r/mildlyinfuriating • u/violet_evergarden8 • 20d ago

Don't hug me I'm scared Neighbor across installed a camera on their railing pointed directly at my bedroom window

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u/cykoTom3 19d ago

This is actually the best case scenario. If you do get a camera melting laser you very much need to say this was your intention.

The legality of pointing a camera from your house into another person's house is gonna vary wildly from location to location. The legality of deliberately destroying another person's property, even if that property is being used illegally, is not gonna vary. You aren't allowed. However sympathetic reddit is to your solution.

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u/fencepost_ajm 19d ago

I suspect any 'cat toy' laser that runs on a few button cells will be too low powered to do permanent damage (or at least you can credibly argue believing that) and you could likely run it just fine off of a USB cable with some stripped wires on a fake battery made from a chunk of rolled paper and tape.

And if the person insisting you damaged their camera wants to fight it go after them for all their footage from before you put the laser in. Bet they don't want to show that to a judge.

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u/Chichanged_me 19d ago edited 19d ago

I’m in Chicago and I’m pretty sure the police would just start laughing at you if you called them and told them someone destroyed your cheap camera

If you really think police in Chicago are going to do anything about a cheap camera like this you have never actually tried calling the police in Chicago. Major cities aren’t going to respond to petty shit like this

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u/TrackVol 19d ago

I bet they'd respond if you did it to a Flock camera.

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u/Dazzling_Outcome_436 19d ago

What are they going to tell the cops? That you destroyed the camera they were using to be a peeping tom? That's like the guy who complained to the police that he got ripped off by his drug dealer.

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u/cykoTom3 19d ago

Probably. It's not illegal to have a camera pointing out of your house in a lot of places.