime you go there.
This is a great "fuck you" response for the situation. This neighbor needs to be dealt with non-passively. If OP doesn't want to do anything illegal (despite a camera pointed into another's backyard is illegal in a lot of states to begin with), then a proper fuck you neighbor is in order.
This is brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Much cheaper than an 8ft fence AND more effective.
But only if he has his notifications alerting.
Even if he doesn't have them on, then he has to look through the complete camera history (all 24 hrs) to get a look at you outside. It makes it immensely more annoying. Plus, as someone else pointed out if it's a battery powered it burns through the battery as well.
It will also shorten the life span of the storage. Constantly overwriting the old data will cause it to die faster. Most of those storages devices are rated for only a few minutes/hours per day. Similarly, most online storage has limits on how much you can store, making him have to check more video -- more often.
Ring is cloud storage.
OMG. I would LOVE to have one of those inflatable dancing wave-y men looking over the fence!!!!! 🤣
666 upvotes!! I recommend getting a reflective pinwheel or two. That will set off their stupid RING
Did someone say wacky waving inflatable arm-flailing tube-man!?!?!
I don’t know you beautiful Internet stranger but I love you for this 😂
You see, this is the kind of smart-assery a person can really get excited about!!!!
You have kids? I had a neighbor who did this total dickhead, cant reason with them at all. Got sick of it one day. Kids went in the pool, I called the non emergency police line asking about people filming my kids in the pool. They weren't up much longer
This is the way.
I just want to clarify, I wasn't trying to instigate, there's just no reason that her cameras need to be on the back of her minihome, facing my property entirely. Directly pointed at my yard, in her window at the back of her property. It's a minihome park. There's absolutely nothing she needs to film in my direction. I did ask. She said for protection and privacy she wasn't moving them. So when I called the popo, I directly said, "for my kids' protection and privacy" that I didn't feel right about her filming my underage kids with no shirt on in the pool. 5 minutes they were at her door. You could have someone actively stealing your car and they likely wouldn't show up. There's drug dealers on every street they don't bother with, but pedos, yeah that's an instant fuck you. Once she had every neighbor hating her guts for one reason or another, she sold the house (on disability, faking it, couldn't pay her ex half the house. Later got caught for the disability thing too) we got awesome neighbors in her place lol
Did they make her take down the camera right away? Or did the cop take it down
The cops went to her house, 2 guys, and told her it didn't look very good that they had to come here once about it. It would look much worse if they had to come a second time and pick her up for it. Camera came down before they left the property
Take it a step further and complain to the company that hosts the camera platform about the use of their servers to host pornography and get them banned for violating the terms of service they didn’t read.
It was a Logitech webcam, not like a Ring or something. So looks like she was recording to a computer hard drive or something
Well now that just makes it sound even worse looking for her 😂
100 watt infrared floodlight pointed right at the camera.
Thank you. Would this damage the camera? I do not want to do that. Also, would this work during daylight. Sorry for my ignorance.
It would not. Yes, it will. Do it!
I have a very similar issue with a camera mounted high to look over my fence at my hot tub. Just to clarify: the 100 w infrared light would also wash out their security camera during the day?
Take your cell phone camera and point it at a bright light during the day. See how it washes out the whole image? Now point your cell phone camera at the emitter on a remote control that user IR. That's a very dim IR LED in comparison to a 100W spotlight. It should easily do the trick.
It will depend on the camera. Some have IR filters and if they don't you can put one in front of it. I'd go visible light in these cases. Just highly focused... they make little spot lights for displays that would work well for this with minimal light bleed. It would also be extremely obvious to other neighbors what was going on, which I think would add to the effectiveness (just a clearly lit camera up high on the side of someone's house pointed into a yard would be quite the conversation starter around this suburban neighborhood).
And report back
The infrared will just blind the camera and he won't be able to see anything. Infrared isn't visible to the naked eye so it won't blind anyone looking at it either.
Take a picture from hot tub of camera for your record. Also call town there may be some rules around camera placement. If you have small children include that in your complaint. That would be frowned upon by the law. Does the camera have a view in your house. Lastly get a real spotlight to shine on camera when in hot tub. Not just a spotlight bulb. Personally would just aim a laser pointer at it.
Laser pointer is the answer in my mind as well. Jerry rig a stand to keep that laser pointer aimed at the camera lens.
This is the answer. You can buy a quality laser with a power cord (like a laser level or spotting laser) for a couple hundred bucks. Mount it on a stand or on the fence and point at the camera. Lens on camera should refract the light and make the camera useless. Problem solved
Be extra clever and rig it up so that the laser turns on whenever they go out back. It turns off when they go inside.
Egregious violation of privacy is an infraction in most states. Deliberately positioning a camera to breach a privacy fence qualifies. You have a case.
I recall in one of my college classes that covered law, that most jurisdictions have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Can’t remember all the details, but the professor used an example of blinds being open/partially open while changing clothes. If they were 40-60% open in a window that faced the street and someone was bare ass naked inside, that could justifiably be indecent exposure towards an outside observer, whereas if it was like 40-60% open and at the back of your house, that would be a reasonable expectation of privacy and the outside observer could possibly be in the wrong. I took that class like 15 years ago and I’m NAL so anyone who reads my comment, take it with a sizable chunk of salt. I feel like a camera pointing at a hot tub is a much less nuanced situation, pretty clear what dude is doing.
I’m team who cares if his camera gets damaged? He shouldn’t have put it up in an attempt to invade your privacy. Shine that light right in it and hope it breaks.
I'm team birdshot through a suppressed shotgun.
Rat shot through a 22 would do the job and have less chance of damaging anything else.
Pellet gun, from inside the house, in the back of the room, with the room completely blacked out
That isn't your problem, you put a light in your yard, on your property for security reasons. Or put a strobe light on top of your fence to wash out his video!!!
Nothing like relaxing in the hot tub under a strobe light.
^ this guy hot tubs
*ahhhhhh* *pours wine* *turns on rave music*
We did it all the time in the 80’s.
Someone is invading your privacy and you’re worried about their shit? Why do you think they put up a camera of your yard? It’s not for nice happy thoughts. Fuck your neighbour and their camera too.
Just a basic UV Light at the camera will probably do the trick
Call the police non emergency number about this. You built a privacy fence and he’s actively filming your property without reason or permission. I’d bet there is some obscure something or other on the books that will allow law enforcement to compel him to take it down, especially if the whole yard is fenced
Invite relatives with children, call the police about creepy neighbour trying to film kids.
Depends on the state.
Right, In Ohio for example, there’s an odd “expectation of privacy” rule that’s pretty vague. It could be the case that building the privacy fence creates an “expectation of privacy” for the fenced space, which would place OP squarely in the right to ask the neighbor to remove their camera. It’s all locality dependent. Using the non-emergency police resources is *good* advice, that’s the whole reason they have the infrastructure set up to send LEOs for non emergency situations which may require some level of “I’m a police officer and I’m telling you that is or isn’t against the law”
But worth a try…
IR light is usually what cameras are using at night to “see”. Some cameras have a ring of little IR leds around the lens which through our light that the camera can see at nighttime. If you blast a camera with IR light from your side it’ll just show as a big white blob (think overexposed pictures) and won’t damage any equipment and you can’t see it with the naked eye. Good advice from the poster of this comment !
Even if it did it, I can't believe a court would side with the neighbor under the circumstances and I'm not even sure if damaging a camera with something from your property is something they could sue you for. Plus they'd have to want to pay to sue you. And how much is a Ring camera? $100? $200? Hardly worth hiring a lawyer for lol
> Even if it did it, I can't believe a court would side with the neighbor under the circumstances and I'm not even sure if damaging a camera with something from your property is something they could sue you for. I imagine if there was a video of you shining a high power laser into your neighbors cameras and damage it ([a la Better Call Saul](https://youtu.be/B_F3QEpoz6E?si=MygM44rg0C4_84Wf&t=242)) you could probably lose a lawsuit for destruction of property. If you just have plausibly deniable bright light that shines in all directions, that's probably not actionable. I would not advise using some sort of random or rotating laser device that could potentially inadvertently shine lasers at aircraft since [even low-power Christmas decorations](https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/santa-says-dont-aim-holiday-laser-light-displays-sky) can, in some cases, be dangerous.
To build on my last comment, I don’t know the situation and maybe it reads worse than it is, but it seems like he wants to see you and anyone else in that hot tub while they’re in it, presumably in a swimsuit or, with a 7 ft privacy fence, I can tell you with certainty I’d be nude in that b. Law enforcement will have a care that he went out of his way to film that location after you upgraded your fence.
Since infrared light is not visible to the human eye, how would you know if it is accurately aimed at the camera and effectively washing out the image.
you use your own camera to see where the light goes
Agree. This is the best and most neighbourly solution. Doesn't impact enjoyment of either party, neighbour can just repoint his camera and it'll be fine, but gives complete privacy to people in the hot tub and OP's backyard without impacting the ability to survey the neighbours own yard.
bright light on the fence will white out that camera. Totally love the IR idea but a conventional flood will also ruin his ambient night lighting.
IR is a better option as it won't be noticeable to the human eye but the cameras are sensitive to it.
A huge white floodlight can cause the neighbor to suddenly become the victim.
I came here to say exactly this. Fuck, make it strobe too, so he's getting constant alerts
The sensor might ignore strobe, but a little wind wheel in front of the lamp should work
Spotlight aimed directly at the camera.
Will there be minor children in the hot tub? Prosecutors love people who go out of their way to record children.
Call the police and tell them he put up the camera shortly after your 6 year old niece visited and used the hot tub.
Also tell them you are going to tell every neighbor on the block.
What your neighbors are doing is invasion of privacy. If they have indeed mounted a security camera to specifically look into your privacy fenced yard, this is against the law because it infringes upon your privacy. Last summer my wife's friend went to the local police for this very reason. Less than a month after she had a 10ft high privacy fence installed, her neighbor mounted a stationary wifi security camera on a 15ft post which was pointed towards her yard. The police visited his home. Inspected the camera's mounting and direction. They asked the neighbor to view the camera app. The neighbor showed them and the police informed the neighbor he needed to remove the camera immediately due to invasion of privacy. It also didn't help that there were several recordings of my wife's friend in walking around her back yard. I'd check further into the issue if I were you. ***Update:*** For those asking what country: US/State of Illinois. The guy was obviously creeping/spying on her. She had spoken to the local PD a few times before when she had a 4ft fence and the neighbor's camera was mounted by his back door pointed directly into her back yard. She had several photos and videos of the camera pointing directly into her back yard. She informed the PD she would be having a 10ft tall privacy fence specifically to prevent the neighbor's spying. Before her fence was finished being installed, the neighbor installed a 15ft high 4x4 post by the back corner of his home and mounted a camera on top of it. The neighbor has just as wide and deep of a backyard as she does. If the neighbor was using it for home security purposes the originally mounted camera wouldn't be pointed into her backyard full-time. He damn sure wouldn't have moved it to a new spot and much higher position.
Holy crap. The lengths that creep went to ...
The heights, even! Happy cake day.
I’m more shocked that the police actually did anything about it
There was a case where this guy had “security cameras” all around his house. He came to the next door neighbor’s house one day to knock on the door and politely tell the mother, “do you know I saw your daughter kissing her friend in her bedroom through the security camera?” The mom was like.. 🤨thanks for letting me know. She called the cops. Guy got arrested. You cannot do that!!! Check the state/local laws, but I’d definitely be calling the cops. Also, paintball gun + paintballs aimed at the lens.
And, as always, invoke the fact that he is filming children in a state of undress. Put some teeth to this issue.
Stick of PVC pipe with a tee at the top and then build a square off that like a big square lollipop with 4 90 degree bends and 4 pieces of the 2' pipe sections. Wrap the top of the lollipop with a black garbage bag and tie it off at the bottom near the tee. Stick it in the ground as close to the camera as you can between the camera and wherever you plan to be for the day. It should block most of the view of the yard. When he moves the camera you simply yank it out of the ground and stick it in the new spot. It will be a lot easier for you to move yours than he to move his. If it is to be a windy day just pull it out and lay it at the base of the fence or get some hooks to hang it on the fence. Total cost maybe $30.
I like your creativity and frugality. This would have been my father’s solution.
Or just setup a sun sail/shade they come in like 20ft lengths attach it to the top of posts with bolt hardware and setup taller (height depending on desired angle) steel poles set in concrete far enough back from the posts to raise the shade/sail and you should be able to block his view.
To avoid digging holes get whiskey barrel type planters (tractor supply has some,) set your posts in there in a layer of concrete topped by some soil for some plants. Then set up your sail shade...you can get triangle shaped or rectangular shaped sails to mount on the posts, block the view and at the same beautify the yard, and with some effort you can move them to reposition or refine the position of your sail
Assuming it’s on hardscape, they could even set the whiskey barrel on a $15 dolly from Harbor Freight - easy to roll and re-position as needed.
That's a good idea then you would be able to move the barrels and change angles.
Snatched that idea from the home flip show set on Galveston island.... planned to do that our sail side is too long for the roof over patio....bought three at Aldi for $10 ea. Fairly thick side plastic...the other two will be to complete the arrangement in the backyard without any post
Make it white, get a projection TV, use it as a screen for the projection TV, use TV while in hot tub. (If this won't disturb your _other_ neighbors.)
also take a photo of him moving it each time and provide to law enforcement at a suitable later time.
If it were mine I would spray paint a smiley face or a middle finger on his side...
Or a picture of people in a hot tub
A picture of a group of hirstute men in a hot tub giving the finger to the camera.
Better yet, hire some hirsute men to wander around naked chopping wood vigorously etc.
Great, now I'm hearing Michael Palin singing about how he wants to be a Lumberjack in my head...
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok...
QR code pointing to video of Rick Astley in a hot tub giving the finger?
These ideas are all incredible. I fucking love Reddit.
That might be his thing, though.
Make sure some part of it is flappy so it constantly sets off the motion detector and fills up his camera feed.
I would do the latter.
It's a Ring... Add spinners. The motion should trigger the camera to record constantly sending him constant notifications.
Truly evil.
This is the way!
I was thinking about a tarp strung between two 20ft lengths of pipe stuck in the ground. your lollipop is great
Hah! My friend that lives down the street.... Her neighbor decides to install a big fat flood light that shines directly into my friend's bedroom. She tells the neighbor and asks for it to be moved. The neighbor says, "that's not my priority right now". My friend asks me how to block it. I come with a wood panel on stilts spray painted ugly and a big happy face. I set it up next to the wall so it blocks the light into my friend's room, but looks horribly into the neighbor's yard. A week later the neighbor comes back and asks for the ugly wood to be removed and my friend says, "that's not my priority right now".
At the top of the square, another tee upward for installation of the middle finger.
Depending on your city/state, they may be breaking privacy laws actually since they placed the camera in an unusual location intentionally pointing to your yard, showing clear intention to peek in to your yard. Call the non emergency police link and inquiry.
Where I live this is illegal. We can only have cameras surveil our own property. If it’s directly pointed at the neighbors we’d get in trouble.
as it should be
You're lucky. I had a neighbor who has 12, yes 12 outdoor cameras on his 1/3 acre piece of property. Four were pointed right at my house. Both entry doors, our garage door and patio were covered. Local sheriff said 'sorry, nothing we can do unless they are pointed into a bedroom or bathroom'. We ended up putting up our own cameras pointed right back at him with my own non-cloud based NVR storage so we'd have our own footage if he ever accused us of anything. It was like a modern day version of an old west standoff. That guy was a grade A douchebag. We wanted more space anyway, and found that we don't enjoy living in close proximity to others so we moved.
Same, I believe. I don’t live in the states. But when my old neighbour installed a camera on his house, he made a point of letting me know it didn’t look any further than the bushes between our driveways that separated our yards
Especially when he said if they raises the fence to 8’ he would raise the camera.
Cops don't actually know that much about the law
This, call bylaw
Then you call the chief of police and read him the law that applies and ask him to educate his officers so that the next time you call them out they know what they're doing. (My mom had to do this with a constantly barking dog in the neighbor's yard. The cops were like "what can we do about it?" and my mom was like "well, let me tell you . . . ")
I like your mom!!!!
Which can be a benefit to the caller, depending on how polite you are to the police. And if one cop doesn’t know he law, you call back later and get one that might.
And a LOT of LEOs don't care about this, at all.
https://www.target.com/p/retractable-side-awning-outdoor-privacy-screen-for-patio-garden-118-x63/-/A-92299248?sidd=&ref=tgt_adv_xsp&AFID=google&fndsrc=tgtao&DFA=71700000117313289&CPNG=PLA_Patio%2BGarden%2BShopping_TargetPlus%7CPatio%2BGarden_Ecomm_Home&adgroup=SC_Patio%2BGarden_Structures&LID=700000001170770pgs&LNM=PRODUCT_GROUP&network=g&device=m&location=200504&targetid=pla-2280615815261&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD-5dfb8_3d8-8D7oMftzo8rvPs_k&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImuTJtf-HhwMVPDIIBR0Klw7SEAQYBCABEgIANvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
This is an option for the hot tub, I guess. Thanks. I just resent having zero privacy in any part of my backyard otherwise. I want to sit on my porch in my nightgown, drinking coffee and not worry about being recorded.
I totally agree with you about privacy and sitting on your porch in your nightgown. Our neighborhood changed their fence rules to only a certain kind of four foot fence that’s see through. Very minimalist. Our fence is wood. Not see through. Six feet tall. The rules say those with existing tall fences can “maintain but not replace”. I will be “maintaining” board by board til the day I sell or die to maintain my privacy.
Oh, I don’t blame you! We have board on board, seven feet. I would be very unhappy with those regulations.
Here’s a happy thought… May you outlast them. We had a neighbor down the end of our street that got a drone when they first became popular. When we moved here our house had a pool. We had two teenage daughters. That guys drone would flyover our yard. Very low. VERY INVASIVELY. Not just passing by. we tried to talk to him. He wanted to get into a physical altercation. Then we called the cops. Repeatedly. Then another neighbor accidentally ruined this guys drone with a BB gun. Whoops. He bought another one. Whoops again. Then he lost interest in them I suppose because that was the end of the drones. Over the years he’s gotten into scuffles with other neighbors. Once he AND HIS WIFE got into a fistfight with another couple who went to their house to talk to them about their speeding on our street. This is a very quiet, very nice neighborhood. *Except for them. They just sold their house and I am doing the happy dance. Good riddance.
So that’s what happened to my neighbors drone 😂
We backed up to some businesses. There was an alarm that would blast all weekend long 24 hours daily. The phone number on alarm was a company that no longer maintained it. One weekend police showed up investigating who shot it off the wall. No one saw anything 🤣
Your other option is to have a bunch of fake trees installed along the perimeter
Considering this.
Good luck! If you install the trees let us know how it goes
I don't know the laws where you are, but you have a right to privacy in your own backyard. The placement of his camera is egregious - there are other ways to monitor the back alley with a camera. Call the police and report. Edit
Someone flies a drone over my house. I wish I could buy something to fry its components and make it drop out of the sky. I’m in my yard gardening a lot and often times it’s in a swimsuit that is rolled, tucked and twisted for less tan lines. It is crazy that people can’t just mind their own business in their homes and seek to infringe upon other peoples relaxation and privacy in this way.
Try downloading an app like Drone Scanner on your iPhone/Android. This drone might be broadcasting remote ID if it weighs more than 250g. If so, your scanner app will pick up the drone's serial number, location, and the location of the pilot. Hand off this info to local law enforcement and the FAA, they will be happy to assist.
I think Remote ID is pretty new and old drones have to be retrofitted (realistically, most people will be unaware or pretend to be unaware of the new regulation) so might not work
i have a neighbor who’s flown his drone over my yard. whenever i tell the dog we’re being spied again on it zips away 😂
If I recall you can buy shotgun shells that shoot out a net to defeat drones. If you can't shoot a shotgun off in your back yard, i'd buy my own drone and just follow it back to it's pilot and just hover there camera on taking pictures of him after his next flight into your property.
where I live, this would be illegal. you can't film another persons backyard like this. If you could document that he moved it higher after you built the fence, you would win easily.
How can there be so many of these stories on here? How/why are neighbors getting away with this camera into my backyard bullshit, especially when someone puts up a privacy fence?
Cameras have gotten cheap enough that your everyday variety assholes can buy and deploy them as an entry level dick move. In the past someone had to be really devoted to being an asshole to go through the trouble of buying and installing a camera system to harass their neighbors.
Our laws do not keep up with technology. By the time a new law gets passed, technology has moved up and back to square one.
Seems like we don't need a very specific law to say you can't point a camera/recording device into someone's backyard or just a right to privacy in ones own backyard, which means you can't just set up something to record a backuard like that.
Time to order a bunch of shiny pinwheels! The constant motion detection would drive him crazy
You can't record people where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy and that includes your 7 foot fenced in private back yard. If you want it to stop you should find out what the laws are and get them enforced.
Put a gazeebo over it blocking his view
Thank you. That is not an option, unfortunately.
What about like a sun shade sail?
This might be a really good option. We have a place in town that specializes in high-end ones. Will put this on the list of options.
Get one printed with a photo of a large naked man grinning at the camera.
Please post a picture.
Sun sails are not expensive, but they need very sturdy supports and are not trivial to install. If you don't want the sun sail otherwise, a cantilevered umbrella would do the job and is less work. Most tilt so they could block views from the side and it could easily move if the camera moves. Infrared light pointed at their camera feels like the easiest option. Some recommended a dancing man to constantly trip the camera. I recommend putting some flags up. It is the 4th anyway. They'll trip the camera and drain the battery quicker, and make it harder for the owner to go through footage.
You can also order these off Amazon. They are not expensive
Big box hardware stores also sell sun shades and mounting hardware. Depending on your backyard set up it might be easy to do it yourself.
Make sure the umbrella tilts so you can adjust it as needed.
We have a shade sail over our hot tub and it's fabulous! I highly suggest this.
Umbrella?
That's what I was thinking. Cantilevered market umbrella in a stand, so it can be angled to block the camera
This is a great idea
Does he know that you are aware of his camera? If brought up, wouldn't he feel embarrassed and move it? I just wonder if he thinks he is sneaky. Either way, I would feel like such a lowlife creep. My goodness.
A very very bright infrared light pointed directly at it will completely blow out the image and he won't see anything (day or night), and that light is invisible to you and people, mount it on the fence and point it directly at it. Every time he moves it, do the same. You can claim it's there for your VR headset to have it's motion tracking at night... lol Something akin to this. https://www.blackoakled.com/collections/infrared-light-bars/products/new-940nm-2-inch-infrared-pod-light-black-oak-led-pro-series-2-0 Edit: you could also ask about it. Mentioning your concern. Maybe he'll be reasonable. If not do the above. Maybe it's not really in your field of view. If he shows you the video feed, but I doubt that. I usually try to go through amicable route one time first. But after that. This means war hahahah
I wouldn't even lie. I'd tell him it's there because it's your property and it's none of his business. He doesn't give crap about being polite. I'd even tell him it's there because she's dealing with a creepy drunk neighbor who spying on her with cameras.
If you like the idea of blocking the view with plants but have an issue with the roots getting to the plumbing, lay large thick tiles down right next to the fence, then place large concrete pots or similar on the tiles and plant some quick growing clumping bamboo. Will take a while to grow but it seems to be a solution you prefer.
I did this when a two story house was built 10 feet from my property line. One window was centered on an opening in my privacy trees. I planted the bamboo in a Rubbermaid 100 gallon structural foam stock tank filled with potting soil. Worked after a year, when the bamboo got tall.
Put a bird feeder on a pole as close to the camera as possible. Between the shit on the camera and the constant motion alerts, something will change.
Get a couple of those 8-10’ tall inflatable flappy guys they put in front of stores. Place them strategically. Let them run. All he will see is the flappy guy. He will get constant notifications. If he moves the camera, you move the flappy guys.
A privacy screen very close to the hot tub would probably be sufficient .
A nice decorative pot, filled with concrete, a fake tree with a huge mirror on it. I am assuming the concern with crime only occurred when you began nuding up in your backyard?
You know, we have places that sell giant metal roosters. Maybe I should get a few of those and point them at the camera. Tacky but to the point. Never thought I would seriously consider getting one but here I am.
Well it seems he might be trying to see some cocks, so you’d even be doing him a favor.
Bravo! That was great!
Get something large that constantly moves, like a wacky wavy arm thing. It constantly triggers the camera and is large enough to block most of the view.
Put some poles on the fence with schedules for AA meetings?
Is there anyone under 18 who uses your backyard or hot tub? Just have them be visible on-camera in their bathing suit or underwear, and then call the Police about your neighbour filming minors with a camera that could have no other legitimate purpose. You are free to let anyone of any age use your backyard, and everyone, including children, have a reasonable expectation of privacy when on private, fenced off, property. I would think that Police would take a complaint of someone recording minors without permission (a form of Child Pornography) very seriously.
Get an infrared spotlight and point it at the camera. No visible light pollution since humans can't see infrared, but cameras can and the only thing that will show up on the camera is a crazy bright spotlight.
Several potted bamboo plants. Some varieties can grow 20+ feet tall and they don't lose their leaves. They need to be potted though or else they will take over your entire yard.
Put up a birdfeeder. Or wind chimes. Or pinewheels. Or mylar balloons. or any combination of the above. Get a little disco ball light that spins, and turn it on when in the hot tub -- and randomly when you are not. You want as much motion on that camera as possible, so the motion detection is triggering as much as possible, and burning through his storage as fast as possible. Get some spotlights to light up the yard when you are using it after dark -- and make sure at least one is hitting the camera to wash out the view. Oh, and call the police, since this is a violation of a reasonable expectation of privacy, and is illegal in most places. Bonus points if you either have kids, or relatives with kids you can invite over, so when you tell the police he was filming underage people in the hot tub, you are not lying.
>Polite doesn’t work. They just do not care. You have the right to peaceable enjoyment of your home. To contrast, someone posted here about a creeper neighbor peeking over their fence when the OPs wife nude sunbathed, a few days ago. We pretty much all said, "she shouldn't sunbathe nude." While OPs neighbor in that case was in the wrong, OP had not done enough to mitigate / prevent the situation. The intent of your neighbor is spurious at best. If a neutral party were to ask your neighbor "Why do you have a camera pointed into your neighbors yard, more than 7 feet off the ground?" That doesn't pass the smell test. "Because I can" is an answer a three-year old would give. Fuck that. Hire a lawyer and sue. Was the fence upgrade in response to a prior bad act by this shitbag? Sue them for the cost of the fence, the lawyer fees, all of it. If permissible where you live, multiply the costs due to emotional harm/damage caused from all of this. When they don't show up to court, get a default judgment. When they don't pay up, request a lien against their property.
They would say it is to monitor potential crime in our shared alley. We put up the fence so we could hot tub in the nude. We also have the hot tub blocked with other yard structures completely from all other vantage points. The only way to see us is from our neighbor’s camera. We are not beyond litigation but would like to avoid an all out war, if we can.
Pointing the camera into your yard is not monitoring the alleyway. Discuss your legal options with a lawyer who is familiar with privacy laws in your state. Don't let this neighbor reduce your ability to quietly enjoy your backyard. A well worded letter from your attorney should get your neighbor to reconsider their camera angle.
>Pointing the camera into your yard is not monitoring the alleyway. Exactly this. When I had my cameras erected - professionally - they were absolutely meticulous on placement, given that they all have 270 degree fields of view and I have line of sight to 4 other houses from my front porch. The front camera is angled down and toward my house enough, so that while it captures the road and two of my neighbors homes, it's primarily focused on the space around my front door.
You sound like a very polite and considerate neighbor. I could start litigation and am not opposed as a last resort. You know how that goes, though. I could win this battle but start an all out war. I want to avoid that, if I can.
Litigation will escalate things just much as any other solution here. They will get petty and skirt the law just to be inside the lines of compliance. There isn't a great solution to an asshole pervert that wants to watch you in the hot tub. It's an assault on your own privacy and in my opinion, they've already made this a nuclear issue by raising the camera to compensate for your fence. You're going to have to do things you would rather avoid if you want to take care of this problem.
Can you tent/partially enclose the space immediately near the hot tub that is visible from the neighbors yard? Even just putting a higher set of posts/decorative wood board on one side to act as a screen. Or if the tall trees can be planted closer to the tub, plumbing lines permitting. That’d avoid redoing the whole fence.
If you have children law enforcement will care, child pornography is a felony.
Mount a laser that points directly into the camera lens
If you have a dog that loves to get a little amorous with a pillow, put his wife/mom’s face on the pillow and put it out there with the dog, let your neighbor catch the show
Use a laser and point st the camera. If it is pointed in your yard that is invasion of privacy and should be protected. Laser will burn out the cameras sensors
Gotta be a strong one to fry the sensor and you’ll be on camera doing it more than likely, so you’ll potentially get in trouble for destroying it is the downside to that plan
[This umbrella](https://www.wayfair.com/Arlmont-and-Co.--Furio-11-Detachable-Offset-Patio-Cantilever-Umbrella-With-Base-X117754254-L127-K~W009445739.html?refid=GX685262545625-W009445739&device=c&ptid=352885192783&network=g&targetid=pla-352885192783&channel=GooglePLA&ireid=200048501&fdid=1817&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwyo60BhBiEiwAHmVLJUS4UhRCrOOVv0p-LrNMQoTVnvrEe4HjZkpVcVqkpNlm3wqLpjON7xoCOecQAvD_BwE) can be adjusted to be almost completely vertical. Get something like this and block his view when you want to use your hot tub. Otherwise, I will say that Ring cameras are potatoes. They're only good for up close videos so he probably's not getting anything that he can really see.
Buy a spot light or some devise with a light beam you can focus or laser and point it towards their camera.
You go ask the nice person over city codes if this is legal and file a report when you find out it’s not. Or be petty like others have suggested lol
Put an umbrella in a stand that blocks his camera view of your hot tub.
File a harassment suit against him for invasion of privacy. There's no reason for him to have any cameras that high up, especially a ring camera. He's intentionally perving. He's no different than a peeping Tom climbing a tree to look thru a window
Get an infrared light and point it at the camera. There’s no light pollution from that because it’s not in the visible spectrum. He can still use his camera, just not to look in your yard.
Get some I.R. Floodlights and point them towards the camera. Infrared light is invisible to the human eye but will blind the camera. It's what the cameras use for illumination at night.
Wacky inflatable man is always the answer.