Safe and Sound

Safe and Sound

“Tom, I know you have your daily ritual with your security system but there’s a very fine line between ritual and obsession.”

Tom wasn’t surprised at Rick’s comment. Their chance meeting at the mailbox had led to a conversation about Tom’s new, updated security camera system and it had quickly gotten out of hand. Like all the other neighbors, Rick had been watching Tom go about his daily routine of checking his security system and each time he did it Tom noticed Rick watching. It had reached a point where Tom couldn’t check a camera or a light without a neighbor staring at him.

Even though Tom had found Rick’s comment offensive he figured he owed him a response. “Well, home security is important and I have to go down my checklist every day to make sure the system is operating like it’s supposed to. I guess it is a kind of a ritual but there’s a lot of pieces and parts to it. I’m just one of the good guys keeping an eye out for the bad guys.”

“I can appreciate that and I don’t mean to sound critical, but I gotta tell you, people are talking about you and wondering if you’ll ever finish with all the cameras and sensors and lights. It’s like a military base in your yard. You’ve got stuff all over your house and yard. It’s a hell of a lot more than the rest of us have but we feel totally secure.”

Now Tom was flat out pissed off. He took a deep breath and said, “Look, Rick, you know as well as I do that there were two break-ins over on Cedar Lane and there were reports of vandalism on Fifth and Sixth Streets. That was serious stuff. Since Sharon died and I’ve been here alone I’ve just gotten more nervous about it all. I have to keep a watch for trouble if it comes to our block.”

Rick could tell from Tom’s tone that it was time to drop the subject. “Well, I guess you gotta do what you think is best. Hey, I gotta run some errands, catch you later.”

As he walked away, Rick mumbled something under his breath about good guys and bad guys. Tom waited a few seconds and then went back to his house. He grabbed the checklist from the kitchen counter, the checklist that he reviewed every morning and every evening. Organized by zone, it was an extensive spreadsheet of the security equipment in his house and throughout his property. Zone One included video cameras at the entrances to his house, lighting for the sidewalks and garage and motion detectors around the entire perimeter of the house. Zone Two covered five tree and post-mounted video cameras, more motion detectors and tree and pole-mounted lighting around the perimeter of his yard. Zone Three was where the entire system was linked to a computer and video monitors in his home office. He referred to the room as his Command Cener.

The spreadsheet enabled him to conduct a visual check of every piece of equipment and a hands on testing of it with the monitors in the Command Center. Nothing had been left to chance. Four of the exterior cameras kept an eye on every inch of his yard, sidewalks and driveway. The fifth one watched the street out front. Each of his walk-around visual checks of the equipment included things like trimming foliage from the trees that might block a camera and making sure the wind hadn’t moved the position of the lighting. It usually took him an hour to complete an inspection. And whenever he stepped outside to do one, checklist in hand, he knew a neighbor or two would be watching him. Sometimes it was hard to ignore them but he managed.

Being a widower and retired meant that he had a lot of time on his hands. Even with his volunteer work at the art museum and meeting a few friends for weekend coffee there was time left over. Too much time. The large and complicated security system he’d put together was a product of his concern for his safety and his fascination with technology and gadgets. It filled more hours than it should have. He was proud of it despite the fact that he now knew it had become the subject of neighborhood gossip. But even with that, his twice-daily visual check that had begun as a simple routine had become a very important ritual to him. He’d always been known as a computer geek and his system gave him purpose. It was something to focus on. Mostly it gave him satisfaction in knowing he’d be safer in his home.

On a Tuesday morning, after he’d finished his morning equipment ritual, he walked across the street to his mailbox. It was the normal handful of junk mail that arrived every single day. Mixed in with the flyers and postcards was an official looking envelope from his Homeowners Association. When he got back to the house he sat down, tore open the envelope and began to read a very surprising letter.

Dear Mr. Bonner,

At the request of several property owners near and adjacent to your home we have completed several drive-by inspections and conducted interviews with the owners mentioned. Their concerns are based upon your elaborate home security system and its adherence to our community regulations. In the interest of addressing these concerns here is a list of the items in question.

An excessive number of lights are creating glare in the windows and yards of homes near your property.

Motion detectors are being set off by small animals and unnecessarily sounding the alarms, mostly at night.

Neighbors have expressed serious concerns about their privacy due to the number and locations of your cameras.

While we understand your own concerns regarding home safety and security, we must remind you that any devices, equipment and related connections must comply with the Association’s covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs). Additionally, all residents of our community have a reasonable expectation of enjoying personal privacy when on their properties.

Please contact this office at the phone or email shown below to arrange a meeting to discuss this situation and that can reach a solution satisfactory to all parties. We hope for a timely resolution to this matter. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Dawn M. Simmons, Community Manager

So there it was; clear, complete and official. Tom’s interest in protecting his property had somehow mushroomed into a mini war with his neighbors. It had come as a total surprise. He was most concerned about the feelings of Rick on the east and Warren on the west. They were the neighbors he knew best and who he shared anything close to a relationship with. He didn’t really know the other people who lived in the neighborhood. They were just smiling strangers who waved to him as they drove by his house. He called them his Windshield Neighbors but he had a feeling he was going to get to know them better. Those neighbors and the letter from the HOA had painted a target on his back.

Rick’s comments at the mailbox had been elevated to an extremely uncomfortable level. Tom was pissed off again and knew there was no sense in putting things off. He took out his phone and dialed the number on the HOA’s letter. The few minutes he waited on hold helped him collect his thoughts. He took a deep breath and told himself not to lose his temper. Finally, the Community Manager came on the line.

“Good morning Mr. Bonner, this is Dawn Simmons.”

“Good morning. I just read your letter and thought I should call you back right away before this thing gets any bigger.”

“Well, I agree that we have to resolve things as soon as possible. Let me give you a little history of this situation. After we received, let’s see, it was seven calls about your cameras, we did two separate drive-by inspections of your property.”

“Is that a standard procedure you do in a case like this?”

“Yes, we drive by and take photos to document the complaints.”

“So that’s all you have?”

“No, the seven people who filed complaints against you sent us photos that they had taken of your property.”

“So they took photos of me taking photos of them.”

There was a moment of silence, then Dawn replied, “Well, I wouldn’t word it exactly like that but I guess that’s correct.”

“It sounds like we’re all even then. I have photos of their properties and they have photos of mine. That makes it a draw.”

“No, that isn’t how we look at things. When seven people file complaints about the same violations our focus is on the violator and only the violator.”

There was a long pause on both ends until Tom finally said, “Look, why don’t you send me your specific, and I mean specific, regulations and restriction on home security systems? I’ll look it over and check every piece and part of my system then get back to you.”

Tom could hear Dawn sigh before she said, “I don’t know what you mean by the word specific because we’ve never had a resident who has done what you’ve done. I’ll send you everything we have and we can go from there.”

“That sounds acceptable. I’ll be in touch soon.”

Dawn hung up without saying another word. The ball was clearly in Tom’s court.

It was impossible for him to stop thinking about his situation and he decided not to wait for the information from the HOA.. That afternoon, after deciding to postpone a few errands, he sat down at the Command Center. He spent two hours looking at videos from each camera but he tried to look at them through different eyes. He tried to see things through the eyes of his neighbors and figure out what their complaints were all about. He wondered about their concerns. Could Tom see into our bathroom window? Could Tom see the people sitting and sunning around our pool? What about our bedroom, could Tom see us undressing at night? How would our visitors feel if they knew our neighbor was watching them?

The video cameras sent images to a central computer in the Command Center. The computer was programmed to retain images for one week before deleting them. It didn’t take long for Tom to discover why his neighbors were worried. The cameras showed two scenes of someone’s cat walking near the motion detectors. That explained the beeping alarm on Friday night. It would mean a slight re-aiming of the sensors but it would be an easy fix.

It was when he turned to looking at the views from the cameras that he saw why the neighbors were concerned. Camera Two showed a good portion of the house across the street, including a view into the front windows. Camera Three in the backyard gave a clear view of Warren’s patio and pool. But it was Camera Five that seemed to be the most problematic. It was mounted in a tree along the property line between his house and Rick’s. In the few weeks it had taken for the Fall leaves to drop the camera had gotten a clear view into the windows of Rick’s second floor. The night time shots were particularly revealing. Both Rick and his wife had made appearances in the bedroom and bathroom windows. There was nothing sexual or compromising but the cameras showed enough for any reasonable person to be upset.

Suddenly Tom’s need to feel safe and sound felt like something else. He couldn’t deny that his security system had pushed the boundaries of protecting his property. He’d made sure the cameras were obvious so any would-be burglar would think twice about getting near the house. They were mounted high to provide a broad view of anything that might happen in his yard. There was no question that his system was far more extensive than his neighbors’ were, but it was his property and his choice.

A simple repositioning of the cameras would probably satisfy the neighbors. Even if the changes didn’t give them the total privacy they demanded they would see that Tom was making an effort to respond to their concerns. He wasn’t going to compromise his own security for them or anyone. The cameras would still be positioned to cover the boundaries of his property. As long as no one asked to see the videos on his computer the whole thing would settle down. At least that was his hope. He was hoping there was nothing in the HOA’s rules regarding any on-site verifications so the videos would be for his eyes only.

For the next two days Tom went out of his way to make himself visible to the neighbors. He wore brightly colored shirts and spent a lot of unnecessary time up in the trees and on a ladder. He even went out at night to pretend to adjust the lighting. Anyone who was worried about his response could see him; good old unselfish Tom doing the right thing.

The following Monday morning he called the HOA office and told Dawn about his efforts to make the necessary adjustments. She seemed grateful and thanked him for responding so quickly. Just when he thought the matter was resolved she made it clear that it wasn’t. She said she wanted to meet him at his house to look at his computer and monitors and verify the changes were satisfactory. She added that two of the neighbors who’d filed complaints wanted to join her to see what the cameras were seeing.

That was when Tom reached his breaking point. He didn’t even try to be polite. “No way. No way I’m going to let someone into my house to get their damn approval of anything. I did what you asked me to do and I consider this case closed. Good-bye.” He knew his neighbors probably wouldn’t be satisfied with his answer but he was done talking about it. They would just have to accept it and deal with it.

It was the next day, when he saw Rick working in his backyard that he got the first clue about the response to the HOA. He gave Rick a smile and friendly wave but Rick stood stone faced and then turned his back. He had a similar experience with Warren when he was at the mailbox. Tom felt like a stranger in his own neighborhood.

At around two-thirty on Wednesday morning he was awakened by the sound of breaking glass. He got out of bed and went to the window. The east side of his yard was dark. The tree-mounted light was out and he didn’t see any sign of movement nearby. When the sun came up and it was light enough outside he walked to the tree. There was broken glass on the lawn and some still attached to the fixture. It looked as though someone had shot the light. One of his neighbors had been angry enough to vandalize his system.

The idea of a neighbor being that angry was more than a little unsettling. He went back into the house and sat down at the monitors. One of them would have a video of what had happened. A few minutes of watching gave him the answer. A short man wearing a dark hoodie and dark pants had walked in from the rear of the yard, stood under the tree and fired a gun at the light. Tom figured the guy had used a pellet gun because there had been no loud sound of a firearm.

He stayed indoors for the entire day and didn’t even make a trip to the mailbox. He was confused and angry. and very nervous. The light would be easy to replace but there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t be shot at again. That night he laid in bed and left the nightstand light on. He didn’t bother to look at the clock when he heard the sound of breaking glass again. Carefully pulling back the drapes, he looked out the window but saw nothing unusual. There was no sleeping for the rest of the night.

A morning walk through the yard told him what he wanted to know. Camera Five, the one mounted to the front of the house, had been shot out. It was the camera that gave him a broad view of the street. A few minutes later the monitor showed him what had happened before the image died. A tall, slender man in jeans with a baseball cap pulled down over his face had appeared in the frame after walking from somewhere out of view of the camera. It only took him a few seconds to shoot out the camera and disappear. It was a different man than the one who’d destroyed the light. This wasn’t a random, spontaneous act of an angry neighbor. It was organized and deliberate. Tom sat back in his chair and stared at the dead screen. He was the good guy keeping an eye out for the bad guys. The bad guys were his neighbors.