Apparently between midnight last night, the night of the football game, to 8:30 am; Someone got onto the roof of the East Montana Vision Center and ripped the cables from the camera housing. The circuit board which controls the heating and cooling of the housing is destroyed. The cables were scatted about the roof. Dean and I were both surprised the camera hadn't failed from it due to the jerking of the camera. More information soon.

The placeholder is a nice touch though.

Oh Josh, who on earth would go to all the trouble to climb way up on that roof to do such a thing...that took a lot of trouble and time and IMO that person is very very sick and belongs in a mental hospital...so very sorry to hear what happened...Did you report it to the police?? Make sure you get a police report in case you end up catching the person..

No, that person(s) is a criminal that belongs in jail!

Reported to the police. Love the placeholder, made me giggle!

Thanks Richard, BTW, for another 250 dollar spontaneous donation. Will help lots.

[This message has been edited by Josh Rath (9/12/2009)]

Josh, this will most likely happen again somewhere down the line. As such perhaps the police can help you sent up a smaller camera in a different location on the roof to catch these a$$holes.

Also, did the cops take fingerprints?

[This message has been edited by Kyle L. Varnell (9/12/2009)]

How easy is it to get up on that roof ?? Is there a way to make it harder for crooks to access?? Also Kyle's suggestion about a secondary camera that is motion activated (altho pigeons might make that hard) to catch them is a very good idea...

I'm thinking something like these might help:





Not sure how economical they'd be but it might be worth looking into in the furture to prevent this sort of thing from happening again.

[This message has been edited by Kyle L. Varnell (9/12/2009)]

I think what we should do is set up a random matrix of 16 webcams pointing at each other.

" I think what we should do is set up a random matrix of 16 webcams pointing at each other. "

Brilliant! (clap clap)

Throw in one of these and we'll be impenetrable.



By heck this will never happen again...

[This message has been edited by M G (9/12/2009)]

Yes, milescity.com is Big Brother - that would be sweet though, maybe we could convince people to pay money to watch Miles City.

Josh, you should find a DVR and a couple of those cheapy surveillance cameras. I'm sure if kids got on the roof, they can get on it again.

[This message has been edited by Buck Showalter (9/12/2009)]

My plan of action is to do just that. Get a low cost DVR with a hidden nightvision camera. Also, I will be talking to Tab about removing HIS latter from the building so maybe these vandals cannot get up there, and they wouldn't had in the first place...

You might be able to use the existing computer instead of buying a DVR, or just put another harddrive in it. There is free software to run a CCD system ("Netzeye"), comes with a lot of cameras. So all you would need is a camera (in a secure, hidden location), another video card and some cabling. I assume that the two cameras could share a power supply. An infrared camera would be nice, but they are hard to hide at night.

It's almost a certainty that the culprits are MC.com members and would know all about the plans and would probably enjoy the challenge of defeating your counter-measures. I suggest that you not disclose details in public.

Actually the current computer is just barely powerful enough. I was actually planning on upgrading it in the near future to a mac mini.

Josh, maybe you should think about some insurance for all that expensive equipment...Call someone and get quotes, if you can, for at least fire and theft and vandalism...or pay the Vision Clinic for a rider onto their existing policy maybe...

To make sure our camera is not offline for long, I will be purchasing a cheepo webcam from walmart tomorrow to place in the front window of the Vision Center. That way we still have the cam, just with a temporary twist.

Jim,
It amazes me that as a man that graduated high school in the seventies, you know more about computers than your nephew William. LOL

Due to the vandals, I have been informed by the owner of the building that the camera resides at... That we need to remove the camera and everything to do with the camera from the building asap.

What a week huh?

So, suggestions for a new location? I am shooting for the Star building, or the Discovery Pond, but I need to contact both owners first.

Josh, what kind of image do you think you could get if you found a location that was good... but behind a window? Would the focus hold up? I was just thinking that some of these situations (downtown being so varied) might land you a ground-level location behind window someplace you could trust to not be messed with?

Would that open your options up if rooftop wasn't available?

It would, but then you have to consider the privacy issue. People do not want to have their face clearly sprayed out onto the internet. Plus, I would have literally no control of what content were to go onto that camera. May it be someone mooning the camera, flipping it off, or whatnot. But to answer your question, the camera focus would hold very nice behind a window, because I will be using another camera for the time being.

Well, there wouldn't be much of a privacy issue because there's not likely to be a reasonable expectation of privacy on a public sidewalk or street, but I can picture some people getting bent out of shape because it's a little *too* identifiable... having one's face fill half frame while window shopping. I agree butt-cheeks from a distance are probably better too (well, depending on the cheeks).

This whole thing blows. There's no reason you should have to construct military spec casing suspended from a crane just to keep some dud from vandalizing it.

I don't suppose, without revealing particulars, anyone has offered up a likely suspect?

I wonder if it was someone who disagreed with Mr. Rath's opinion on 9/11.

Maybe if you put a sign in the window with the camera? A lot of people check it out, it seems like it would probably be a positive thing for a business to have in their window.

I have a sign. Which was in the window. I doubt it was someone who disagreed with my opinion considering it happened that night.

No, it was just some punk ass kids.

Josh Rath wrote:

> I have been informed by the owner of the building that the camera resides at... That we need to remove the camera and everything to do with the camera from the building asap.

What the hell? That seems like a pretty stupid attitude. Who is the butthead that owns the building?

Uhm... Tab Fleming.... Insert many "I now know why's" here.

Couple of ideas:

You need would need to get permission from the State Hwy Dept, but what about mounting the camera to the stoplight signal by the library and housing the kiosk in the library. Running the cable might be a little of a challenge but I would think nothing that couldn't be over come. Doubt anybody would climb a pole to mess with it.

Another option would be the belfry of the Presbyterian church. Maybe they would host the camera as a community service.

Possibly. But I am aiming to have it looking toward the soon to be construction area.

Josh,

You're welcome to put it back above my office on the other end of Main Street. If you put it on the West side of the building you can see the infilled holes, you called it the construction site, quite well. I've always wanted the camera to show the marquee at the Montana Theater so I can see what's playing from home. The roof and upper floors are difficult for anyone without a key to access, very difficult.

I still owe you some $ for your services during the 9th Street Boogie, too.

You know where to find me.

Chad, I forget, where is your office again?

I must give a big thanks to Emilie Boyles. Tonight on the Montana East Regional News, she is giving an almost 4 minute long segment on myself, milescity.com's goodheart, and the milescam. She tells of everything that has happened, and how to help. Thanks Emilie!

It seems we may have a location set here soon, and we may be able to have the camera back online by next week at the latest! Let's cross our fingers.

Josh, will you post video of that?

It would be really cool if it could see the fire site once they start rebuilding.

Kyle, post a video of the setup of the camera? Or?

Levi, it would be very nice, but I cannot get anyone on the correct side of the street to host the camera. The star hasn't gotten back to me. The only business that was more than interested in hosting it was the Discovery Pond.

Is the Bison too far away? Seems to me that it would be great promotion for Clyde, Clyde is a pretty smart buisness man if he was approached as cheap advertisement he may consider it. It seems like some of the pictures I seen of the fire, seemed to me like they were taken from near the Bison.

The Bison might work - they have someone in the building 24/7 - probably would be hard for someone to vandalize the camera.

Not sure how Clyde the Glide would feel about a camera...he's likely not the decision maker any more.

Is the web-cam something the Chamber of Commerce would host?

Richard, the Chamber said they would be more than glad to put the video on their website, but not host the camera. Also, the bison seems like a bad location to me considering there is roof access via the ladder on the back.

how about in a miniature hot-air balloon? Then have it transmit wirelessly to the server or whatever... of course the winds would be a problem..

JK...

Seriously.. a location where we could see the progress of construction would be neat.

I mean will you be posting your debut on the Ease Montana News tonight?

The old location on the Masonic Temple was both highly visible and hard to get to. An advantage there.

I am disappointed that downtown Miles City is so apathetic to a potential promotional opportunity. If I was a little farther along with my business plan I would rent a small office space and we could use that. Unfortunately, I am not quite ready to open a second location.

Looks to me like the site of the old camera is the best option. Beggars can't be choosers.

I am actually going to refuse the previous location unless I have to. Reason being, I do not want this to turn back into what it once was. I have a location in the works, and if the business confirms with me tomorrow we will have it setup again, looking toward the underpass.

Not a very interesting view, until a truck gets stuck.

Technically it is the same view, just farther down.

Some people have suggested I talk with the Texas Club, to get the camera basically in the center of main street. that way we could easily turn it either way, or toward the construction.

[This message has been edited by Josh Rath (9/18/2009)]

Only thing about the Texas Club, if memory serves, is that it has an easily-accessible low roof.

Just do what comes together and makes sense, Josh, and you are still doing a GREAT job on this project despite the unfortunate setback...keep it up, and I'm sure it'll all be good in the end.

Word.