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Last month I opened my door at 6:30am to find my wing mirror broken off. To be honest, I’d been expecting this to happen for a while. I'm 57 and we've lived on the same street for about 19 years now. We bought the house when my youngest was still in primary school, we pretty much knew all of our neighbours names. It was the kind of street where people looked out for each other. But over the years, people move out, new people move in and before you know it, the street you once used to know is now full with strangers. We had a group of lads who must of been around 16 to 18. They started hanging around our area. Smoking all day. Leaning on parked cars. Riding dirt bikes up and down the road at gone 11PM on a school night. Acting hard and mouthing off to anyone who would tell them to stop. You tell yourself they’ll eventually get bored and move on, but they never do. I had to call the 101 police line twice and they promised to look into it. The second time, the woman told me I needed to keep a written diary of every incident before they could take any formal action. A bloody diary? Like I've not got a job and family to look after. Basically they said without footage or evidence there’s nothing much they can do. So we’re all suppose to just live in hell until they actually ‘do’ something? Forget that. I decided to take matters into own hands but needed to be smart about it. The last straw was 3 weeks ago… I came out to to my car Monday morning to find my wing mirror broken off. I knew it was one of those lads but I couldn’t prove it. My wife told me it wasn't worth causing a scene. If I was 30 years younger I would of found who it was and dealt with it myself. But at my age it’s not worth the hassle to lose everything I’ve built. Some people would just say “why don’t you just move house”. But it’s not exactly that simple, plus I shouldn’t have to be the one moving. Instead I called the police. The officer came out and the first thing he asked was: “Have you got any camera footage, maybe a doorbell camera or CCTV?” I didn't. He said without footage it was difficult to pursue it as "Criminal damage". He logged it and I didn’t hear nothing since. To make things worse, I had to call my insurance so I could get it fixed. I had pay an excess and my renewal was going to go up even though it wasn’t my fault !! That afternoon I sat at the kitchen table and made a decision. I’m sorting this once and for all. I was going to get evidence that they couldn't ignore. So I stared to look into one of those Ring doorbells. We were going to get one about a year ago after my wife’s brother had some trouble at his house. But after reading the reviews, I realised that getting one would’ve been a massive mistake. First, they want over £100 just for the device. Then they want £96/year just to be able to save your own clips !! But that’s not the worst part… I read as bunch of comments inside different groups on how some people have had their doorbell camera completely ripped off the wall. Apparently it’s really common because they’re mounted outside within arms reach. I wasn’t about to waste £100 for those little rats to just rip it down. That weekend I was chatting with my brother-in-law Gary in our back garden. He's worked for Great Manchester Police for 18 years. I just wanted something that would be give me solid evidence and peace of mind that I can watch my house when I’m not there. He goes: "Forget doorbell cameras, get a window camera instead." He continued: “They just sit inside your window so no little sod can mess with it or rip of off your wall” He explained the problem with doorbell cameras: 1 - They’re Destroyed Before They Record Anything. Because they are mounted outside, anyone can rip them off before they record anything useful. I already knew this from my research… But what I didn’t know, was that it takes about 13 seconds and you won’t even get an alert. 2 - They Only Watch Your Front Door. He goes most break-ins happen through back doors, side access or patio windows. Your front door might be covered, but it exposes all of your other blind spots. If you’ve got a doorbell camera, chances are you’ve got nothing watching your back garden, and criminals know that. 3 - The Night Footage Doesn't Help Them. He said even when they do capture something, the footage is usually grainy black & white shadows. Out of about 19 cases that had doorbell cameras, only 2 of them had footage they could actually use. But here’s what shocked me… He pulled out his phone and opened an app. It was the live feed of his front driveway and back garden from his window cameras. “I can see everything from my phone, and it will buzz me if anyone comes near my house with a little recording” Then he showed me a clip that was taken at 2AM but the video was in full colour. I could see the colour of his red BMW and his kids toys in the back garden. Confused, I asked him if the clip was day time or night time because the timestamp said 2AM, but it looked like it was 2PM. He goes: “Ohh it’s night time mate, it’s got colour night vision.. amazing ain’t it’. I asked how much it cost expecting it to be a fortune. He replies: “Think they were under 50 quid, and they don’t have a subscription either, that’s another reason why I got these ones.” I thought if it’s good enough for a police office who’s seen pretty much every crime offense then it’s worth a shot. He sent me the link and that night I ordered two SafeView cameras for the front and back of my house. I was still skeptical thinking they’d be some sort of catch… When they arrived I was expecting I’d need to read the manual a few times to get it working. I’m capable with my hands but I’m not the best with the latest tech stuff. To my surprise I had them both up within 15 minutes. You just peel it, stick it to whichever window you want, then connect it to your wifi through the app. No drilling, no tools or faffing about. It came with a free memory card which is why you don’t need to pay for any subscriptions. I liked that you can’t hardly see them from the outside so none of the lads will even know it’s there until it catches them red handed. If i’m being 100% honest, at that moment I felt a bit of relief that I had eyes on my place 24/7. Plus I’d have solid evidence if anything happened. So then it was time to wait until something did… It took just 7 DAYS !! It was about 1:30AM and I’d heard a window smash that sounded close by. Thinking it was one of mine, I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs to check everything. I then go outside to find that my neighbour Phil’s car window had been smashed. There was glass all over the seats and pavement. I knocked on his door until he eventually came downstairs half asleep. As soon as he saw the window his face dropped. “What the hell happened here?” I told him I’d heard the smash from my bedroom but whoever did it had already gone by the time I got outside. He immediately said it must of been those lads. Earlier in the day, Phil had caught them leaning on the bonnet of his car while they were hanging around. He told them to get off and one of them started mouthing off at him. At the time it was just the usual acting hard and swearing then they walked away when he threated to call the police. It didn’t take a detective to work out who smashed his window. But KNOWING who did it and PROVING who did it are two completely different things. Worse part is Phil didn’t have any cameras, so he was going to be left out of pocket while they got away. Or so they thought… I told him I had some window cameras I’d recently put up so we checked the footage together. What we saw shocked us… The first clip caught them walking past the car pointing to it around 11:45PM. The next clip around 1:27AM shows them throwing a brick and running away. Their faces were mostly covered but you could see the colours of the jackets they were wearing because of the colour night vision. Phil just stood there staring at my phone. “You’re joking, that’s them from earlier” We had the clear evidence we needed but that alone wasn’t enough. So I checked the camera footage from earlier in the day. It had caught the same lads outside. Same clothing. Their faces exposed. CLEAR AS DAY !! There was no guessing who it might of been…. It was them. I sent the clips straight to Phil’s phone so he had his own copy. The police came round the following morning. They first went into Phil’s house to take the details and look at the damage. Then they came over to mine to collect the footage. We had full evidence recorded from start to finish. For once, it wasn’t just our word against theirs. About a week later Phil told me both of the lads had been charged with criminal damage. And because it wasn't the first time they'd been flagged for disorderly behaviour, the court issued a Criminal Behaviour Order. So they couldn’t come back near our street without being arrested. And guess what? We’ve not seen them hanging around here since. They’re probably terrorising someone else now which is bit a shame. But for us, there’s hardly any dirt bikes flying up and down the road late at night. No lads standing outside trying to intimidate anyone who walks past. I not going to pretend everything is magically perfect now. But the whole street feels more like how it used to feel a few years ago. It’s annoying that none of this would of happened without that footage from my camera. We reported these lads before, other neighbours had complained and the council knew about them. The police even knew. But nothing changed until there was clear video evidence they couldn’t ignore. Without my SafeView camera, those lads would of got away with it again. That’s the harsh truth now because this country is broken. The police don’t do anything. The council don’t want to know. And unless you hand them the evidence yourself, you’ll usually just get another crime reference number and hear nothing back. Meaning you have to live with the constant nuisance and just deal with it. NO proof = NO results. It’s as simple as that. But now I can check the front and back of my property straight from my phone, even when I’m not there. It records while I’m sleeping and if someone comes near my house, I get an alert and little recording. I’m not paying a monthly subscription just to access my own footage either. Plus no one can rip them down because they sit safely inside the window. Those lads thought they were clever until the police showed them the footage catching them red handed. I just wish I had them before my wing mirror was broken off. Because when the damage has been done, you either HAVE the evidence or you DON’T. So if you’ve got any trouble near your house… Or you’re worried about your car, house or just want to have evidence if something ever happens. Don’t wait until your stuff gets damaged or stolen. Get the evidence in place first. I paid full price for my SafeView cameras but I just checked and they're 45% off right now. (You get a bigger discount if you get two like I did). They even give you a free memory card so you don’t need to buy one. There's a 90-day money-back guarantee so if you’re not happy, you've lost nothing trying it. I’ve not been paid to post this or nothing like that. I’m just genuinely trying to help out anyone else who maybe going through the same thing. You can get yours here: https://www.monremi.com/pages/camukv5 The police and council won’t bother to help you unless you have solid proof. I hope this helps someone ! Stay safe. P.S. Thank you to all of the kind comments and messages I’ve received, I appreciate it. P.P.S Not sure how long the sale will last on these but if they’re in stock then get them while you can. Some people have told me there was no stock left when they checked.