Also - maybe do a double check on your neighborhood with the registered sex offender database, just for piece of mind :)

Great idea IGLOOGIRL!

I was shocked to see how many were in the area of my home when I checked a couple of years ago.

OK. *Today* I have 25 posts and can insert a hyperlink. :)

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/25966729/detail.html

This was a news story here in Charlotte, about people that had the cameras on their homes, recording the burglars as they robbed the place!

Thank you everyone for posting back to me. A girlfriend of mine has a husband that works in international investigations--he is overseas much of the time. Last night I phoned her and he has gladly agreed to come out and have a look.

I would agree about it being a "dummy" camera except that these people don't seem the dummy types at all. The entire family is odd and have a lot of money and seem to have lots of time too--which also makes me uneasy about the cameras.

Oh, I checked about the sex offender thing before purchasing the home. There aren't any nearby. I will tell you this though--my mom radar is still going off...can't help it. My intuition is what it is.

Well, I work in policing and can assure you that the majority of sexual predators are never convicted and therefore are never registered, so if your mom radar is going off, just be aware of that. I don't even bother checking those registries myself.

I would assume it's probably just a security camera for their own purposes but there's no harm in being careful.

Is it in the front or on the side? Also, do they have a sprinkler system? I ask this because we have something like what you are talking about, doesn't quite look like a camera but can be mistaken for one, and our neighbor has a bigger one that looks sort of like a radar/camera...it's a rain something or another, lol...can't remember what it is called, shoot...rain detector, lol?. But it detects if it is raining so when the sprinklers are set to come on they won't an dwe don't have to worry about turning them off...it doesn't it automatically. If I remember I will take a picture tomorrow and post it to see it if it the same thing.

frou frou--would LOVE to see that picture..they also have a swimming pool..like ours, I assume they have a gauge somewhere that tells you when it's raining and what the pool levels are so the pool knows when to refill..ours looks different than this contraption though..yes, would LOVE to see your pic

It could be harmless but trust your mommy radar. It is often very accurate.

Maybe since they have a lot of money they

A) know they're more likely to be burgled (? Lol)

And

B) have a lot of fancy things declared in their home insurance and by having a camera, it lowers their insurance bills.

This would actually reassure me (then again, I'm fairly odd myself).

My hubby has a lot of friends with a lot of time and money and they're all gadget addicts. I could totally see any of them putting up security cameras because of their love of gadgetry, and while they could use it to spy on all the neighbors, their real purpose and focus would just be on the gadgetry itself. In fact, once they got it all set up, they'd lose interest in it completely. It's the shopping, buying, and set up that's the thrill, once they actually own it, using it gets old fast, and they're on to the next new shiny toy.