You might think these hidden areas are a burglar’s preferred place to break and enter. But the fact is, most burglars enter a home through the most obvious paths. According to data collected by security company ADT, 34% of burglars enter through the front door and 22% use a first-floor window. You might imagine that these are spaces where your eyes or your neighbors can spot any malicious activity, but they are also the most used-routes for break-ins.
You obviously don’t want to place a camera behind obstructions, but camera obstructions aren’t always so obvious:
Outdoors, this might mean allowing space for tree branches to swing in the wind. Be careful of quick-growing plants that will require you to move your camera every year or two.
Consider your camera’s range of view inside, too. Will your camera see everything you want it to when interior doors are opened and closed? You’ll also want to avoid placing the camera in a spot where a pet might interact with it. If you place it on a shelf, will your cat knock it off?
It’s not clear what a burglar would even try to get in many normal homes these days. Times have changed such that it isn’t common to have a lot of portable things of value left unattended and easy to fence. People don’t have nearly as much cash, if any. Expensive jewelry seems much less commonly worn, and hard for a thief to tell if it’s real or not. TVs worth anything are way too bulky and fragile. Smartphones are usually near the owner (thus risky) and now more commonly have passwords or face recognition and are harder to crack for resale.
I read the local police blotter, and my impression is that a lot of home-based larceny these days involves effortless grabbing of packages from online shopping or some kind of knowledge about the special situation of the target, e.g., he’s a drug dealer who keeps a lot of drugs and cash around and who likes to show off his expensive fancy watches and jewelry. That guy is gonna need more than advice on camera positioning.
Regarding Handle and ‘some kind of knowledge’: A long time ago I heard about a burglar who was told about a guy who kept a lot of cash in his home. The burglar broke in while the supposedly wealthy man was out, but found nothing. However rather than just give up and blame ‘poor information’ the burglar patiently sat outside in his car and watched the house. When the home-owner eventually returned home to discover the break in, the panicked man rushed down the garden to the small garden shed but emerged looking relieved, all witnessed by the observing burglar.
Needless to say the next target–the shed–was not only easier to break into but yielded a huge haul of money.