Harassed by Neighbor with illegal CCTV.
-
- Dear all,
I need advice. My wife has gone hysterical and I am desperate.
My wife have been harassed and stalked by our neighbor with the help of the CCTV cameras outside their house. They have installed 3 cameras in 2011 after some loan shark harassment. One camera is in front of the lift, a second camera near the stair and a third on top of their door which is diagonally opposite of ours.
The loan shark harassment did not last long and they still keep the cameras there but we did not really mind despite my wife's uneasiness. We were getting along fine with this neighbor, a couple in their 30's and 2 young children.Then sometime last year, the woman next door started to get unfriendly with us over some ridiculous accusation and we stopped talking to them. When thing got worst after continuous provocation from her to engage us in some verbal exchange, we got into some heated argument and her husband stepped in. We have managed to resolved the conflict and thing get quiet for a while.
Recently, the woman next door started to harass my wife again. After each harassment, my wife was left shaken and have a stomach cram for hours. Both me and my wife are over 50 years of age and my wife is not in the best of health.
We believed that, with the help of their CCTV, the woman next door have always timed her appearance at their doorstep precisely, when my wife is at the corridor, coming or leaving home, alone or with our 4 years old daughter.
We approached the husband next door, but this time, he also get hostile at us and challenge us to call the police or sue them in court. All the while, we have not call in the police as we have known that this is a neighbour conflict, and the police could only advice us to settle it in a friendly manner.
My wife was very upset and called HDB to enquire about the cameras, she was directed to the Town Council office and was told that an officer will look into this matter. My wife saw somebody visited the neighbor the following day and later, the officer from Town Council called my wife and told her about his finding.
In his own words, the town council officer told my wife that the cameras will not be removed as the neighbor planned to extend their permit. She was told that only 2 of the cameras are real and the one pointing at our door is a dummy. He also told her that the neighbor offered to remove the dummy camera pointing at our door if she find it offending.
After receiving the call, my wife was feeling so bad I have to rush home from work to see to her. Later that night, I went to the Police Center and file a report against my neighbor. It was last Friday night.
On the following Monday morning, I called the town council officer to enquire further on how long are they permitted to have those cameras installed and how many units are allowed. I have insisted on knowing and told him that I have already lodged a police report.Reluctantly, he told me that our neighbor DID NOT have a permit to install those cameras at the corridor. They are in the process of applying for a permit now and he has allowed then to leave the cameras as they are.
I was furious, I have insisted that the cameras should be taken down immediately and he agreed. I have also follow up with an email, attached a copy of the police report to the Town Council, copy to the HDB branch office and chairman of the Town council. I have plea with them for some immediate action and also not to grant any permit to have cameras installed at our corridor, should the neighbor apply for one.
That evening, when I got home from work, I stepped out of the lift and took few steps into the corridor, that woman started cursing at us loudly inside their house. Their door is always opened while we prefer to keep door shut. The Town Council officer must have notified them. And they have has no direct view of the lift lobby. Its those cameras again.
Today, it has been 3 days now since I sent that email. I have received auto-reply from the town council and HDB but no formal acknowledgement that this issue have been looked into. So I called the town council officer again and was told that he have notified the neighbor to remove the cameras and they have agreed. He will also follow up with a written notification to them but have no date-line on when those cameras will be removed.
Those cameras have been there illegally for more than a year now, I just wonder how long they will drag on ? I took half a day of urgent leave yesterday afternoon and a whole day today as my wife is in a very bad emotional state.
My question:
Is there anyone here with similar experience to share on how you deal with them ?
It appear that the Town Council is taking a very lenient view to this offence and have no intention to take any action against them. In fact, have allow them take their time to remove those cameras.
Is there any cause of action I can take as my wife have suffered this mental torturing long enough. Legal action is too costly and lengthy, and violent is not in our nature.
Any constructive advice will be much appreciated.Thanks for reading this long winded posting.
-
Covered their cameras up.
-
-
Put up dummy cameras on them as well?
-
Your wife is just being manipulative.
Why is she being "harrassed" by the camera ? Is she afraid of getting caught on tape doing something bad ?
Like stealing your neighbour shoes or bringing a man home ?
There are many CCTV in our public places, is she going hysterical over those too ?
Something is very wrong with the way your wife is reacting to the cameras.
Mental torturing? More like your wife has mental problem and is taking it out on your neighbour.
A cctv outside your house adds security to your door.
I suggest you maintain a harmonious relationship with your neighbout , just in case anyone invade your house, you can ask for the footage from your neighbour.
I have security camera installed in my property, and our video footage helped our neighbour catch a vandal throwing eggs at their property.
-
Dear Jojobeach,
Please read my posting again, its either you mis-read my posting or I am really not good at my writing.
Our neighbor is using the cameras to stalk my wife when I am at work, even I have experienced it myself.
I walk through countless cameras each day, even my wife have a fair share of them. We have enbraced them as a part of our life. But, there is a difference between security surveillance system own and manned by government or security professional and one used by an unfriendly neighbor.
We could have retaliated by installing our own CCTV and watch over them too, but we are law abiding people who know what we should not do.
Are you suggesting that we should kneel down to our neighbor and beg them to let us off ?
Does the term illegally installed CCTV system mean anything to you at all ?
-
Why not try see your MP in your constituency and let him know about your complain to the town council, the illegal camera and the police report. See what happens...
-
To Summer hill - Thanks for the bump, but its also illegal.. . Still, I appreciate it.
~
To Zulkifli,
Thanks Bro,
A few friends have also suggested this route. I have always think that seeing MP are only for those who are in financial difficulties or those who are trying to get their child into their dream school.
But being in this dire situation, I will give it a try.
-
You're welcome...see how it goes...if the MP see your situation..and seeing your complains to town council and police report plus the illegal installation of cameras...he probably may ask the officer in charge at the town council about this matter seriously...especially about the illegal cameras..
-
Originally posted by CHLIM:
Dear Jojobeach,
Please read my posting again, its either you mis-read my posting or I am really not good at my writing.
Our neighbor is using the cameras to stalk my wife when I am at work, even I have experienced it myself.
I walk through countless cameras each day, even my wife have a fair share of them. We have enbraced them as a part of our life. But, there is a difference between security surveillance system own and manned by government or security professional and one used by an unfriendly neighbor.
We could have retaliated by installing our own CCTV and watch over them too, but we are law abiding people who know what we should not do.
Are you suggesting that we should kneel down to our neighbor and beg them to let us off ?
Does the term illegally installed CCTV system mean anything to you at all ?
Your anger against your neighbour is related to the DISPUTE and ANIMOSITY you have against them.
A lot of people install CCTV to DETER mischief and increase security.
The fact that you and your neighbour are not on good terms bellies the hatred you have against them "surveiling" the public area outside your door.
If anything, this has nothing to do with legal or illegal cameras.
This has a lot to do with you wanting to PUNISH your neighbour and making them bow down to YOUR demand.
If you can manage to get the authorities to bring down the camera, it will be a win for your EGO and a lose for your neighbour.
I suggest you settle the dispute amicably instead of using authorities as tools to fight against your neighbour.
Remember that your neighbour will be your closest ally living, so close to you for many years to come. The last thing you really want is make enemies out of them.
The authorities are to serve everyone, including your neighbour. Not just you and your hysterical wife.
If you continue harrassing your neighbour after they get their permit, they may have the right to sue you for harrassment.
Given the current bad blood you have against them, they have the right to protect their family against YOU and your crazy wife.
-
jojobeach,
You are not in our shoes and don't know what you are talking about.
We have trid our best to be a good neighbor and have exhausted all means to resolve this.
Those cameras are not installed recently, they have been there for closed to 2 years and we almost do not feel their presence until the neighbor decided to use it against us recently.
What give you the impression that we are harassing them ?
Me and my crazy wife ? You have the right to your opinion but please don't insult us. -
actually i dont understand the whole story.. stalked my cctv? and what was the misunderstanding that started this stalking?
Frankly if your neighbour is mental with or without the cctv the issue wont solve.. and your insistant on the cctv will make matter worst...if he want to point the cctv directly at you, from what in know.. you cant do anythg also.. as is not illegal...
My suggestion is seek RC help, if they cant... File a report with CMC (community mediation centre) http://www.cmc.gov.sg/
-
To Newbie,
You are right, even with the cemeras gone, the problem will still remain. I have spoken to a RC member before but did not ask for their help.
They have shut us out and only trying to win other neighbors over, the RC maybe a neutral party we can talk to.
Will go and see the RC later.
Thanks.
-
Originally posted by jojobeach:
Your anger against your neighbour is related to the DISPUTE and ANIMOSITY you have against them.
A lot of people install CCTV to DETER mischief and increase security.
The fact that you and your neighbour are not on good terms bellies the hatred you have against them "surveiling" the public area outside your door.
If anything, this has nothing to do with legal or illegal cameras.
This has a lot to do with you wanting to PUNISH your neighbour and making them bow down to YOUR demand.
If you can manage to get the authorities to bring down the camera, it will be a win for your EGO and a lose for your neighbour.
I suggest you settle the dispute amicably instead of using authorities as tools to fight against your neighbour.
Remember that your neighbour will be your closest ally living, so close to you for many years to come. The last thing you really want is make enemies out of them.
The authorities are to serve everyone, including your neighbour. Not just you and your hysterical wife.
If you continue harrassing your neighbour after they get their permit, they may have the right to sue you for harrassment.
Given the current bad blood you have against them, they have the right to protect their family against YOU and your crazy wife.
Your views are rather one-sided and pro-survillence.
One day, I should get a RFID chip into you, so that you would really know the real idea of privacy and person space.
I would ask my neighbours why is the cameras pointing at my house and kindly tell them t relocate it.
If all esle fail, you are are cocerned about your privacy, install a spotlight or a laser light pointing directly and you can effectively "blind" his cameras without doing it psychically.
-
Since your neigbour is not following law,
you also dont follow lah.
Hire somebody to spray paint on their camera.
They cannot report mah, since it is illegal.
-
Wait for 'law', died long time ago.
-
Originally posted by Summer hill:
Your views are rather one-sided and pro-survillence.
One day, I should get a RFID chip into you, so that you would really know the real idea of privacy and person space.
I would ask my neighbours why is the cameras pointing at my house and kindly tell them t relocate it.
If all esle fail, you are are cocerned about your privacy, install a spotlight or a laser light pointing directly and you can effectively "blind" his cameras without doing it psychically.
There are always 3 sides to a story... his story, their story and the truth.
Don't believe a person to be innocent so soon, just because he comes to you to complain first.
Read the whole text and look at the issue objectively.
The two sides are at odds at each other.
Don't be too quick to assume TS is not the BAD neighbour.
His wife is obviously a little bit psycho and shown hostility towards that family with young children.
There is valid reason why that family is being defensive against TS and his wife.
If my neighbour is hostile towards me, I'd do the same as what his neighbour did too. And every time they call police , is every evidence I will use against him in a civil harrassment suit.
If TS and his wife had been cordial , TS wouldn't need to resort to calling in police and seeking higher authorities to take down his own neighbour.
Good neighbours talk things out with each other, without the need to call police, see MP, call up town council.. etc etc..
Neighbours are suppose to look out for each other.
TS and his wife are simply back stabbing neighbours who needed to strong arm his own neighbour into submission.
Go to youtube and witness how many nasty neighbour fights are caught on CCTV.
-
You are just being unreasonable.
So, how many side of the story did you hear? before you condem me to be a back staber?
My wife being hostle to the neighbor's young children? We have an even younger child.
Call the police? I have never calll the police at all. I have never wanted to make a scene, I only went to make a police report at the police station.
Are you making up your own story or you have your own source ?
Who are you ? are you our neighbor or standing up for them ? -
Originally posted by CHLIM:
- Dear all,
I need advice. My wife has gone hysterical and I am desperate.
My wife have been harassed and stalked by our neighbor with the help of the CCTV cameras outside their house. They have installed 3 cameras in 2011 after some loan shark harassment. One camera is in front of the lift, a second camera near the stair and a third on top of their door which is diagonally opposite of ours.
The loan shark harassment did not last long and they still keep the cameras there but we did not really mind despite my wife's uneasiness. We were getting along fine with this neighbor, a couple in their 30's and 2 young children.Then sometime last year, the woman next door started to get unfriendly with us over some ridiculous accusation and we stopped talking to them. When thing got worst after continuous provocation from her to engage us in some verbal exchange, we got into some heated argument and her husband stepped in. We have managed to resolved the conflict and thing get quiet for a while.
Recently, the woman next door started to harass my wife again. After each harassment, my wife was left shaken and have a stomach cram for hours. Both me and my wife are over 50 years of age and my wife is not in the best of health.
We believed that, with the help of their CCTV, the woman next door have always timed her appearance at their doorstep precisely, when my wife is at the corridor, coming or leaving home, alone or with our 4 years old daughter.
We approached the husband next door, but this time, he also get hostile at us and challenge us to call the police or sue them in court. All the while, we have not call in the police as we have known that this is a neighbour conflict, and the police could only advice us to settle it in a friendly manner.
My wife was very upset and called HDB to enquire about the cameras, she was directed to the Town Council office and was told that an officer will look into this matter. My wife saw somebody visited the neighbor the following day and later, the officer from Town Council called my wife and told her about his finding.
In his own words, the town council officer told my wife that the cameras will not be removed as the neighbor planned to extend their permit. She was told that only 2 of the cameras are real and the one pointing at our door is a dummy. He also told her that the neighbor offered to remove the dummy camera pointing at our door if she find it offending.
After receiving the call, my wife was feeling so bad I have to rush home from work to see to her. Later that night, I went to the Police Center and file a report against my neighbor. It was last Friday night.
On the following Monday morning, I called the town council officer to enquire further on how long are they permitted to have those cameras installed and how many units are allowed. I have insisted on knowing and told him that I have already lodged a police report.Reluctantly, he told me that our neighbor DID NOT have a permit to install those cameras at the corridor. They are in the process of applying for a permit now and he has allowed then to leave the cameras as they are.
I was furious, I have insisted that the cameras should be taken down immediately and he agreed. I have also follow up with an email, attached a copy of the police report to the Town Council, copy to the HDB branch office and chairman of the Town council. I have plea with them for some immediate action and also not to grant any permit to have cameras installed at our corridor, should the neighbor apply for one.
That evening, when I got home from work, I stepped out of the lift and took few steps into the corridor, that woman started cursing at us loudly inside their house. Their door is always opened while we prefer to keep door shut. The Town Council officer must have notified them. And they have has no direct view of the lift lobby. Its those cameras again.
Today, it has been 3 days now since I sent that email. I have received auto-reply from the town council and HDB but no formal acknowledgement that this issue have been looked into. So I called the town council officer again and was told that he have notified the neighbor to remove the cameras and they have agreed. He will also follow up with a written notification to them but have no date-line on when those cameras will be removed.
Those cameras have been there illegally for more than a year now, I just wonder how long they will drag on ? I took half a day of urgent leave yesterday afternoon and a whole day today as my wife is in a very bad emotional state.
My question:
Is there anyone here with similar experience to share on how you deal with them ?
It appear that the Town Council is taking a very lenient view to this offence and have no intention to take any action against them. In fact, have allow them take their time to remove those cameras.
Is there any cause of action I can take as my wife have suffered this mental torturing long enough. Legal action is too costly and lengthy, and violent is not in our nature.
Any constructive advice will be much appreciated.Thanks for reading this long winded posting.
"Both me and my wife are over 50 years of age"
.. how young is your child Mr CHLIM ?
"also not to grant any permit to have cameras installed at our corridor, should the neighbor apply for one."
.... corridor is public domain... who are you to demand your neighbour not be given permit to install something for their security ? Do you own the whole flat ?
I tell you what lah Mr CHLIM, get rid of your crazy, manipulative wife, and all your problems will be solved.
-
The thread is actually more exciting than the topic to a bystander.
-
"He also told her that the neighbor offered to remove the dummy camera pointing at our door if she find it offending."
Dummy camera.. yet you still want to make a big hoo hah...
Obviously there's more than meet the fake camera eye.
Something smells really fishy here....or perhaps a rat ?
-
To jojobeach,
Finally you have quoted a correct sentence from my posting.
I am 52 years of age and my daughter is 4 yrs old. Yes, we are an old couple with a young child, go ahead and laugh if you want.
Stop calling my wife names. She is perfectly normal. At times, she was upset becasued of the harassment and stalking she is receiving from our neighbor.
In the first place, our neighbor did not have a permit to install those camera. Even if they do have a permit, they are only allowed to have it for 3 to 6 months.
We don' t own anything outside our door but we deserved to have our own privacy and space without being watched and record on video by any beighbor.
Those cameras are invading our privacy and we have the rights to have them removed. Hands up anybody, who likes to be watched and recorded by your neighbor at your own door step ?
I hope I have answered your question. Now can you answer mine ?
All your posting in this thread are very rude towards me and especially my wife.
Those things that you have said are not true, where did you get them from ?
Are you our neighbor ? If you are maybe we can talk about it here since you have refused to talk to me and challenged me to call the police or sue you in court.
If you are speaking for our neighbor, perhalps you have to get all the facts straight before posting it online.
-
Nono....you were just speaking to the resident beach here.
-
Originally posted by jojobeach:
"He also told her that the neighbor offered to remove the dummy camera pointing at our door if she find it offending."
Dummy camera.. yet you still want to make a big hoo hah...
Obviously there's more than meet the fake camera eye.
Something smells really fishy here....or perhaps a rat ?
Nick-picking again ? I stand by everything I said here. They installed 3 cameras and we did not know until notified by the estate officer that the 1 at the top of their door is a dummy. Now, can you answer my question ? -
Mr CHLim, I am glad I am not your neighbour.
To have a crazy neighbour like you is very unlucky.
Why dont you go talk to your neighbour instead of being a coward hiding behind authorities ?
I am merely copying and pasting from your original post.
May I suggest you go and read your rant..and realise how insane you are.
Your 50 year old wife is a drama queen, simple as that. Getting upset because she can't have her way. Over a dummy camera indeed.
You need to stop enabling her manipulative behavior by first growing a pair of man balls .