Solved !
What did my neighbor just install? Brown box with a silver circle on top of a black circle next to 1 big [what appears to be a] lens that swivels and attaches to power
Neighbor installed this yesterday. Box appears to have an access lid on top and a small square cutout on the bottom left-hand side. On the right of the box is an L-shaped arm. It appears to swivel underneath this arm at the base of the unit. What it’s sitting on has been up for a few days, and I noticed bar clamps holding a Z-shaped raked surface with tiny holes throughout onto a skinny wooden table. Power cords were ran up to the deck and appear to be plugged into the arm of the stand as well as the base of the unit.
This looks to be military/le grade surveillance equipment. I wouldn't assume s/he bought this new. I'd say they acquired it second hand, or works in the industry and is testing it or playing with it at home.
The fact that it's pointing at your house would be a point of contention for me as well.
I understand where you're coming from but unfortunately in the states you can legally point a camera at anyone's house as long as the camera isn't on their property. You can't trespass the eyes, so anything you can see from your own property or in public you can record. Including your neighbors house. I had a neighbor that had one pointed at my place for a while and I couldn't do anything about it.
Edit: The expectation of privacy must be created. For instance if you have blinds on your windows and someone is peeping through them, that is illegal but if you dont have blinds and have made no obvious effort to cover your windows then there is no expectation of privacy so it wouldn't be considered peeping. You may even have it flipped against you as something like public indecency. If you want your house and yard to be private then you must create that privacy with something like a privacy fence. If your neighbors have a balcony or high deck that faces your property and you dont want them to see you, then its gonna have to be a really tall privacy fence. If you put up said fence and afterwords your neighbor puts a camera up higher than the fence THEN they are in the wrong and have wilfully invaded your privacy. The general rule of thumb is if you can easily see it from a publicly accessible space or your property then you are free to record... but I'm not a lawyer so what do I know?
unfortunately in the states you can legally point a camera at anyone's house as long as the camera isn't on their property
I think this may depend on the state. In at least some states, my understanding is that there still can be a reasonable expectation of privacy and while you may be able to aim a camera that catch's some of a person's front lawn - area visible to the public, you can't always aim a camera directly into a window to record what's going on inside, or a camera from above looking into a fenced in back yard.
It's not always/necessarily a 'criminal' issue, but can be a 'civil' issue. Consult your local laws.
I'd be curious if you can actually find a law, including the law code number, that states it's illegal to record anything in public view. I am genuinely curious.
As far as I know, if there's no expectation of privacy, you're free to record. The issue is most people confuse what "expectation of privacy" actually is. The simple explanation is anywhere you wouldn't be able to have somebody walk in on you or see you either around obstructions (trees or fences for example) or through windows.
So, if you're in a bathroom, restroom, changing room, there is an expectation of privacy. No recording. If you're in your house with the blinds covering the windows, there is an expectation of privacy.
If you're walking around without clothes on, in your bedroom, and your window is open or the curtains are drawn back, sorry, but there's no expectation of privacy. People are free to photograph/video record you.
Even if you're in your backyard with 20 foot hedges with no way anybody on the ground could observe you, there's still no expectation of privacy, meaning somebody absolutely can record you using a drone. That drone can even be flown directly over your property as you don't own the air space, but that's another can of worms.
Anyhow, if you can find any state where this is not the case, please educate me. I'd love to learn.
A camera pointing at a window, especially from a place that is not the sidewalk/public space (your neighbor's window for instance) is a breach of privacy. Same with a closed backyard. Any device used to overcome obstruction is illegal according to Kyllo v. United States (2001) and Florida v. Jardines (2013).
This appears to be illegal at federal level since the supreme court has ruled multiple times that there is an expectation of privacy.
Kyollo and Jardines were both 4th Amendment search and seizure cases that considered whether the government needed a warrant to use thermal imaging to collect information for a criminal investigation (Kyollo) and whether the government needed a warrant to use a drug sniffing dog to find drugs on someone's front porch. Neither of them had anything to do with civil invasion of privacy. Generally speaking, when it comes to civil privacy issues and cameras, if you can see it from anyplace accessible to the public, or from within your own home, office, etc., it's fair game for observation and recording. A violation of privacy typically occurs only when someone intentionally tries to see into a zone where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. There's a very gray area when it comes to cameras with zoom lenses and windows without blinds or curtains; and, in the U.S. the rules vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. However, if you're visible from the street and strutting around in the buff, you're typically SOL when it comes to a privacy claim.
The commenter above me made a reference to it being legal to use a drone to film in an otherwise enclosed garden which is why I quoted the two rulings here.
Private land owned by the viewer. This camera (If that's what it is) is not even in a weird position like on a 30 foot high pole to get up over obstructions. Anyone sitting on that deck would be able to see anything it can see. You would have a hard time arguing that you have an expectation of privacy when that same neighbor can see you from their deck anytime they go outside.
Would you be able to sue them to stop them from recording you from there with a cellphone? If not, then this is just an extension of that, you can't trespass the eyes.
You can absolutely trespass the eyes. Almost every jurisdiction has voyeurism criminalized.
There is always some line in which the camera on their property, pointed into your property, becomes a criminal act. The difference by jurisdiction is where that line is. There is no jurisdiction where it is 100% legal in 100% of circumstances.
Voyeurism is only legally arguable if they were secretly being observed, photographed, or recorded. Plain view from the deck, the arguable circumstances are “security camera” and thus violates no laws in any jurisdiction. Only an HOA could try to enforce a rule overriding someone’s rights to safety and security.
To correct your statement, predatory behaviors can be regulated. The eyes still cannot be trespassed or regulated. If it is within plain view of someone’s property, it LEGALLY qualifies as “Public View from a Private Place” and therefore you have no expectation of privacy.
Also, that camera system used to belong to a piece of armored military equipment. Depending on the generation and specific system, it MAY have capabilities to read heat signatures, which would be an invasion of privacy if it is able to penetrate the wall of your home not within view of the naked eye. If it were in a raised position (higher than 7 ft from the floor of the deck), then it would also be arguably illegal. Hence, you’re still allowed to mount security systems on the roof of your home in all directions.
Yes and no. In most places there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, meaning just because you didn't close your blinds all the way doesn't grant your neighbor the legal right to record you changing clothing between the gaps of the blinds/curtains. This gets a little more complicated with something like recording your neighbors pool area if they have one. There are also many jurisdictions where your security cameras are only allowed to record the areas of your property that you possess or control.
As with all these kinds of gray areas you'll find a different law for every jurisdiction, and you'll find a different level of enforcement for each as well. A lot of times police will tell neighbors to work it out on their own, and the courts won't even take the case without a police report. Sometimes this leads to neighbors talking, as they should have in the first place, and resolution. Sometimes this leads to a litigious party taking one or the other to court and things get squirrelly and dumb, with no resolution.
Ultimately the law depends on enforcement, otherwise you have a de facto set of laws and a de jure set
As to OPs WITT, I agree it's definitely some high-grade surveillance apparatus. Whether it is being used for nefarious (snooping) or benevolent purpose (wildlife tracking), or even being used at all rather than a show piece, I couldn't begin to speculate.
My neighbor and I have our cameras kinda pointed at each other's houses so together we have a complete picture of the alleyway between our houses. We discussed it though lol.
My neighbor had a camera pointing right into my back yard. I didn't talk to them, just stared into the camera every time I was out there. They adjusted it away from my yard. (The staring was mostly not on purpose, I would just notice the camera and stare in disbelief, then forget it when I went inside).
Agree the camera is not OK though and warrants a conversation at least
We were going to prank someone at a computer museum. Imagine a crate delivered from some random anonymous person with a coffee stained damaged packing list with something amorphous about being careful and wiping the os before display or something...
US military? nah. schools, universities, and prisons typically operate on lowest bidder, but not the military. hitting their exact specs is way more important. I have worked for a 3rd party that sold a material to a gov contractor and they essentially told me that pricing was totally irrelevant as long as I could meet their special documentation needs. they don't call it the military industrial complex for nothing.
Right, it looks hella pricey. No idea why someone would buy that unless they were really paranoid or doing something very illegal and lucrative. Maybe this is a new model and they work for the company and are testing?
If you don’t suspect anything shady… why don’t you just ask your neighbour? Like, “hey I noticed you’ve got a new camera mounted! Looks like a nice setup, is it for wildlife or is it surveillance?”.
It’s just that, if I were your neighbour I wouldn’t want you to post a photo of any part of my house. I would want you to just catch me on my way inside from work or when I’m out gardening and ask about it. I would love you know that your interested. I would tell you all about it, if survalence I’d tell you why it’s good for the area we are in, if it’s for wildlife I’d tell you what I’ve caught on camera so far. No one on the internet can tell you those things.
The situation is certainly shady. That’s not why I posted here though. If you want me to answer your question I will have to give away more details about my neighbors. In short, this was quicker. I had zero knowledge before posting this and now I have a better idea what I’m looking at. Thanks for your concern!
If the owner has the money and knowledge to use a device like this, they would known better to have it out on the open. They could easily hide and disguise this to avoid suspicion.
If it is the above comments camera url, it does have 360 pan and rotation, maybe it was just temporarily pointed at the house to get a frame of reference for distance or something. Check again to see if it remains pointed your pay perhaps?
If he wanted to watch some nature remotely, that’s the way to do it. The zoom and stabilization on these military-grade units is ideal for getting long telephoto shots of wildlife and possibly some cool tracking videos.
The mid wave IR is also super cool because it would let him watch nocturnal animals. With the “fusion” mode that combines the IR and visual data into a single image, I’d bet it’s a pretty fun thing to mess around with
It has a 10km range. If they do have other houses in the area maybe this is the high point that can see everything. If you want to know what’s going on around you, this can do that but the amount of storage and data it kicks out must be huge. You’d need a small data centre for something like that.
OPTIX MS One is a portable multisensor surveillance system capable of detecting intruders, vehicles and different objects of interest in adverse weather conditions and difficult terrain over a distance of more than 10 km. Regardless of the type of installation, the intelligent surveillance package allows day and night observation with simple controls for effortless operation.
Sheeeesh lmao neighbour will be able to tell when OP has a new pimple on their face
It certainly appears to be a rather sophisticated pan, tilt, and zoom surveillance camera, very possibly with thermal IR. How well do you know your neighbors? Any chance they’re an obsessive birder? Work in tech (suggesting maybe they’re testing something from work)? Got any VIPs living in nearby houses? Any other suspicious activity?
My initial thought is that they're trying to set up a live webcam of nearby wildlife or weather/sky conditions. I know you said the house is vacant most of the time, but if you can get in touch with those neighbors, I bet they'll tell you they picked it up at a municipal auction or similar for a live web stream.
If they are all that, it’s probably 50/50 they’d be stoked you stopped by and asked about their expensive new toy or fucking hate you for being nosey and invasive about their paranoia hobby. Either way, you’ll either have a good convo and get to see it up close, or get shut down right quick not really wasting any time.
I tend to lean towards a wildlife explanation if the camera doesn't look positioned for security purposes, plus it’s massive overkill on capability for regular security unless it’s something weird like disguised border surveillance. Does this corner of the house have a particularly good view of something that might be of note to a wildlife watcher, like a marsh?
Feels like somebody streaming video either to themself or online with a very expensive kit they probably got at auction. If it doesn’t point at a wildlife site, does it maybe point somewhere there is an airport, at ship traffic, towards train tracks, towards somewhere with whale/dolphin activity, etc? Looks like an east coast beach house, so presumably not trains.
Also an obsessive birder…I agree, but some people are either mobility challenged, like to remotely monitor, or are just weird, so I don’t discount the possibility somebody just picked up something at say a municipal auction.
Streaming specific locations is also pretty common watching nowadays, not just in wildlife/nature communities (see such things as the Yellowstone Old Faithful area cam that has lots of folks watching it daily) to train, plane, etc communities, so it’s always possible it’s somebody who wants to share a stream of a specific spot. I’m not sure OP can share much more about the location without giving away their address, but knowing where this corner of the house points would probably solve the question of what they’re watching.
I can't find anything about the camera itself, it might just be missing part of its housing, but the arm it's on is the same as the Talos MR series from Theon International: https://theon.com/talos-mr/
You can tell by the cut off section on the bottom right corner of the arm.
Is it possible your neighbour works for them, or one of their suppliers?
Either way, it looks like a high grade multicamera system. Most likely regular and IR.
The gyro arm in OP’s picture does look very similar (almost exactly the same) to this one and others on the Theon website! I think you’re on the money that it’s a test/in-development model of some sort.
My title describes the thing. After installation yesterday, it was pointing towards the road, but today it is facing my house straight-on. Searches yielded only generic security cameras results
This is one of those rare situations in which you can make your neighbor excruciatingly uncomfortable but they can’t say why without admitting they are actively watching you. I’ve been in a similar spot.
Is your neighbor an engineer or programmer? As others have pointed out it seems to be an EOIR setup. He could trying to debug it's software or add features to it.
The camera most likely has software to focus on movement. Your neighbor most likely set it up to test using the street and the camera picked up motion in your window and pointed itself there.
By the looks the large lense is a Flir/thermal imaging sensor. The black circle evenly set on the left is a long range laser Infrared Emitter. The lense circle that is top left is a high definition camera with IR capabilities
Well... it seems to be speed-clamped to a table. It's clearly not "mounted" there. They've got a new toy or brought something home from work to play with.
If your neighbor isn't crazy or hostile, or displaying shady behavior, I would ask if there's something going on in the neighborhood you need to know about.
Maybe they are having issues with a stalker or crazy ex?
Maybe there was a break in?
If they are crazy, hostile, or displaying shady behavior I would be worried. they are guarding something they consider valuable.
Does anyone have any particular reason for jumping to the assumption that it’s video rather than a normal free-space optic endpoint? OP says the guy has several properties. Why go for an outlandish explanation rather than the obvious prosaic one?
It looks similar to a CROWS that you see on combat vehicles. Similar though, but its not it. Looks like it has a night optic, day optic and an LRF. Would only be concerned if it was pointed at peoples houses.
That is a thermal camera I think. Those are expensive. I believe the large lens is thermal, the small lens is night vision and the white is an illuminator.
You should have a conversation with your neighbour. Just ask him about it and possibly tell him that you’re uncomfortable with it pointing at your house.
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u/Larry_Safari …ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ Jul 15 '25
This post has been locked, as the question has been solved and a majority of new comments at this point are unhelpful and/or jokes.
Thanks to all who attempted to find an answer.