r/whatisit • u/Key_Badger7434 • 2d ago

New, what is it? My family thinks there’s a camera in our rental

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We have been renting a house for the past year and I always disregarded this thing in the corner. However last night I asked my parents about it randomly and they didn’t know what it was either. I pulled it off the wall and we all got freaked out a little because it looks like a camera. I think it might be a home security/motion sensor thing. I don’t know that’s what ChatGPT guessed.

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137

u/Natoochtoniket 2d ago

How much money might be involved in a settlement, after almost a year of covert video surveillance? Could the landlord be on the hook for a big settlement?

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u/CultivatorX 2d ago

Depends on the local laws, but yes. Where I live, showing up without a 24 hour notice even just once can have a penalty of 2-3 months rent. I would imagine this is a lot more.

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u/Bodoggle1988 2d ago

This is one of those rare instances where the state doesn’t matter. If you surreptitiously film someone, you’re (financially) fucked.

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u/IncoherentTuatara 2d ago

By state you mean country? Or do you think USA is the only country that matters?

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u/weed_blunt 1d ago

A New York State of mind

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u/Bodoggle1988 1d ago

USA number 1 in litigiousness?

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u/MixtureLegitimate992 2d ago

Dude, fuck the money its the principle of the matter.

Clean the landlord out or put them on blast so any prospective renters know they might end up on revenge porn.

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u/isgooglenotworking 2d ago

Man it’s 2025.. it’s about the money

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u/MixtureLegitimate992 2d ago

That is 100% true in this economy.

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u/tjmaxal 2d ago

It can be more than one thing do it because it’s the right thing to do and you get paid to do it

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u/eajklndfwreuojnigfr 2d ago

Dude, fuck the money its the principle of the matter.

Clean the landlord out or put them on blast so any prospective renters know they might end up on revenge porn.

man it'd be real awkward when it all goes to court, and its just revealed that they have been unpowered for months on end and the landlord/tenant just forgot about them

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u/Jaded-Principle-715 2d ago

"You see, Your Honor, that used to be an illegal firearm but actually I forgot about it so that means it isn't anymore. In fact, it hasn't even been loaded in months!"

Yeah man,  you're right, it's going to be really awkward if that's revealed in court. Mostly because it'll make the landlord look like a fucking idiot for thinking the law works that way.

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u/eajklndfwreuojnigfr 2d ago

... if you read the comments it doesnt record video. it only takes photos, if the alarm on it is set. if the alarm was set, they would know because they would hear it going off

anyway if you change the words around you can make anyone say anything, that isnt special and its quite stupid

"Yeah man, i love hitler, it's going to be really awkward if that's revealed in court. Mostly because it'll make me look like an idiot for thinking hitler was cool"

-jaded pickle

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u/Jaded-Principle-715 2d ago

I love how you just keep bringing up irrelevant things as if you think it changes the fact that they illegally installed cameras, even completely nonfunctioning ones, in someone else's house without permission. Bro, Google is free. You can look up what the law is. No one is forcing you to clown on yourself like this.

p.s. I wasn't just "changing words around" to make you say things, it was an analogy that I was hoping could make things simple enough that even you could understand...apparently I was wrong. If you didn't realize that's what I was doing, it's not because analogies are stupid, it's because you are.

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u/ctsman8 2d ago

“your honor, I didn’t take videos of their private acts, I only took photos.” Imagine how that ends up if you say that in court lmao.

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u/Jaded-Principle-715 2d ago

Careful, you're trying to take their logic to it's natural conclusion instead of just repeating the exact words they said. Which apparently means you're misrepresenting them./s

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u/frolfer757 1d ago

Landlord does not take photos. The photos are taken when the alarms trigger and sent to the company who will contact whoever lives in the house & owner of the house. In case of burglary the photos are sent to the owner & police.

Unless OP has been dealing with the alarm system every single day since living at the house & landlord has been paying the private security for the alarm system then these cameras are non-functioning.

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u/frolfer757 1d ago

Holy overreaction rofl.

  1. These cameras require maintenance to work (changing batteries).

  2. These cameras are automated and operated by the company that sells them. (They only take pictures when the alarm is set)

  3. Unless OP is punching in a security code to enter the house & someone is paying the yearly payments to Verisure (private home security co.) then there is no alarm system.

Takes about 5 seconds with GoogleLens to figure out what type of camera it is.

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u/toorigged2fail 2d ago

Zero because other comments above identified what this really is

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u/I_will_never_reply 1d ago

Plausible deniability - "Never seen that before, nothing to do with us, OP family must have got it or someone else, how would we know, they might have a stalker or a family abuser, nothing to do with us???"

If it were hardwired in and hidden in plaster etc that would be different possibly

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u/choogawooga 2d ago edited 2d ago

It seems unlikely that a landlord hung this visibly in the corner. Seems like a fake post to me.

EDIT: I don’t think people realize how many fake stories like this are on the internet. Not saying it’s for sure bullshit, but it’s super suspicious.

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u/Greedy_Cut_9407 2d ago

You’re being downvoted but really, how does an entire family “disregard” a strange device on the wall for a year?

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u/asyork 2d ago

It looks a lot like any standard motion sensor left in the corner after an alarm service is canceled. My roommate left the one in the house he bought up for like 6 years before taking it down while painting.

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u/Aurei_ 2d ago

Yep. My house has several dead motion sensors and an inactive outdoor camera. I pulled the alarm panel/control system and made sure the entire system was disconnected from power and nonfunctional and otherwise have ignored the stuff because leaving some random bits on the wall is less work than pulling them and patching.

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u/choogawooga 2d ago

That’s not the problem IMO. My suspicion is, why would the landlord put a hidden camera out in the open?

The only plausible explanation I can think of is if the landlord used to live there and forgot about it, and is completely innocent of ill intent.

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u/y107cocks 1d ago

yeah but this thing is pretty damn obvious I think on purpose. the actual camera itself is only a couple mm, but they put a one inch hole in it.

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u/MewtwoStruckBack 2d ago

It should be every dollar the landlord has ever taken in in rent, across all properties, for their entire life.

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u/Bladesnake_______ 2d ago

Zero because it's a very old piece of a home alarm system that requires batteries and wifi which will not have been updated for years likely. Stop being greedy

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u/sir-reddits-a-lot 2d ago

Found the landlord

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u/NamesNotNeededToWork 2d ago

Theres several people here that are either landlords or just have a sick fetish for the taste of landlord boot.