I think I've indicated in earlier posts that I'm not planning on retaliation. When I first discovered the camera it was so disturbing that I wrote about it here.

Sorry for all the "drama"

Bri don't apologize, but don't let this nut run your life. If nothing else get an old camcorder at a garage sale and point it at her house, it don't matter if it works or not. I used this on a annoying neighbor in Laguna Beach, and it works.

I have had to deal with nut jobs from time to time and they always respond in a self destructive way. all you have to do is wait, and she will do it to herself.

Latex gloves, a slingshot , and some stinkbait. Wheweee.

Train your dog to bark at the camera. Especially at night.

Brianna, if you find your neighbor's actions disturbing enough to become proactive in seeking professional mediation to "bust" her behavior, this may interest you. It is a loooooooong shot that requires you to use a camcorder (own, borrow, or rent one); but, could be well worth the effort. If you are lucky enough to be selected, you will have the opportunity to diligently "tell it like it is" about your neighbor on national television! Be sure to include the web address to this thread in your online registration Message.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. :cool:

i don't think any of us thought you were doing anything but venting. in the process of maintaining your sanity here, you gave some of us a lot of fun thinking of things to do that we [i]probably[i] wouldn't do IRL.

enjoy. vent. vandalize. strike the last one.

There is always something you can do about it Bri. Many are often legal but a little strange.

Brainstorm a bit and I'm sure you can think of some things.

Brianna
 

I am also a person of this legal harassment. I have a neighbor who has a camera on my entire house!! IT is SOOOOOOOO annoying and wrong!! I have seen his video..and it has my house one side to the next in it and he is video taping my children as well as myself and our neighbors. He has tried using the video against us and still nothing is wrong with it. He claims my children to be throwing rocks at his house when in reality my daughter is out in my drive eating peanuts and throwing the shells to the road..then another of my son throwing a rock up the street and giving it to the landlord stating we are doing something wrong..it took me a week to get her to see that and to dismiss the evidence he had against us..it is crazy!!!! He also used a video of my son retrieving a ball off his property claiming that it did damage to his house when in reality in the video it never even touched it. This guy is single and I find it rather strange that he would videotape my children..and apparently is trying to cause problems with it. I am for any idea of stopping this..I am sure there are other people with this problem out there. It needs to be STOPPED!!! I am with you as far as trying to remain legal on the fight against the cameras. But as to how far you can go without it becoming a legal battle is another sticky situation..but we should not go down without a fight!!!!!!!!!!!

Bri - I just had a thought.... tape up racy (but not entirely nude) posters of Carmen Electra & Pamela Anderson in your windows (facing outwards of course). If she's a prudish old bat then it just might make her knock it off.

If you are lucky she will stop looking out her windows all together! :)

If you are un-lucky, she will be knocking on your door with a big smile. Eeewww...

After much debate, my ex husband (who works for the city we live in) is going to POLITELY tell her that he feels very uncomfortable about her videotaping our son and would she please stop? He will offer to help her angle the camera so it will film her property and not mine. I really hope this works.

That sounds rational...so the biddy will probably reject it out of hand.

I hope it works.

Try one of these , it Will probley burn out the camera and/or the drapes !!!
http://wickedlasers.com/products.php?content=bspyder

And that is all feelings. Meanwhile, it means buglars will not find your house an easy target. Whether on tape or just humanly watched, either way, its still all in public. So what? Would you also avoid London for same reasons?

Ignore her. Know what she has done. But ignore her. Let her pay for your household security.

I still like the sign. Reasonable and truthful.

The sign idea is good except that there is an ordinance in the city about signs. The police will come and make you take them down.

She took the camera out of the window last night. Well, at least I can't see it anymore! Maybe my ex's talk with her did the trick.

[quote=tw]And that is all feelings. Meanwhile, it means buglars will not find your house an easy target. Whether on tape or just humanly watched, either way, its still all in public. So what? Would you also avoid London for same reasons?
[quote]
Cameras in London watch *everybody*, not just one residence and family. Bri's house and yard are not public places. London's streets are.

Since when did you become passive, TW? :)

I really enjoyed reading this thread and learned some new techniques!!

Welcome to the Cellar, somekind. Hope the neighbors stop bothering you.

Videotaping the neighbor's dog
 

Thanks. I'm trying to deal with it. I live in a peaceful neighborhood that would be quiet if not for 15 neighbors with dogs that bark a lot.

I have been trying to document the problem by videotaping the offending dogs and uploading their barking to the internet. I want to know where the noise is coming from. It could be 2 dogs or 20 and I'd like to know.

Since there has been a duscussion about legality in this thread I'd like to pose some 'expectation of privacy' questions:
(I'm only taping dogs here; no people or inside of houses.)

Is it legal to videotape my neighbor's dog in it's yard from within my yard? I can easily see over the fence (5'). It barks a lot and is annoyingly cute and I have a lot of video of it now.

How about if the fence is taller than I am (6'1") and I stand on a stool or hold my camera over the fence? What if the fence is at the street and I am on the sidewalk holding the videocamera over the fence (I can peek at the LCD display). I'm only taping yard/dog.

I'm going to assume that any dog I can see from the street is fair game to videotape.

My neighbors' dogs bark at each other across my house. I often honk a bicycle horn with the dogs; sometimes it shuts them up (or gets the neighbor to). I'd like to come up with a noise maker to alert them that doesn't jeopardize me. I don't want to be cited for being a nuisance, so I thought about putting my weed whacker next to the dog-fence and running a 100ft cord to my bedroom. That way I can run it briefly when the dog starts barking. I know the neighbors hate that noise. Well, at 8 am on weekends, the barking is a pain, too.

I thought about starting the clarinet, but I'd rather something that takes less effort.

(I don't actually talk to the neighbors about the problem. I wouldn't expect them to react favorably).

Sometimes I just call the police and let them check it out (it's a violation of city code and the owner can be cited, especially if not home when the problem is occurring).

The problem: Everything else is a symptom. I recommend treating the problem and not the symptom for the best chance for success.

ymmv

IANAL. I believe it is fair to say that if you are on public property (i.e. a street, sidewalk, park, etc.) or on your own property, you can photograph whatever you can see legally with some limited exceptions (military installation, etc.). (This will not stop you from being hassled by cops who decide they don't like what you're doing, or by the olympic boxing gold medalist whose hot girlfried you just took a snapshot of.)

Note I said "you" are on public property. What you're taking a picture of does not have to be.

I don't know how this applies to video, as opposed to photos.

Won't hold water. If you are video taping the dog, and it can see you or even the camera, you're provoking it.
You have to prove the dog is barking without provocation.

He is recording your children? Maybe you should have a chat to the local police. I don't know how the law works in your jurisdiction, but the filming of other people's children is not tolerated in many jurisdictions due to concerns about child pornography. If he was raided tomorrow, he may have a hard time justifying to the police why he has these recordings of your children. So if you approach it from the "child pornography" angle, it is more likely to be investigated than the more general "filming my house" approach.

That's good and all, but I'm just trying to document my problem, not prove anything. The problem exists with or without me.

hows it going bri? anymore wacky taping going on or are you starting to feel comfortable again at home- i really hope you are.

sun

Document it for whom? You don't need to be convinced and anyone else you try to convince with the tapes, should tell you the same thing I did.

I uploaded the barking dog videos to youTube, so I guess I'm documenting them for the world to see. Some of the videos show dogs barking at the camera; they'll bark at anything they see. Regardless, it's a violation of city code to allow a dog to bark for extended periods for any reason.

Other dogs I was able to video tape without being seen, so the dogs are barking at something else.

Any dog owner who lets their dog bark will make the same accusation; but I'm not out provoking dogs. I'm just trying to enjoy some peace and quiet.

#1. Make a trip to your local city hall and check out YOUR city ordianances regarding barking, (and videotaping) They are likely online, ours are.
#2 Take the information regarding barking/noise pollution to your neighbors and talk to them, with that info in hand. Give them a copy! Document the date and what was said to each.

That way, when you make formal complaints to the police etc, you have a record of what was said and when, and that the neighbors have a copy of the ordinances and can't claim ignorance of the problem.

Good luck, let us know how it turns out.

Thanks for the recommendation. I don't confront people about stuff like this, they're likely to 'explode'.

Sometimes I just call the police. If they show up and the neighbor is out and the dog is still barking, that is proof enough.

I should think they are much more likely to explode when they find out you've sicced the cops on them than just telling them their dog is annoying you.
I also think you're setting yourself up for some serious backlash.

I seriously sympathize with you because I had a neighbor that would let his dog bark for 8 hrs straight. I'm not kidding, that sumbitch would not stop for more than a minute in 8 hours.

I too have neighbors that have nothing better to do!
 

I have a similar problem we have lived here and owned our house for 6 yrs. We have a couple that live next to us that are in there 70's and there 50 yr old son still lives with them we have gotton along in the past and when we moved in the old owners said they were a VERY strange family but have only recently found out why nobody in the neighborhood like them! They have at least 6 vidoe cameras outside there house up high and only recently they face all parts of our yard! The police say that they can do this. We have other neighbors that have moved because of this and everyone calls the cops on them but nothing ever happens to them! We have gotten several warnings for noise and threatened we need to get along with them but we have tried. They play this annoying elevator music through a loud speaker and when anyone calls the cops they have a scanner so they shut it off. I have several meeting with the chief of police and nothing has been done except till now. We just recieved a $205.00 fine for unnesecary noise for my husband working an his motorcycle in the garage, so we are now fighting that why they can continue taking pictures of us in our yard and standing in there front yard with a hand video camera filming us and our small children so just to dive into a little this isn't even half of it but I'll be damned if were moving!!!!

Welcome to the Cellar, meltramel. :D
I sure there are lawyers out there that could give us a handle on the legalities here. It may vary from state to state, though.

I wonder how bright an infrared light or how strong a laser is necessary to take out a camera?

Thank you, I really hate to stoop to there level and start calling the cops for everything they do thats such a waste of the taxpayers money . I just called to talk to the chief of police whos my step fathers friend and he says my hands are tied they have to respond to every call and its perfectly legal for them to video tape us, which how do I know what they do with the videos of my children jumping on the trampoline! They are just not all together up there! I think there may be some inbreading.....J/K. So now we are going to take there pics and start video taping them in there garden and making any ind of noise. I cringe just thinking its not even summer yet!:thepain:

You need a high wall like the green monster in Boston. Or a sailboat parked along the line ....with the sails up. If the wind is right, a smoke machine would work.
Still think a laser in the lens would work.

No Pictures Please: Researchers Develop System to Thwart Unwanted Video and Still Photography

I really like the wall idea or maybe just a dome over my house to shield nosy neighbors! The video camera's they use tape on a video tape in the house so do u think they would see us do that lazer on tape before it actually goes out? I seen someone post a nude streaker love that idea maybe I could get someone to do that and then they would need to be hospitalized for heart failure or something!! Thats the mean side of me coming out again! I could never do anything to harm them or there property, even though why should I care! Even if we would put up a privacy fence it would help when they were outside but there cameras are up really high so nothing would help! I wish I could get a petition to stop neighbors from doing this I don't know how this can be legal......

in all cases I'm going for the ninja-vandal idea... or doing something so outrageously silly on a regular basis that they can't call the cops... guys in 'greys' suits bbq'uing ... I'd love if the neighbors tried something like that.. it'd give me something to focus my twisted sense of humour on.. especially in that arena.

Dude.

I think it will look like "la la la WOWTHATSABRIGHTLI..." bye bye camera. You ever accidentally look into a flashlight beam? That's what the camera will see. Maybe the last thing that camera will see.

Sit on your picnic table and clean your guns, sharpen knives and apply camo makeup. Then just before dark go inside and don't show any visible lights for the rest of the evening.

Rinse, repeat.