Identifying the Vandal

Posted January 6, 2003

Identifying the Vandal By GF

I've been involved in maintaining a building for an organization for years. This involves all sorts of routine housekeeping and maintenance tasks, as well as security. Like many small organizations, we have a limited budget. We also have a sense of comfort that our security threats are from outsiders, and not from our own members. Recently, we faced an internal threat and X10 cameras helped us restore our security.

After several suspicious acts took place that involved missing items and destruction of property, many members were concerned. It seemed clear that a member was doing this. Rumors circulated as to who might be behind these acts. It became important to establish who was responsible, both to catch the guilty party and to protect the good names of the innocent.

We decided to install an XCam2, and record the output of the receiver on a time lapse video recorder, available for rental from our local security dealer. The video recorder would allow several days of activity to be recorded on one tape without anyone's involvement. This was the easiest and most confidential installation in our situation.

The best mounting spot for the XCam2 was within an exit sign. Because of the limited room within the exit sign's case, I decided to separate the camera head from the transmitter base. The swivel joints held together by nuts and bolts made this very easy. For power, I cut off the plug end of an extension cord and wired the individual conductors right into the power supply to the exit sign. I then plugged the camera's power cord into the extension cord. Once I had a sense of where all the parts could fit, I drilled a small hole in the front of the exit sign and positioned the camera's lens to look through the hole.

The receiver's output connected through an RCA to RCA cord into the time lapse recorder's input. When everything was installed and powered up, it all worked perfectly immediately.

Within a few days, we had clear videotape of the guilty party. Once confronted, guilt was admitted and we were able to resolve the situation.

The security dealer told us that his services to accomplish the same goal would have cost us hundreds of dollars more than we spent.

GF
Virginia

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Editor's Note: X10 does not encourage disassembling any X10 product. By doing so, all guarantees and warranties are forfeited.Remember to follow all appropriate state laws concerning hidden cameras in commercial facilities.

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