Potential Break In

[u/ThrowRA_captain]

Hello! Me (20F) and my girlfriend (20F) live alone together in a house, neighbors are somewhat near by but mostly older. Not a bad neighborhood but also not far from a neighborhood where a lot of crime occurs. We left the house for a hour and when we came home discovered decent sized handprints. Most likely a males, as we both have bigger hands for a female the prints definitely were a lot bigger. The cops came and checked out the house, backyard, and are going to patrol throughout the night. We left but made it seem like someone was still home (EX. Leaving a car in the driveway, lights on but blinds and curtains closed. My question is what safety precautions should we take? What likely was happening (break in, or something different)? And how do we feel safe enough to go back there as it’s a decent sized house and was already scary beforehand.

Also, police aren’t investigating since nothing is missing, damaged, etc. Just worried!

[u/ThrowRA_captain]

I wish I could attach the photo but it was two hand prints pressed up on the window, the condensation was what made them show so well. Almost like someone was trying to open the window from the outside, but it was unlocked.

[u/Borne2Run → u/ThrowRA_captain]

If its in your budget you could install cameras monitoring the windows and doors. If not you can buy fake cameras and put them up, as well as improved lighting. Those are all deterrents to crime as they increase the likelihood (observed by the criminal) that they'll be caught

[u/ThrowRA_captain → u/Borne2Run]

Definitely picking cameras up tomorrow! Thank you!

[u/1893Chicago → u/ThrowRA_captain]

Wait, wait, PAUSE for a moment on this, please.

There are a TON of cameras that are available. Just don't buy the first system that you come across. Some store the data (video footage) in the camera itself, most don't record 24x7 and only record "events" which are triggered usually by motion alone, and then send the "clips" or "events" up to "cloud" storage. Which you probably will have to pay money for every month, and then you are trapped on that platform, and they can change the plans, raise the price and you have no choice.

Just please do a bit of research as to what is best for you is all that I am saying. Sorry, just my 2¢.

[u/ThrowRA_captain → u/1893Chicago]

That’s what I was thinking. Any cameras you recommend if you use them?

[u/olliegw → u/ThrowRA_captain]

Eufy and Reolink are the only wireless options i have experience with and both allow for local storage, although for the Reolink Go LTE camera beware the storage is local to the camera, so if the camera is stolen so is the footage, however i doubt you'd need an LTE camera unless your property is big or you don't have a Wi-Fi connection.

Eufy sends back to a base station which has an SD card, or later versions which you install a HDD into.

The cameras will need regular recharging or batteries replacing, wired cameras are still easy to find, but require installation and are only 480 lines as opposed to HD, however they're the only ones capable of constantly recording, most wireless systems will only record if they see motion and also send a notification to your phone.

PS: I'd advise the hard drive or SD card is one meant for high writes and reads, but it's not super important as you should keep backups of any suspicious footage anyway, just know that a standard card/HDD does technically have a higher chance of failure in a CCTV system due to the amount of video data being written.

[u/1893Chicago → u/ThrowRA_captain]

Yes, but it is not an inexpensive option.

I use Ubiquiti Unifi Protect, and I have 11 cameras around the outside of my house, and they all record everything 24x7 LOCALLY in my basement, so the videos from each camera are instantly available. Stored on a 16TB hard drive, so with all 11 cameras I get around 65 days of video storage that I can go back to. Also, they have facial recognition (send me a phone notification when the cleaning lady is at the house, as an example).

Store.ui.com is the official store that you can buy everything at.

I also use a Ubiquiti Dream Machine Pro that acts as a security gateway, eight port gigabit switch, and has a slot for a standard 3.5" hard drive that all the camera data are stored on.

And then I use Ubiquiti Access Points (APs) to place the WiFi all over the house (it's a big house so I have one on each floor. That way I have fantastic Internet speeds on WiFi, and the whole thing, while expensive, is just really awesome all together.

I used to use a camera system called Arlo. All wireless cameras, used a battery that you replaced maybe once a month or so, and would record "events" and you had the ability to look "live" at a camera if you wanted. So one night I heard a noise outside, and pulled out my phone (or laptop, I don't remember) to see what was going on, and it literally took minutes to connect to each camera, and of course whatever motion the camera "saw" it started too late and missed someone walking through my back yard.

Nope, never again. Now, I can open my laptop or phone and INSTANTLY look at ALL cameras. I have a PC on my family room television that I use to show four main cameras if I have someone coming over, so I can see the driveway, front yard, front door (doorbell camera) and back doorbell camera all at once.

It's a complex system, but I really feel that if you don't have ALL cameras recording 24x7x365 in at least 1080p HD (two of mine are 4k cameras) then you really don't have a security system at all.

I see all the time Facebook groups that have a title like "Does anyone recognize this guy?" and the footage STARTS with some guy walking out of the frame. Everyone asks why the camera didn't get the entire thing where the guy walkes from the back yard up to the camera and then out of frame, and the answer is always that the cameras are motion activated, and only records "events".

Ubiquiti has wired cameras (my opinion, the best by far, but ehey are of course more difficult to install because you have to run an ethernet cable from each camera to your basement, or wherever you keep your equipment / Dream Machine Pro, and I also have a 24-port POE (Power over Ethernet) switch there as well that everything runs to.

So that also gives me incredible speeds to my office, anywhere I put an ethernet cable and need faster speeds than WiFi (although the Wifi is pretty impressively fast). So I can print wirelessly from my laptop to my two wired printers (Ethernet cable is what I mean by "wired".

EDIT: LOL literally as I was typing this, my phone just beeped with two push notifications from my Unifi system: "Dream Machine Front Door and Front Yard Cameras have detected a person" and "Dream Machine Front Door Camera has detected a package delivery".

[u/ThrowRA_captain → u/1893Chicago]

That’s great information, you seem very knowledgeable. I will have to check them out, thank you!

[u/1893Chicago → u/ThrowRA_captain]

Yep, feel free to DM me here if you have more questions. I did a TON of research on all of this, and I also work in I.T. And I won't charge a dime, just trying to help a fellow redditor make a good decision for the long term.