When I first moved to this house in 2009 I had trouble at night with knocks on my door & no one there & doorbell ringing & also them trying to get in my back door. So I bought just a cheap video camera from Radio Shack for about $75.00 & my Grandson installed it. We found out right away it was a neighborhood teenage boy messing around. I didn't involve the law but I had a talk with the kid. It never happened again & he now is 20 years old & comes down & does chores for me when I need anything done.

The deer are eating up all my hostas, and other plants. Killing me...

Not the same thing but friends set up a camera to catch which dog was chewing everything up when they were gone. He said it was the black Chow, she said it was the red Chow. Turned out to be the old Yellow Lab everyone thought was such an angel.

Have you tried sprinkling moth balls (cheap at the Dollar Store) about your garden.

This has worked for me for years

We had deer eating our roses and hyacinths -- they also ate most of my MIL's potted plants. Since we moved, haven't had any problems, but I like the idea of using a camera. Some will link to your computer and some have a card in that contains the pictures.

If you have a window and a computer nearby, you could rig up a cheap webcam ($10 or so), aim it out the window, and use webcam software set to record when motion is detected (I like Yawcam - it's free - no affiliation).

DH and I did this awhile back when someone kept turning around in our yard, and we couldn't figure out who was doing it. Turns out, it was the mail lady. :hunf:

The webcam wasn't anything fancy, and didn't have the greatest resolution, but for $10, it served the purpose. :)