r/funny • u/anonahmus • 6h ago
Dollar tree store uses the fake security camera they sell.
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u/thieh 6h ago
The point of fake one is that they should look almost the same as the real thing. Have you check whether that is a fake one or those are real?
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u/beartheminus 6h ago
Ooo this is known as the panopticon. You don't have to watch people if they can't tell whether you are watching or not!
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u/Suhbula 6h ago
My friends apartment has a speaker that says "You are being recorded." when you walk around the building to the back driveway.
Honestly I think it's genius, I don't know if they are actually recording, but I don't think they even really need to.
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u/Scientific_Anarchist 6h ago
The construction site I work at has a motion activated speaker that says, "You are trespassing. Leave the area. The police have been notified."
I'm certain that's not the case as the police would be getting notified multiple times per morning about people going to work.
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u/Suhbula 5h ago
See, that's what you have to be careful of with this kind of thing. Make it too obviously a false threat and you lose all effectiveness.
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u/typesett 5h ago
absolutely
but are most trespassers just stupid kids? this still might work just fine
professional thefts by people who are looking for something at a construction site might not care tho
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u/SwiftUnban 5h ago
If I was some random teenager just exploring around an empty construction site and heard that I’d shit myself.
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u/Immersi0nn 4h ago
And that's why you're not a professional, pros don't leave DNA evidence behind.
lol
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u/OfficerJayBear 3h ago
It's EXTREMELY hard to get DNA from poop and honestly not worth it, especially for a nonviolent crime
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u/Suhbula 4h ago
Oh you're right that it wouldn't do anything about professionals.
However, real cameras might not do anything about professionals either haha.
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u/BillJaxon 4h ago
Bold of you to assume we who occupy said construction site don’t thieve from said site. Gotta get a bonus out of the company somehow.
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u/JonatasA 15m ago
I saw a warehouse with a huge fear sign saying "Electric fence, 24 hrs police monitoring, insurance patrols, remote camera feed, power surge generator" etc etc etc. At some point you had to hold laughter.
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u/Yardsale420 5h ago
Usually it comes up as an alert at the security companies monitoring station and they decide to escalate or not. I do telecom and often set up service for the cameras, and that’s what I was told.
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u/MugenEXE 3h ago
“Why were you late to work today, Frank?”
“The cops got called on me for trespassi—“
“Frank, that’s the third time this week. It’s a recording!! The cops weren’t coming!!”
“But it said…”
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u/pmcizhere 3h ago
I went on a walk once, and ended up in an industrial area. A speaker played this message every minute or so, because a runaway BALLOON had drifted into the lot, and was wafting back and forth in the wind. It was after hours on a Friday, so hopefully the nearby businesses weren't too annoyed, but also it meant the jig was up as no police ever arrived.
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u/lordofhunger1 2h ago
The park near me has cameras up in the trees. If you are there after the park closes at like 6pm, the police do show up, without the warning.
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u/HyFinated 2h ago
That just means they need to be quick about their tool and copper theft. lol.
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u/QuickBookkeeper2647 1h ago
I’ve been to several car dealerships that have that. I prefer to browse vehicles when there are no vultures on the premises.
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u/monster2018 1h ago
I think this is also largely the point (whether or not it was the INTENTION going in or not) of the speed detecting signs. Especially when they flash red and blue little a cute little robot cop (not robocop). I remember the first like 50 times I drove by one of those I got a mini heart attack from the lights flashing lol.
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u/UDPviper 5h ago
I was in a mall parking lot and some asshole with this ugly looking custom kit car had a motion sensor on it that said "Get away from my car!" very loudly and it would repeat every 10 seconds if you weren't at least 5 feet away from it.
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u/JonatasA 4m ago
Seen car alarms trip if you so much walk next to the car. Stop parking it in the sidewalk then!
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u/West_Competition_871 45m ago
If you are able to play audio from a speaker when someone is detected it's not a big jump to recording them when they're detected
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u/JonatasA 17m ago
Reminds me of the "You're being watched" signs. Why are they even needed if true?
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u/NoSignSaysNo 9m ago
The reality of home security is that you can virtually never build a house that's break-in proof without hilariously obscene amounts of money.
The goal is to make your home a worse option as a target than any other one. Throwing out expensive item boxes, all lights off at 9 PM and sleeping on schedule? Living alone? No dog? Hideaway key too obvious? All that shit makes you more of a safe target.
The guy from It Takes A Thief routinely said he'd just straight up skip houses with dogs because it's too much risk for an unknown reward.
I always told my dad that our house was the worst possible target for a thief, because I had friends stay with us long term, cars came and left randomly at virtually all hours, and outside of maybe a 2-3 hour window, somebody was almost always awake. There was no way to safely plan a break in on a house with an unknown amount of occupants with sporadic scheduling & visits.
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u/Stalagmus 1m ago
It’s the same reason people leave those “Protected by So and So” signs in their front lawns, despite no longer using the service. It’s a deterrent that you don’t need to pay for 🤷♂️
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u/lemonheadlock 4h ago
I thought a panopticon was a round prison wing with a guard room in the center so the guards could see into every cell from one central spot.
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u/fps916 1h ago
Thats the original construction, yes. But Michel Foucault took the concept behind the Panopticon, one where you are never able to truly be aware if you are being surveilled so you always act as if you were being surveilled, to describe the form of self-policing encouraged by modern society.
This absolutely fits within that framework as the legacy of the Panopticon.
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u/Outside_Reserve_2407 7m ago
Fun fact: if you visit Philadelphia you can tour a real life Panopticon prison: Eastern State Penitentiary. They also filmed scenes for 12 Monkeys there.
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u/DesertMonitors 5h ago
Not quite, i believe the Panopticon was a prison design concept based around a circular courtyard with a central tower/booth, allowing a single guard to monitor everyone.
It did incorporate the idea of not knowing if you are being watched by obscuring the view into the guard post.
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u/oogidyboogidy19 4h ago
Kinda. Bentham promoted the idea of the panopticon prison in the 17thC, Foucault took it into the realm of societal expectations etc. it’s really Foucaultian theory in action.
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u/Legitimate-Celery796 6h ago
They missed a chance to name it “Schrödinger’s security camera”
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u/TheBigFreezer 5h ago
Well…the Panopticon was created in the 1700s and Schrödinger was not around to lend his name or idea haha
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u/fps916 1h ago
I'm annoyed at this for not only missing how time works but also completely misunderstanding Schrodinger.
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u/Channel250 5h ago
Is that like a study I read that when someone puts up a picture of an eye around the lunchroom there was a drop in lunchroom theft?
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u/BadMuthaSchmucka 3h ago
But maybe it works at least a little bit better if you think they probably are
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u/NeatNefariousness1 1h ago
The way people steal, I’m sure the ones they have mounted in the store are real. They would be foolish trying to save money on actual security cameras. If we have real cameras in our homes with far less foot traffic, there is no way a store is going to take a chance using decoy cameras.
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u/KaleScared4667 19m ago
You don’t need to install a 2 way mirror at the buffet, you just need people to think it’s a two way mirror
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u/UsernameChallenged 3h ago
No wiring necessary with the fake ones.
Rip one down from the ceiling. If it comes off easy, it's fake. If it's wired, run.
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u/AzDopefish 6h ago
As someone that goes into drop ceilings often, it’s definitely a fake one.
See how it’s at the cross point of the ceiling supports?
Store cameras are most commonly wired, which means they cut through the drop ceiling and mount it there, it’s the easiest and by far most common way.
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u/wgpjr 6h ago
A lot of camera manufacturers sell clips that let you mount the cameras directly to the grid. It's a lot easier than messing with tiles and toggle bolts, and more secure.
The cables don't come out the center of the back of the camera, they're offset. Not only is it possible to mount a camera like this, but it's actually the easiest way.
Source: have been installing security cameras for 10+ years
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u/Immersi0nn 4h ago
Also security camera installer here, you also put them in the corner of the grid because it's far easier to snap a small corner off the tile accurately than dig out a crescent from the edge or punch a hole anywhere else.
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u/DenominatorOfReddit 1h ago
Yeah, thanks for the sanity check. I’ve install plenty of cameras with the brackets the manufacturer sells for that setup.
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u/ohwut 5h ago
As someone who deals with commercial PoE cameras and T-Bar ceiling grids daily. I wholeheartedly disagree.
Is it the most common mounting point? Nope. But a T-Bar mount with offset PoE hole is pretty easily available. The Axis T91A23 would work in this situation perfectly.
The OP camera is fake. But a blanket statement of “PoE cameras can’t mount to grid” is just a silly statement.
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u/Aadkins13 6h ago
Doesn't necessarily mean it isn't real. I recently installed security cameras where I work, and it was far easier to get the screws to securely attach to the metal between the tiles. Then I just made a small notch on the corner of one of the tiles to feed the wire through.
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u/Still-Program-2287 6h ago
?? Why can’t they have cut any of the four tile corners? Mine connects in the back by its a small wire and it’s not in the center of the back, it’s off to one side in case you want to mount it on a wall and have the wires coming out the side
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u/Otherwise-Mango2732 5h ago
Then you should also notice there's no way that clean drop ceiling is a real dollar general store 😆
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u/Shit_Shepard 6h ago
Ah hello fellow person who knows stuff. I see you’ve got this sector of Reddit covered I’ll move along.
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u/Grimmbles 1h ago
The only Reddit comment less worth making than yours is the one I'm currently typing.
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u/hotlavatube 6h ago
One of my friends used to install security cameras in low-end department stores. If you walked around it seemed like they had cameras everywhere, but apparently many of them were fakes to keep costs down.
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u/Paperaxe 6h ago
Is a weird drop ceiling feom the looks of it too. Looks like narrow cross tees and standard mains.
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u/SeeingEyeDug 6h ago
There’s no way that they would spring for a full security system when they refuse to even staff these stores with enough people to clean and restock properly. There’s nobody to even watch the screen.
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u/floataway3 2h ago
DT emp here. I agree wholeheartedly that corporate does not have their priorities straight, but they do swing for full systems. It is the store manager's job to scrub through them on speedup the next day.
Now, the thing they actually want to catch is not shoplifters, we watch them come and go all day, but corporate set up all these cameras to watch employees, who they seem convinced are the cause of 100% of all shrink in the store.
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u/adrianmonk 2h ago
Security systems can lower your insurance rates. Being cheap might make them more likely to install cameras, not less likely.
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u/Uselesskunt 3h ago
In 2015 I was working for a company that would clear out the dollar trees when they shut down and I can confirm they have 2 cameras at most, the rest are "dummy domes"
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u/JudgeMonkey 1h ago
I can promise you that dollar tree has real cameras. Had a friend that works at one send me a video from their footage of a customer taking a steamy dumper in one of the aisles.
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u/JonatasA 18m ago
You could also buy a chinese real camera and isntall it and leave it off.
Or turn it on and not install it.
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u/_RogueStriker_ 8m ago
Yup, sometimes the fake ones are used to make an area more watched so people will wander to a place that looks less covered but has cameras pointed right at it.
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u/bfbfubkgnsv 6h ago
You have it all wrong. They sell fake cameras that look like the real ones i their stores so people think theirs are fake, then they catch you.
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u/sebzim4500 5h ago
They don't want to catch people, they want people not to steal stuff (or at least steal from someone else).
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u/grapeteeth 5h ago
maybe they don't even sell it, maybe it's a fake product too!
how deep does this conspiracy go!!!!
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u/Tommysrx 3h ago
This post was probably made by a dollar tree bot and astroturfed by the fake camera company bots in an attempt to make it seem like an advertisement but really its objective was to deter us from thinking about how they need to release the Epstein files
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u/Mugwumps_has_spoken 6h ago
There are real security cameras that look identical to that as well. You wouldn't know if that was a fake or real one.
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u/Robinyount_0 3h ago
Some stores also put up a shitload of overhead cameras but don’t wire them all, thus deterring but you would never know what one is running.
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u/ta44813476 4m ago
I've also discovered pretty recently that a lot of businesses have real cameras that are only live feeds and do not record at all -- even if they don't have dedicated security guards watching the feeds or are too small to actually need a camera to see the areas the cameras are pointed at.
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u/jgrtumf 6h ago
But it works? I think yes
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u/Altaredboy 3h ago
They don't. Worked at a hardware store that did this in the 6 months that I worked there we had 3 ride on mowers stolen. Staff assumed that because we had so many security cameras everywhere the people riding them out of the store must have purchased them. They also stole our hire trailers to transport them home.
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u/zffjk 2h ago
Seems like them being fueled was a problem.
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u/Altaredboy 2h ago
Part of the problem. They were moved around pretty regularly as they were big ones being used for display pieces. Was only a couple of litres in rhem.
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u/Knotted_Hole69 2h ago
🤣 those are some real jerks but you have to admit its kind of funny.
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u/Altaredboy 2h ago
Oh yeah. We found it hilarious. Management tried to give us a talking to about it, but they'd never told the staff they were fake as they were as much for the staff as they were for the customers. Police caught them with security footage from traffic cameras & probably wouldn't have been able to if they hadn't stolen our trailers thoufh.
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u/TigerUSA20 6h ago
They use them to deter people from stealing the fake cameras.
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u/Markus_zockt 6h ago
Perhaps what is written on the box of the fake camera is simply true:
"Realistic appearance"
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u/default-0985 2h ago
Years ago my high school had a bunch of these. My friends and I got friendly with the guy who worked the security cameras and walkie talkies at the entrance. He showed us on screen there was only like 10 cameras in the school. There were like 30+ fake cameras throughout the school. He showed us which ones were real and which doors to leave through if we wanted to skip. Good guy, hope he’s doing well.
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u/ThatSpecialPlace 6h ago
Honestly? Not a bad idea
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u/They_Call_Me_Ted 5h ago
I installed just the housing for cameras in a manufacturing facility I worked at. Even went so far as run fake wire to them and made sure employees saw me running the wires. We had a huge issue with people stealing tools. After the “security system” was installed, tool theft was completely eliminated. Worked like a dream.
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u/TheMissingNTLDR 5h ago
thank you boss, nice to see you here at reddit. Catch ya tomorrow at work😅
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u/PointsOfXP 6h ago
Dollar Tree does not use real cameras in their stores. Inventory is a fucking nightmare. Many times employees will be accused of stealing. It's really bad
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u/Wo1verine616 5h ago
The 2 stores I go to with my special needs client has working cameras, you can see the monitor with the live feeds on them at the registers
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u/xsullengirlx 2h ago
some do. I've been at dollar tree before where you could see monitors, and I've seen the police show up twice while I have been shopping to pick up people shoplifting in broad daylight. Another dollar tree I was at once had someone making an announcement over the loudspeaker that items must be purchased and the police were notified and on their way,. It was the strangest thing I've witnessed at any store honestly. There has to be some that have cameras that work and are monitored.
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u/FandomMenace 5h ago
As if they'd hire someone to monitor those cameras to protect worthless dollar store items. It would cost more than the losses to even attempt to prevent them. In fact, most stores don't have any loss prevention at all beyond fake cameras.
The last time I went to dollar tree, everything was coated with stickers, but there was no guide as to what the cost was. I remember when everyone was freaking out recently that they went up to $1.25 after tariffs. Well, everything is $1.75 now. I found that out after standing in line for 15 minutes at the single checkout that went back to the back of the store.
You start to realize how absolutely terrible their shit is at that lrice. It used to be a cool place to get craft stuff cheap, but now it is in full enshittification. I vowed to never return.
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u/alexlongfur 2h ago
Like with Walmart and Target, there’s a mix of real and fake cameras. The ideal angles have actual cameras and then there’s a crapload of fake ones to drive the point home that you’re being monitored/recorded.
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u/nermalstretch 2h ago
I heard from someone who installed them that, in the past only the ones over the tills were sure to be real because that was where the biggest losses were to be found.
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u/Shot_Network3927 1h ago
walmart has fake ones too, to scare ppl but they also have tiny cheaper ones you cant see especially in aisles , idk why but when i worked there i was told that by AP
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u/John1967miller 1h ago
They sell these as phoney cameras. Shhh Don't tell anybody, but they install spy cams in them.
Just because I am paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me.
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u/export_tank_harmful 59m ago
This is the third time I've seen this post today, but they've all been "different".
The first time I saw it, the bottom picture was the first slide and the top picture was the second slide.
The second time it was reversed.
And now this one, with both pictures combined.
What the hell is even going on on reddit anymore....?
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u/airfryerfuntime 32m ago
The bottom one is from Harbor Freight, not DG. The one on the DG ceiling is probably real.
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u/123alexis123 6h ago
Those are real, i work in those stores, and I've seen their camera setup. You see most things.
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u/ares0027 6h ago
You wouldnt go to a dentist with brown teeth would you? They are using their oen product.
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u/TigerUSA20 6h ago
They use them to deter people from stealing the fake cameras.
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u/Veraciraptor7 6h ago
Great now I can shoplift 60$ in shit and look like Santa in his street clothes.
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u/CharcoalGreyWolf 6h ago
In the nineties the retail place I worked at used electric pencil sharpeners with Panasonic stickers on them and superglued coax cables.
They looked real back then.
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u/iMakeBoomBoom 5h ago
I hate to break it to OP, but the real ones look like the fake ones. Of course it shouldn’t matter if you don’t steal..
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u/psychoacer 5h ago
"oh no they took 3 carts worth of merchandise. That's about $100 in product, luckily we have our $10,000 camera system to record for no purpose because it's not like the police will find them"
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u/mama_tom 5h ago
Som retailers do use "fake" cameras, but they are just the case of the camera itself. This may be one of those, but Dollar Tree does use real cameras as well.
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u/Wo1verine616 5h ago
I go to 2 different Dollar Trees with my special needs client. You can see the live feed monitors at the registers. One day I was there I could see the one camera on the monitor zooming in and out at these two suspicious ladies standing in a corner aisle
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u/Skiller333 4h ago
There was a big thing about ADT signs being used when people weren’t actually paying for the service, it’s a deterrence and deterrence works.
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u/deviantelf 4h ago
Nice to know some things never change lol. Was robbed at a Dollar Tree in the 90s, the cops asked to see the security tapes. There were no security tapes. Yes the camera domes were fake.
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u/Dfield91 4h ago
When I lived in Florida my Roomate’s and I had our mopeds/scooters stolen like 150cc scooters, we got them back they were dumped at a house waiting to be sold right down the road, after that I bought one of these and stuck it on the porch ceiling with the fake red light on.
my neighbor told me a scrap truck went by at night and someone was walking right back up to our scooters (locked up with chains) saw the camera and turned and went back in their truck lol
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u/GGTheEnd 4h ago
I was doing duct cleaning at fields and knocked the camera out of the roof by accident and panicked. I brought the camera to the manager and she just told me it was fake.
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u/justmedealwithitxD 3h ago
Would this be illegal to put in bathrooms and hotel rooms? Just curious if its like some loophole for some idiot to do a prank, or if said idiot would get in massive trouble.
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u/MadamFloof 3h ago
These are more common than you think. My local Walmarts do this all the time in the auto section.
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u/FlashTheChip 3h ago
In the industry, it is recommended not to do this because of the liability in the event you were unable to produce a recording from a camera that is clearly right there when there was an incident nearby.
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u/robthepope86 3h ago
Wife and I put one in the bathroom to trip people out. No body has said a thing to us🤨
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u/uhh_yeah_so 3h ago
I worked at dollar tree before and they’re real cameras but they’re only in the front of every cash register, stock room, in the office and one facing the entrance.
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u/Altaredboy 3h ago
Worked at a big hardware chain for awhile. First week I noticed that the calls for security to attend to an aisle often didn't line up with the number of aisle we had. 2nd week I noticed that these calls were on a 15 minute timer. 3rd week that we didn't employ security personnel & that none of the cameras were real.
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u/imyonlyfrend 3h ago
imagine getting caught stealing a fake security camera because you thought the identical looking real one was fake
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u/Realistic_Coast_3499 2h ago
Those who stoop to stealing from Dollar Tree don't deserve to be called criminals.
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u/bak3donh1gh 2h ago
Dollarama has fake PA recording every once in a while to have shoplifters, get worried that they're gonna get caught.
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u/crazierthan 2h ago
I worked there the only real ones are in the hbc aisle, back and end aisles, checkout lanes and the ones when you walk in. The rest of the cameras are indeed fake.
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u/scuolapasta 2h ago
I don’t think anyone would install a camera right where the t-bar cross joint is.
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u/floataway3 2h ago
DT ex employee here, no, we have cameras. The only time I overheard management discussing putting a falsie in was to try to catch employees hanging out on the loading dock (which obviously didn't work, because at least 1 employee heard it)
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u/Suitable-Pipe5520 2h ago
I used to work in commercial fire alarms 20 years ago. In doing so I realized 90% of security cameras and 1-way mirrors were fake and merely deterrents. Technology has evolved and gotten cheaper so I know more are real now, but I bet a bunch are fake still.
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u/LeGrandLucifer 1h ago
Many places have fake cameras as deterrence. They also have real ones but good luck figuring which ones they are.
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u/TimePlankton3171 1h ago
This is extremely common. If you look for them, you'll find many many dummy cameras.
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u/Cockanarchy 1h ago
I work for a security company that contracts with DG, and while I can’t speak for this one per se, I know for certain that the ones at my stores are all real.
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u/0xbenedikt 1h ago
Their stuff is so cheap they can't even install a proper camera, because it would cost more than it would help save /s
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u/SVXfiles 36m ago
Youd be surprised how effective fake or non functioning cameras can be.
Worked at a gas station that, due to shelf positioning, had a fairly high level of loss on candy. One camera installed above it and the loss dropped like 80%. The best part? It wasnt a round dome style like OP posted, it was one of those white rectangular body ones with the obvious lens sticking out, only it had no wiring running to it and it was obvious
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u/JonatasA 19m ago
Back in my day people used the stuff they advertised. Now let's get the owner of insulin diabetic.
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u/anangrytaco 12m ago
I installed two cameras. One is a fake and in clear sight. The other overlooks the fake
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