Hiding the presence of security cameras outside is a great way to keep an eye out on your property without anyone noticing it. Approximately 67% of burglars target residential properties in the United States. This makes security cameras an effective tool to foil anything they have in their mischievous minds. But only an effective camera isn’t enough if those are easily noticeable. You’ll need to put them in a place that will effectively hide their presence. If you’re confused about how to hide security cameras outside, here’s how you can do it.
Why Should You Hide Outdoor Security Camera?
You may have noticed that CCTV cameras in public areas are usually kept out in the open for everyone to notice. This is usually done to let the criminals know that the place is under surveillance and they might receive instant measurements. Since there is always law enforcement patrolling the public areas, less dedicated thieves and burglars are easily deterred. Even some of the industry professionals falter in public places.
But in private properties, thieves and burglars can tamper with your security cameras if they’re out in the open. You’ll lack all the evidence required to identify and get the criminals caught by law enforcement. Since this isn’t a public area, thieves also have a decent amount of time to find a route that’s not under your surveillance. But if they don’t want to spend the time to find an alternative route, they certainly will mess with your security systems.
Hiding security cameras will ensure that the thieves aren’t messing with the surveillance system. That way, you can have all the evidence about the crime and the full head-to-toe videotaping of the criminal committing the crime. If they’re unable to notice the cameras, your device and what it records stay safe.
It can also help you to closely monitor what’s happening or what’s not happening around your house and the neighborhood. You can also monitor strangers who’ll often trespass on your property without permission. And if you have kids, you can also keep an eye on them from inside of your house. Also added with the kids, pets. They can be huge troublemakers at times.
As much as hiding cameras come as beneficial, it also comes with some sort of a handicap. The security cameras’ hiding spots can limit the field of vision of their lenses. For example, if you have a camera hidden inside the bushes, it can’t have a full-range view of its surroundings because of the leaves hovering above its lenses. You’ll have to carefully choose where and how to hide these cameras.
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How to Hide Security Cameras Outside of Your House?
So how should you make your security cameras invisible?
You can find a plethora of ways and techniques to hide security cameras. However, not all of them are effective in actually fighting a robbery. To effectively capture everything that’s happening all around your property, you’ll need to work with a set of factors that come into play.
Here are some of the things you should consider when hiding your security cameras.
First of all, you have to work with the camera placement. As we have already mentioned, hiding cameras can limit their field of vision. To prevent that, we’d like to suggest you mount your camera as high above the ground as possible. That way, even if you hide the camera it can still have enough field of vision to capture the culprit from head-to-toe.
After that’s done, make sure you’re not hiding the camera in a place where its lenses are being obstructed by foreign objects. These things can limit what your security camera can see on its peripherals. Check from time to time to see if your camera has something on them.
Try to avoid wire cutting. You can get wireless cameras that’ll cost you more than wired ones. But these guys are worth every penny and can save you some trouble.
Finally, prevent software breaches. Most IP-based security cameras can share videos live on either one of your devices which makes them vulnerable to hacking. Use strong passwords and encryption to avoid these kinds of breaches.
If you’re wondering how you can hide your security cameras outside, here are all the ways that you can hide them around your property.
Using a doorbell camera
Thieves usually try to look for cameras in a place where it is usually the most unnoticeable and most likely to be placed. So they go past some places where they don’t even assume a camera might be set up. A doorbell is one of those places. Many thieves will often forget to check the place that’s right at their face. A doorbell camera also allows you to closely monitor anyone who’s trespassing your property and it has the perfect height to capture the thief from head to toe.
Disguising the camera
You can also disguise your camera to make it less noticeable to the burglars. You can disguise your security camera as one of many things. These disguises can range from a fake rock, birdhouse, plant to even a PVC pipe.
Using a birdhouse
Birdhouse is one of the most commonly used disguises. Even if it is one of the most commonly used disguises, it still proves to be effective to this day. Place the birdhouse pointing towards the entrance of your house and make sure that nothing is obstructing the lens of the camera that’s inside.
Using a PVC pipe
If you think a common disguise such as a birdhouse is a bad idea, then here’s one of the most unconventional ways of disguising your CCTV camera. Place it inside a PVC pipe connected to the ceilings and railings of your house. Use one that you don’t use for anything. Make it look like a part of the pipe is coming off. Dissect the pipe right where a thief might be lurking around and place the camera in the gap between the dissected parts of the PVC pipe.
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Using a dummy camera
You can install a dummy camera in places where it’s obvious for a thief to look into. Place the dummies in the most obvious places and place the actual thing somewhere else. Hopefully, most of the thieves won’t see through the disguise and the hidden camera will come in to save the day for you. Fake cameras can also often deter undetermined and undedicated thieves if they notice enough of these things hanging all around your house.
Using trees or bushes
Trees or bushes are more likely to hinder the visual capabilities of a CCTV camera. That is if they are too large. You can get some smaller security cameras from some vendors. You can even find one that has the literal size of a pen to get your job done. Stick it to one of the trees or bushes closest to the entrance of your house and the criminal will not even have the slightest bit of idea.
So, What’s Now?
Hiding security cameras is not always suggested since visible cameras can also do a lot to stop a robbery. But it’s not always going to be the same with these cameras. Veteran thieves and burglars can do everything to get rid of your CCTV cameras and sabotage the surveillance. This is just to prevent the worst-case scenario. Hiding security cameras is also costly and can put a strain on your budget. If you’re doing it, we just want you to be as safe as possible.