Protecting the PV junction box connections from vandalism?

softdown

Had to mount the last four panels with the PV junction box available from the west side. Unfortunately, this leaves them vulnerable to vandalism since they are only ~seven feet off the ground.

This would not ordinarily be a problem for most people. Vandals, my neighbor in all likelihood, like to pay visits when I am out of town on short trips. He has kicked in a truck camper window, dented a car, drove an axe blade through steel siding, torn rubber roofing from the roof, scraped newly laid cement with iron tools, broke the plastic under a sliding patio door (with a leverage tool no doubt), and stolen several other items. The last time we spoke these were his last words "You should take pictures of your place, that is all you will have left."

I have video cameras all over the place. Those have their limitations as well but that is another subject. In fact, he scraped the newly laid cement directly underneath a newly placed fake video camera. I felt that was taunting. Good thing I had a reliable witness for that event. Yes...I have notified the county sheriff about some of these events.

BB.

Against actual determined vandalism... I am not sure what you can do short of an 8 foot cyclone fence and razor wire.

Get a couple of battery powered IR (at night)  trail cameras on trees/buried in brush approaching your home, mounted low so you can have better identification of the face (many high mounted cameras just catch a hat or hoodie). And get some good id shots going in/coming out that can confirm identity on video.

Is the sheriff doing anything? My friend had some issues with hit and run (two of them) in Nevada--The cops there go after those folks hook and tong (immediate arrest and high bail when evidence and eye witness(s) are present).

Good luck,
-Bill

softdown

Trouble with trail cameras: Batteries last about a month and the cameras can become targets for theft.

The sheriff hauled the guy off to jail a couple years ago for bodily threats to someone else. Last year, he broke another guys rib though it went unreported.

Guy says his dog was killed and his home burned down some years ago. So....I figure he was likely involved in the drug trade. If he kills my dogs, I will possibly spend the rest of my life in a penitentiary...lets hope it doesn't come to that.

The sheriffs are on the other side of a large county. They can get pissed when they are summoned out here.

I keep trying to think of ways to catch him. Trouble with a neighbor is that they know exactly where you are all the time. He must have been watching when I mounted the fake security camera. I use about a dozen real cameras and a number of fake ones as well.

WaterWheel

Wow,     Sounds like you have a neighbor  like I had living across the road 30 years ago, the old man and his son in law were real nut cases but they always struck in the middle of the night.     They wanted me to move so they could buy my house for the son in law.      Broken windows, slashed tires, ect over a 1 year period and the cops weren't overly interested without an iron clad witness.       What stopped it was when I invited a younger member of the family into the house where he saw the 12 ga propped by the door.       I told this young visitor that next time I heard any noises outside the house I was going to assume it was an animal (lots of bears in that rural area) and just start shooting.

Never had another problem.      Unfortunately this method of determent isn't practical if the neighbors live close by because they could claim that you endangered other families by shooting a gun on your property.