Trail Cams or something similar?

[bersaguy]

Recently I have been having issues with things being moved around in my carport and at first I thought it might be a critter like a possum or a coon and occassionally my back lights get tripped light up the carport and back yard. Now I am beginning to think it is a two legged critter. Last night I had a 20lb tank of Propane go missing and my 5 gallon gas cans where moved in order for them to get to the propane tank. The gas cans were all empty just moved. I normally have 3 full tanks of Propane for my grill. I was down to 1 full tank and was needing to got get the others swapped out. Glad I didn't now but bothers me knowing I have a thief working the area. So with that said without spending a fortune I am looking to invest in a camera of some type so I can see who it might be. Things have been being moved around for about a month+ now from time to time. This is the first time something has turned up gone so I think who ever it is has gotten braver. If anyone can give me a lead on a camera that won't break the bank it would be appreciated. 

[Grunt67]

You can get a decent trail cam for under $100 at Walmart, Academy, etc. They take good pics day or nite if it is equipped with infrared ( most are ).  I have one ( Bushnell ), that I run 24/7 in the woods behind my house, picks up all kinds of critters, even 2 legged.

Hate a thief, & love to catch one.  Make sure wherever you set it up, it's not easily seen, or they'll steal it too. Had that to happen.

Good luck, bud.

[rugerla1]

2 hours ago, Grunt67 said:

You can get a decent trail cam for under $100 at Walmart, Academy, etc. They take good pics day or nite if it is equipped with infrared ( most are ).  I have one ( Bushnell ), that I run 24/7 in the woods behind my house, picks up all kinds of critters, even 2 legged.

Hate a thief, & love to catch one.  Make sure wherever you set it up, it's not easily seen, or they'll steal it too. Had that to happen.

Good luck, bud.

Yeah make sure the camera isn’t where they can see the flash at night even if it’s only a dim red one. Preferably outside the porch overhead in a tree perhaps so they won’t be eye level with it and take it too. Kind of hard to read an sd card that’s in a stolen camera. Hope you catch the thief, can’t stand the low down scumbags. 

[Shorty]

If a camera isn't an option, think outside the box.  Simple enough to see if it's a critter or a person, just take a bag of flour and dust the carport floor where stuff keeps moving.  You'll either see animal prints, human, or a human trying to wipe away tracks.  May even be able to follow them a bit with a black or uv light since it should glow a little.  Or make an early warning "booby-trap" to warn you it's not just a random motion light trip.

[10-Ring]

I bought a bottom of the line trail cam a couple of years ago for $40, a lot of retailers seem to have sales on them this time of year.  It works fine, even in the dark.

[bersaguy]

11 hours ago, Shorty said:

If a camera isn't an option, think outside the box.  Simple enough to see if it's a critter or a person, just take a bag of flour and dust the carport floor where stuff keeps moving.  You'll either see animal prints, human, or a human trying to wipe away tracks.  May even be able to follow them a bit with a black or uv light since it should glow a little.  Or make an early warning "booby-trap" to warn you it's not just a random motion light trip.

Well I have kinda ruled out the 4 legged critter cause I don't think one could carry off a full 20lb bottle of propane. I looked at some of the stuff Harbor Freight has to offer and they have a couple things and some cameras also . They have a driveway alert system that is motion operated and it triggers a unit in the house if anything sets the unit off in the carport. It can be set high enough where critters would not trip it. It's only 14 bucks plus the batteries. May pick up one of them next time I get near one of their stores.

[Omega]

11 minutes ago, bersaguy said:

Well I have kinda ruled out the 4 legged critter cause I don't think one could carry off a full 20lb bottle of propane. I looked at some of the stuff Harbor Freight has to offer and they have a couple things and some cameras also . They have a driveway alert system that is motion operated and it triggers a unit in the house if anything sets the unit off in the carport. It can be set high enough where critters would not trip it. It's only 14 bucks plus the batteries. May pick up one of them next time I get near one of their stores.

Those Harbor Freight ones work ok, I have used them before.  The only drawback is that the little light needs to be covered to not give them away and you have to be there to know when they go off.  Do you have wifi in the house?  I bought some Yi cameras for $35 off Amazon (Now $50): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076BL7JVS they work great, you can set them to alert your phone, send you short videos and can take a pic/video at will or when they sense motion.  These are indoor ones and need a plug, but I suppose they can be housed in a water proof/resistant housing if needed but  I got the Blink Cameras https://www.amazon.com/Blink-Home-Security-Detection-Included/dp/B071YPNMN1 for outdoors but they are much more expensive, but they are battery operated (or corded if you want).

[peejman]

3 hours ago, bersaguy said:

Well I have kinda ruled out the 4 legged critter cause I don't think one could carry off a full 20lb bottle of propane. I looked at some of the stuff Harbor Freight has to offer and they have a couple things and some cameras also . They have a driveway alert system that is motion operated and it triggers a unit in the house if anything sets the unit off in the carport. It can be set high enough where critters would not trip it. It's only 14 bucks plus the batteries. May pick up one of them next time I get near one of their stores.

My parents have one of those driveway alert systems.  Dad likes it, I think mostly because it's louder than the doorbell so he can hear it. Mom thinks it's annoying when the deer set it off in the middle of the night and it wakes her up. 

[bersaguy]

43 minutes ago, peejman said:

My parents have one of those driveway alert systems.  Dad likes it, I think mostly because it's louder than the doorbell so he can hear it. Mom thinks it's annoying when the deer set it off in the middle of the night and it wakes her up. 

Yea a couple buddies of mine have some of them and they like them a lot. They said that they do like batteries though so need to keep a stock of batteries around. They also said it depends a lot on the amount of traffic it gets. I have only had a doe and two fawns pass through my yard since I moved here so won't have a deer issue. I do have a local Gray fox that shows up once in a while but normally he is just passing through the back yards along the fence row. I think I might have to re aim the photocell on the back lights cause I think I have rabbits or some other small critter sitting them off and turning the lights on. I will probably get one of the driveway alarms next time I get by one of the stores.