r/homesecurity

I think I accidentally became a camera person.

It started with a Botslab doorbell camera because delivery drivers kept leaving packages in the weirdest places. Then I started thinking about the driveway, because I get that little "wait… did someone mess with my car?" feeling more often than I'd like to admit.

Then the side gate started feeling like a blind spot.

Then the living room, because we travel for a few days sometimes and I like being able to check that my cat is alive and not doing anything expensive.

So I ended up getting a 4-camera system.

So now we have cameras on:

front door
driveway
side gate
living room

Nothing in bedrooms or bathrooms or anywhere actually private, obviously.

But now when friends come over, I can literally see the moment they notice there are cameras around and start doing that polite "oh wow, you're very secure" face.

Is this just normal homeowner/renter paranoia now？

Wife and I are genuinely creeped out and I suspect our security was somehow bypasses. I’m curious if anyone has any theories.

Yesterday we spent the day visiting my parents. We left in the morning and came home that evening. When we got back everything seemed normal in the house but sitting on the granite island in our kitchen was a black chess piece standing up right

We don’t have kids, have never owned a chess set, and have never brought one into the house. Neither of us recognize it. The piece was sitting right out in the open in the middle of the island. For the last year or so, we’ve actually made a point of always keeping the island completely clear of clutter. It’s basically become a habit, which is part of why this stood out immediately. If something had been sitting in the middle of it for any length of time, we would have noticed.

No signs of forced entry. I have a pretty extensive security setup. All doors and windows have sensors. I have two motion detectors covering the kitchen area. The security system is fully wired, except the cameras. No alarms were triggered. I checked the system log and it was set to “away” with all of the sensors on guard while I was out. I also have exterior cameras covering the front door, rear door, and sides of the house. The footage shows absolutely nothing unusual.

The cameras are WiFi based, so I suppose in theory someone could have used a jammer and prevented video from recording, but that wouldn’t explain why the wired alarm system never saw a door, window, or motion event.

For context, I’ve been a criminal defense attorney for about 20 years and have handled some intense cases involving some of the worst of the worst and some very mentally ill folks. Because of that, I can’t completely dismiss the possibility that someone intentionally left it there as some kind of message, “like game on, your move.” That sounds paranoid even as I type it, but in my situation it’s not implausible.

What really bothers me is I can’t figure out how anyone could have gotten inside without leaving a trace. No alarm events. No camera footage. No forced entry. I have confirmed by checking every nook and cranny, there is no one else presently in the house.

My wife is convinced there’s some logical explanation we’re missing that doesn’t involve someone coming in. While that certainly is a more comfortable way to look at it, there just is not another plausible explanation other than someone entering the home and placing that there.

She suggested maybe an animal dragged it in. But I don’t know what kind of animal would do that, and anyway, if they were large enough to do that, by the time they got up onto the counter they would have been well within the range of our motion sensors to would have triggered them.

Anyone have a theory? This has me pretty unsettled.

UPDATE: Thank you all for the helpful suggestions. I did ultimately contact police last night because I couldn’t sleep with this unsettled. They ultimately called in County detectives many of who were here for hours and since then various detectives have been in and out all night over night and this morning. They say they still haven’t come to any conclusions (at least not that they will share). The response has been massive. I don’t know if thats an indication of their serious concern, or if it’s becauase they know me. Either way i appreciate it. I’ll update.

FINAL UPDATE: I am grateful to all of those who have provided meaningful advice and thoughts. I’m embarrassed to report that this turned out to be a domestic matter. Nevertheless, I will certainly be making some changes to my security system based on the recommendations here. Thank you all for your assistance.