Hi everyone
Hoping someone can provide some advice or point me in the direction to go for advice on the subject...
TL/DR
I need to look at security camera options to cover my back garden. This will need to also cover the top of my neighbour's conservatory as we (myself and the neighbour) believe, due to a couple of recent incidents, someone may have been climbing up on that during the night.
Background
Incident 1
I live in a mid-terrace house (B in the picture) in a short terrace, friendly with the immediate neighbours either side (A and C). A couple of months back someone broke into one of C's sheds, taking some tools he had in there. He suspects that someone in one of the neighbouring houses (either D or one of the houses backing on to our gardens) is responsible, given how soon the break-in was after some new tools were being stored in there and the fact that there didn't seem to be any signs of an attempted break-in on the sheds either side of the one the thieves got into.
While he has a security light (2), the two sheds furthest from the house are smaller than his main shed and the backs of them all line up. Where his security light is on the wall of his conservatory means his main shed actually blocks the light from it covering part of the garden, including the fronts of the two smaller sheds and some of the right hand side of the garden, so following this break-in (which was reported to the police who gave him a crime number eventually but as far as I know haven't been in touch with him about it since) he had a security camera installed outside his back bedroom window (4), covering most of his back garden (if I remember correctly from what he's shown me of the footage, there's a blind spot still by the smaller sheds but the camera's motion sensor should be picking up anyone climbing over the fence there to get into the garden).
Incident 2
A couple of weeks ago I came downstairs in the morning to find a fluorescent light fitting, plus a couple of the tubes, hinges, bottles and other things had been thrown into my back garden during the night. C had a fluorescent light fitting in his garden as well, plus a brick had been thrown which split one of his fence panels and there was a blob of ice cream on his conservatory roof; we found the tub in the gap between his conservatory and the fence. Neighbour A reported finding beer bottles in his garden, as did the houses E and F.
Looking at what we know for sure, either these things were thrown into the gardens by the people living at D (or someone who got into their garden) or someone came along the gap between houses C and D with all these things, climbed up onto the outdoor toilet roofs and then started throwing things into the gardens of houses A, B, C, E and F but not D.
Given that my neighbours living in C and E are aware of other incidents to do with D over the past year and a bit we lean towards the former explanation, especially as looking over E's fence no sign of any bottles or other things having been thrown in there could be seen.
Unfortunately, C's security camera didn't pick up anything of the incident (it did have a few nice clips of a cobweb blowing in the wind in front of the lens...) so although the police came round to speak to me they've basically said there's nothing they can do.
Incident 3
Just over a week ago a plant pot full of soil was thrown into C's garden. Again, we're not quite sure whether that was from within D's garden or from on top of the outside toilets - C showed me photos he took of a slight scattering of soil on his bathroom windowsill as well as a more substantial amount scattered over his outside toilet roof. It could be that when the pot was thrown it hit the edge of his outside toilet roof causing soil to be thrown out of it onto the roof and windowsill before the pot landed in his garden, although he didn't say if he'd found any soil on the ground by his outside toilet which I would have thought he'd find if that's what had happened.
Thoughts
These incidents have highlighted that the current security lights I and my neighbours have isn't proving much of a deterrent to thieves and anti-social behaviour and C's camera hasn't made much difference. Thinking about this issue has also made me realise that it's possible to gain access to the my back garden nearest the back door without triggering any of the security lights, which would mean anyone trying to break into my house via the kitchen or to try and break into the entryway I share with B could do so unobserved.
I'm therefore wanting to look at security camera options (presumably you can get ones with lights in them) to help cover off the two routes that currently wouldn't trigger the lights, namely up between houses C&D and across the conservatory roof or up the gap between G and the next house along and coming over A's conservatory roof. (I'm not sure how feasible the latter would be as the people who live at G keep themselves to themselves so we don't know if there's anything in their garden to obstruct someone getting up on A's conservatory. I've never seen a security light shining in their garden at night so I don't think they have one)
Ideally I want to avoid any cloud based systems for storing footage - I've got a Synology NAS in the loft with a few TB of space spare so don't see the point of paying for space elsewhere - but I would want to be able to receive notifications of activity being detected, especially if I'm away on holiday.
Hoping someone can provide some advice or point me in the direction to go for advice on the subject...
TL/DR
I need to look at security camera options to cover my back garden. This will need to also cover the top of my neighbour's conservatory as we (myself and the neighbour) believe, due to a couple of recent incidents, someone may have been climbing up on that during the night.
Background
Incident 1
I live in a mid-terrace house (B in the picture) in a short terrace, friendly with the immediate neighbours either side (A and C). A couple of months back someone broke into one of C's sheds, taking some tools he had in there. He suspects that someone in one of the neighbouring houses (either D or one of the houses backing on to our gardens) is responsible, given how soon the break-in was after some new tools were being stored in there and the fact that there didn't seem to be any signs of an attempted break-in on the sheds either side of the one the thieves got into.
While he has a security light (2), the two sheds furthest from the house are smaller than his main shed and the backs of them all line up. Where his security light is on the wall of his conservatory means his main shed actually blocks the light from it covering part of the garden, including the fronts of the two smaller sheds and some of the right hand side of the garden, so following this break-in (which was reported to the police who gave him a crime number eventually but as far as I know haven't been in touch with him about it since) he had a security camera installed outside his back bedroom window (4), covering most of his back garden (if I remember correctly from what he's shown me of the footage, there's a blind spot still by the smaller sheds but the camera's motion sensor should be picking up anyone climbing over the fence there to get into the garden).
Incident 2
A couple of weeks ago I came downstairs in the morning to find a fluorescent light fitting, plus a couple of the tubes, hinges, bottles and other things had been thrown into my back garden during the night. C had a fluorescent light fitting in his garden as well, plus a brick had been thrown which split one of his fence panels and there was a blob of ice cream on his conservatory roof; we found the tub in the gap between his conservatory and the fence. Neighbour A reported finding beer bottles in his garden, as did the houses E and F.
Looking at what we know for sure, either these things were thrown into the gardens by the people living at D (or someone who got into their garden) or someone came along the gap between houses C and D with all these things, climbed up onto the outdoor toilet roofs and then started throwing things into the gardens of houses A, B, C, E and F but not D.
Given that my neighbours living in C and E are aware of other incidents to do with D over the past year and a bit we lean towards the former explanation, especially as looking over E's fence no sign of any bottles or other things having been thrown in there could be seen.
Unfortunately, C's security camera didn't pick up anything of the incident (it did have a few nice clips of a cobweb blowing in the wind in front of the lens...) so although the police came round to speak to me they've basically said there's nothing they can do.
Incident 3
Just over a week ago a plant pot full of soil was thrown into C's garden. Again, we're not quite sure whether that was from within D's garden or from on top of the outside toilets - C showed me photos he took of a slight scattering of soil on his bathroom windowsill as well as a more substantial amount scattered over his outside toilet roof. It could be that when the pot was thrown it hit the edge of his outside toilet roof causing soil to be thrown out of it onto the roof and windowsill before the pot landed in his garden, although he didn't say if he'd found any soil on the ground by his outside toilet which I would have thought he'd find if that's what had happened.
Thoughts
These incidents have highlighted that the current security lights I and my neighbours have isn't proving much of a deterrent to thieves and anti-social behaviour and C's camera hasn't made much difference. Thinking about this issue has also made me realise that it's possible to gain access to the my back garden nearest the back door without triggering any of the security lights, which would mean anyone trying to break into my house via the kitchen or to try and break into the entryway I share with B could do so unobserved.
I'm therefore wanting to look at security camera options (presumably you can get ones with lights in them) to help cover off the two routes that currently wouldn't trigger the lights, namely up between houses C&D and across the conservatory roof or up the gap between G and the next house along and coming over A's conservatory roof. (I'm not sure how feasible the latter would be as the people who live at G keep themselves to themselves so we don't know if there's anything in their garden to obstruct someone getting up on A's conservatory. I've never seen a security light shining in their garden at night so I don't think they have one)
Ideally I want to avoid any cloud based systems for storing footage - I've got a Synology NAS in the loft with a few TB of space spare so don't see the point of paying for space elsewhere - but I would want to be able to receive notifications of activity being detected, especially if I'm away on holiday.
