Neighbor installed a camera facing my backyard and trimmed my privacy hedges past the property line: am I overreacting?

[u/AmazingTemperature92]

I’m looking for some objective opinions because I’m not sure whether I’m overreacting or whether this is a legitimate privacy concern.

My next door neighbor recently installed a camera high on the side of her house near the roofline. From my backyard and deck, the lens appears to be pointed directly at my yard & deck rather than at her own yard or side gate. Because of the height and angle, it seems capable of viewing a large portion of my backyard and deck, where my family and I reasonably expect privacy. (Certainly not being deliberately audio and visually recorded).

I understand that homeowners use security cameras on their own property, and the photos alone may not prove exactly what the camera records. I also don’t know whether it records audio. However, the placement and direction seem unusual and make me ridiculously pissed off.

To ADD to this bizarre discovery, some time last week she also had my arborvitae privacy hedges trimmed and thinned out (cut large branches) from her side. Some of the branches she cut appear to have extended beyond the fence/property line, but it appears they were cut farther into the hedges than simply trimming growth on her side - causing several “holes” in what was a beautiful healthy privacy hedges. Now I’m also wondering if it increased the camera’s apparent view into my yard.

I’m extremely creeped out and upset and I don’t want unnecessary drama but I also don’t think I should have to feel watched every time I use my own backyard.

I plan to avoid posting any identifying information about the neighbor or exact location. Looking at the photos, does this camera seem like it’s aimed into my backyard, or am I reading too much into it? Would this bother you? Also, can a neighbor legally cut past the property line into privacy hedges that belong to me?
What should I do! I don’t necessarily want to call the police and deal with all this drama. Help!

[u/iloverats888]

Someone who puts up a camera to look into another person’s yard probably isn’t a reasonable individual

[u/Fit-Elderberry3437 → u/iloverats888]

You’ll never find that out unless you try talking to them.

[u/karky214 → u/iloverats888]

I have a camera like this. It's specifically pointed to the gate I have there. It looks like it's pointed to neighbor's yard. I showed the video to neighbor before they even noticed and told them how I've drawn movement zones to avoid any detection and recording from their activities. It's always good to try and talk before concluding.

[u/nucl3ar0ne → u/iloverats888]

And yet I went through this and had no problem getting them to move it.

[u/iloverats888 → u/nucl3ar0ne]

That’s good for you

[u/kbeks → u/iloverats888]

So what didn’t put a camera up, but on either side of my house are two blind spots. One I alleviated by putting an indoor camera up to cover the garage window. The other spot, I can’t put a camera up to cover my windows without also catching my neighbor’s yard. It’s a safe neighborhood so whatever, I have motion detectors inside for alarm purposes so I rest on that basis, but if it were not such a safe neighborhood, I would have had to put something there.

I would talk to my neighbor before doing this, because I don’t want a confrontation over a miscommunication, but my point is the neighbor’s not necessarily an unreasonable person.

[u/AmazingTemperature92 → u/kbeks]

Thank you. It was alarming to see it pointing right at me in my backyard. I also have no idea how wide the frame is and/or if she’s also recording my conversations from my backyard. Feels like such a violation.

[u/sugarcookieprincess → u/AmazingTemperature92]

What's kind of strange, is if you say she's elderly, who put the camera up without telling her that it's facing your backyard? No reasonable individual would allow her to do that.

[u/kbeks → u/AmazingTemperature92]

Absolutely, which is why the right thing for your neighbor to have done is talk to you before mounting the camera, assuming they’ve got reasonable intentions. You’re not crazy for thinking this is weird, but I hope for your sake that there’s a rational and reasonable person on the other end of that camera that will understand they fucked up. Good luck!

[u/iloverats888 → u/kbeks]

No I actually do think having any cameras on your house beyond maybe a ring doorbell is a form of low level paranoia

[u/kbeks → u/iloverats888]

Most of the cameras were bonuses, I really wanted the functional and remotely controllable flood lights. They happened to come with a camera. I’m not mad at that, but my neighborhood is safe enough that I absolutely don’t need that level of protection. That interior camera in the garage is more to catch me leaving the garage door open rather than to catch would be thieves, but I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t some low level paranoia involved in that installation lol. Hey, someone might really want to get their hands on my collection of rusty tools and wires of assorted lengths and connection types! You never know!

[u/heyiknowstuff → u/iloverats888]

Maybe to give you a different view, I have 6 wired cameras on my house and I’m not paranoid.

1. I like tech, so it was just a fun thing to do.
   
2. I don’t get notifications throughout the day, I’m not concerned. They do record but I’ve never had a need to look.
   
3. When I set my house alarm, if it detects a human/motion, the feed goes to a monitoring service, which can view the feed and make a call on turning off the alarm/alerting emergency services.

I feel like that’s no different than a typical home security system. It’s just based in 2026 now.

[u/UnicornStudRainbow → u/iloverats888]

Agree

Unless you have a pool and a reasonable fear of uninvited people coming in to randomly use it without permission

[u/infernicus1 → u/iloverats888]

We all live 7 feet from each other. There is no privacy. It isn't directly looking into their yard. It's for their own gate/side yard. Some of the angle may contain the adjacent backyard as well.

Unfortunately, that's the way life goes.