Cellular Security / Trail Cameras...

[Murphy Slaw]

I have a cabin I built nearly 20 years ago with no electricity on 30 acres of woods I own.

It was vandalized a few days ago and some stuff was stolen. There is more stuff there.

I don't know if the signal is good enough out there for cellular, and the last trail camera I used MANY years ago just took hundreds of pictures of the wind blowing leaves around.

It really is sad, makes you feel violated and now they know what's there, outbuildings were broken into as well.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Here's a video from the porch last Spring.

[imwjl]

Bummer. You could check maps for coverage and try a more sophisticated device but should look at what it would cost.

Someone entered our cabin over the winter a few years ago but did not take anything we really value. We mostly manage it thinking something like that could happen, and that we could just as easily have a canoe or the sailboat stolen in our 1/2 million person metro area to.

As much as I know it can be upsetting I mostly try to look at it as just stuff, and I only got that attitude in the 3 year period a family member was dealing with cancer. Earlier in life I'd have been much more upset about the incident at our cabin.

I hope you're not too upset or the costs for fix up are not too high. Good luck.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Sorry to hear about the break-in, but loved the video! Thanks for sharing that.

Without any wifi or electrical power, you would need something like this:
Reolink Go

which works on 4G and 3G cellular networks.
It's battery powered, with a rechargeable battery, so in your case you would need the small solar panel available as an option to charge it.

No, it's not cheap, but, the more remote you are, the higher the cost I'm afraid. (There are other less expensive models but they need wifi).

Adding "Video Monitoring in progress" signs on the property might also help as a deterrent.

But, the first thing to do is to check how good the cell signal is where that cabin is located. If it's not good, then the above equipment wouldn't help you.

Good luck with solving your issue.

[Jcamp]

In my house I use to use some motion sensor alarms that had a 15sec delay to be turned off or they would let out a very very loud alarm. Now I’m sure ur cabin is in the woods but I can’t see someone hanging around long if there is a loud alarm. I about crapped myself a few times when I forgot them. I used 2 and they were small and battery operated. They were hard to find if u didn’t know what to look for. My local rural king has some led solor powered motion sensor lights that I’ve used around chicken coops and buildings that work well. As far as trail cameras go I recommend better quality one. I use Cabela’s brand cams. They have a life time warranty and some are IR so they are harder to detect

[DenverSteve]

In your case I probably wouldn’t worry about cellular. I would install a solar charged battery and power a motion-activated camera to document any future vandalism. All cameras are good for is to show you (and possibly the police) who took your stuff.

[polarred21]

I didn't know these cellular cameras existed. Coworker just showed me a live pic of his airplane using an Arlo cellular camera from Verizon with solar panel included. About $400 cost with a 2 year contract but only $5 a month he says.