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I've been a police officer for 15 years. Last month I ripped my doorbell camera off my own wall. I thought I'd seen everything. Burglaries. Assaults. Domestics at 3AM. But nothing prepared me for the call I got at 7:09 AM on a Wednesday. "Suspected burglary while family slept. Vehicle stolen." We pulled up to a quiet residential street. Semi-detached house. New build. A man in his mid-40s was standing alone on the driveway, hands in his joggers. He'd sent his wife inside with the kids. They were aged 5 and 7 were sitting on the front step in their pyjamas, watching me. They'd all been asleep when it happened. "We were all asleep," he said before I'd even asked. "Didn't hear a thing.” His wife was about to load the kids into the car for the school run at 7:15 AM. And there was no car. Their 24 plate Range Rover was gone from the driveway. He'd been on hold with his insurer for 53 mins without speaking to anyone. "She was about to load them in the car for the school run," He said. "I heard her shout to me upstairs the car was missing, thought she was joking at first." The kids had missed school. His wife was supposed to be at work by 9AM. The thieves had broken in round the back by forcing open a window. Quiet, neat entry. The kind that doesn't make much noise. It could happen to anyone. They took the car keys from in the hallway. His wife's handbag from the kitchen table. Even the kids iPads that were on charge downstairs. All of it gone. "I can’t believe they were in my house while we all slept." He said. “My kids were sleeping right above them.” I could hear his wife trying to hold it together for the kids but was visibly shaken. “Do you have any doorbell cameras? CCTV or anything like that” I asked. "I had a doorbell camera," he said. "One of those expensive Ring ones." "I checked the app but there's nothing there." He handed me his phone. No alerts. No notifications. Just a few black and white shadowy clips. Nothing that would help us identify who did it. "Why didn't it alert me?" he said. "That's the whole point of it" Here's what actually happened… The burglars came round the back so the doorbell completely missed everything. They creeped through the house while they slept. Took the keys off the hook in the hallway. Unlocked the Range Rover. Before they pulled away, one of them ripped the doorbell camera clean off the wall. Gone before it could send a single alert. Gone before it could record a single frame. The worst part is… He'd paid the best part of £130 for it. Plus £7.99 a month just to save his own clips. (That's £96 a year) And this is the reason I can't keep quiet about doorbell cameras anymore. "I've seen this happen before" I told him. "It takes 13 seconds for someone to disable these doorbell cameras if they need to." "If they see it on the door, usually they take that out first. Then the rest of your house is wide open." "In your case they just came round the back where there was nothing watching at all. Then took it after." And that is the number I want you to remember: 13 SECONDS !! That's how long it takes a burglar to reach up and blind your doorbell camera. The one you're relying on to protect your home, your family and everything in it. It happens so fast that most of the time you don't even get an alert. Just a clip with a black screen or half a frame showing nothing useful. Doorbell cameras are great for seeing who delivered your parcel at 2PM but that's about it. His wife appeared at the door as we where talking. "Someone was in this house while my children were sleeping," she said. I could sense the anger in her voice. "They walked right through our home. In the dark. While the kids were upstairs." She looked at her husband. "I don't feel safe here anymore." then left. He didn't say anything. But at that moment I saw the look of a man who felt like he’d failed his role of being the protector of his family. And it hit me deep. Because the truth is, on my own front wall was the EXACT same doorbell camera. And I've got a little one year old boy at home. I was standing in that living room thinking about my own family. The place in the hallway where all my keys are. My own front door. I try to separate work from my personal life but this case really hit home. You never think it will happen to you, until it does. After my shift I drove home. Pulled up on my drive. I looked at the doorbell camera glowing away on my own porch. I decided to see what would happen if I tried to pull my own doorbell camera off. So I set my timer on my phone, ran up and pulled it as hard as I could. It was off the wall in 17 seconds. NO alert. NO clips. NOTHING. I've worked break-ins for 9 years. In 15 of the last 25 burglaries I've attended, every one of them had a doorbell camera on the front of the house. Not one of those cameras handed me a face. And I'd been going home every single night to exactly the same setup. I felt sick. I wasn’t about to let my family become victims. Here’s the problem with doorbell cameras: 1 - They're Destroyed Before They Record Anything. Doorbell cameras are mounted outside on show where anyone can reach them. They're smashed, covered, or ripped off the wall before they can record anything useful. Just 13 seconds and you won't even get an alert. 2 - They Only Watch Your Front Door. Most break-ins happen through back doors, side windows or patio doors. Your front door might be covered, but it exposes your blind spots. It tells burglars the rest of your house is completely unprotected. 3 - The Night Footage Is Useless. Even when they do capture something. The footage is usually grainy black & white shadows. We can't identify faces or clothing. So we end up with nothing that could help us capture the suspects. The next morning we continued the investigation by asking the neighbors if they had heard or seen anything. Most of them didn’t help us at all. Then we knocked on a house which shared the same back alley as the victims. A small guy with greyish hair, probably about 65 answered the door. I routinely asked him if he’d heard or seen anything that night. To my surprise he said: “I actually have window cameras that looks out the front and back, I might have something that could help, let me check.” He pulled up an app on his phone that I’d never seen before. We start watching clips from that night. My jaw dropped. Two men in their 20s. Clear as day. IN FULL COLOUR. At 3:35AM when it was pitch black outside. One wearing a North Face jacket The other in distinctive green Nike trainers. They walked past the victim's house scouting it out. Then came back an hour later and headed down the side alley to the back garden. A few minutes later and their car was gone. Without this footage this case would probably go unsolved. I asked what system he had because I figured it must be expensive. He goes: "It's called SafeView, you just stick it inside your window” "I got it five months ago after my friend had a break-in." “Think I paid under £50 and you don’t need a monthly subscription." After reviewing the footage and camera he was using. Suddenly it all made sense why window cameras are better for home security: 1 - They Can’t Be Disabled. Window cameras sit inside behind glass. They can’t be smashed, covered or ripped off the wall. People can’t even see them from outside or know which window they’re in. That burglars had no idea that camera existed, they just walked into view and got recorded in full colour. 2 - They Cover All Blind Spots. Instead of watching your doorstep where criminals never enter. These can go in any window overlooking your driveway, back garden or side alley. Plus, multiple cameras give you complete protection for less than one doorbell camera. 3 - Footage That Can Identify Criminals. The colour night vision on that camera was enough to identify specific clothing. With this key information we’re able to profile and make arrests. It's the difference between: "Someone in a dark hoodie" and "Male, 20s, red Nike hoodie" Without this, criminals walk free. We had officers extensively test SafeView cameras down the station and in-training and the results have been amazing. We’ve now been recommending them to victims and homeowners. I even changed my parents' doorbell cameras to SafeView. They’re affordable, and don’t need a monthly subscription. It saves everything onto the memory card that’s already inside the camera. Plus, they don’t require any tools or complex setup. So anyone, young or old, can have the up in 10 minutes. You just stick it to the window and connect to the app & WiFi. After seeing the evidence from his neighbour, he ordered two SafeView cameras. At lunch, I ordered two for my own home. We arrested both men a few days later using the information from his neighbour’s camera. His Range Rover was recovered parked up down a side road. Usually car thieves will leave it somewhere for a few days to see if it has a tracking device on it. Turns out they'd hit three other cars that month. I went back to see the family 9 days later to tell them we'd recovered his car. He nearly cried, then showed me the two SafeView cameras he set up. They were set it to alert for only human motion. So if anyone comes near his driveway or garden, it records right away and he’ll get a notification to his phone. The bad news was his insurance claim still being processed. But his wife was sleeping better and they both had peace of mind knowing all of their house is protected. That's why window cameras are a much better option in 2026. Criminals can't disable them and don't know they're being recorded until it's too late. The scary truth for anyone reading this…. If you've got a doorbell cameras on your front wall right now, remember this: It takes just 13 SECONDS to blind your ‘security’. Your back doors are completely EXPOSED. And the night footage rarely helps us identify the thieves who stole your stuff. Right now the SafeView camera is 45% off (it’s even cheaper if you buy more than one) Here's the link to get them: https://www.monremi.com/pages/camukv5 Put a SafeView inside your windows. Takes 15 minutes. No monthly fees. And if something does happen, you'll have evidence we can actually use. Over 150+ vehicles get stolen everyday, yours could be next. Don't wait until you become a victim. Especially when you have the opportunity to get something that actually works. Stay safe out there! P.S. They come with a 90-day money back guarantee so you can try them out P.P.S. Even if you keep your doorbell camera, put a SafeView in the back window as well. The back and sides are where thieves like to target. Here's the link: https://www.monremi.com/pages/camukv5