On Thursday, April 16, 2015 at 11:21:58 PM UTC-4, wrote:
A friend of mine has a neighbor who has stuck a small video camera in his bedroom window to spy on the friend's yard. The problem is in clear view of the camera is the friend's 14 year old daughter's bedroom window. The neighbor claims that the friend is running an illegal business out of his home and the camera is there to try to catch him at it. My friend hasn't tried to get the state police involved yet but the local town cops won't do anything about it.

Anyway I had an idea. I keep a small B&W TV camera in the shop connected to a monitor which I use to check IR remote transmitters. When I hold a suspect remote a few feet from the camera and operate it the camera is essentially "blinded" by the otherwise invisible infrared pulse train. Can something like this be done cost effectively but naturally on a much larger scale to blind Bozo's camera? My friend got ****ed off one night and sat there with a laser pointer directed at this camera for a couple of hours. Although it didn't resolve the problem, it did bring the cops down to advise my friend that he couldn't do that without violating the neighbors privacy! Makes you question the definition of "freedom". The distance looks to be about 200 feet. Thanks, Lenny.

The guy has a small one car garage in which he is licensed by the town to do state inspections on vehicles. This is not a big operation in any sense of the word. For some unknown reason, (possibly some unfounded concerns about noise, or perhaps because he is unfortunate to have a prick for a neighbor who can't seem to mind his own ****ing business) he is not permitted to do any repairs on any vehicles, just inspections. Russ has actually fired up his compressor and walked towards his neighbors house and noticed that long before he reaches the property line the effect of road noise and distance squared makes the compressor just about inaudible.

If one considers how utterly ridiculous this really is in another sense though, how can the guy even run his business at all? Technically if a car fails inspection for a tail light being out is he supposed to send him on his way without being able to fix it himself? The camera supposedly is supposed to catch him doing the repairs which will invariably be connected with many of those failed inspections. It would seem to me that the town is condoning this asshole trying to put my friend out of business.

In a sense I like the TV station route. And we have a local ABC affiliate 20 miles from here. However on the other hand no one wants to be put under a microscope either and I suspect that would be inevitable. Whether he's trying to get a peek at the daughter is questionable however she shouldn't have to be concerned about that. Even if his only target is the yard I feel that it still could be looked at as spying. At the least a peeping Tom.

When we bought our house I had two pre requisites. Very simply, adequate elevation for TV and two way radio, and no neighbors. That was 36 years ago and so glad that I can still walk out of my back door (bare ass if I want to) and just barely see my neighbors house through the woods. Lenny