The manufacturer of home security cameras ‘eufy’ has reached out to the Clarence Valley Independent following last week’s front-page story “Community Crime Crackdown”.

Australian and New Zealand Public Relations Manager for Anker Innovations, the creators of eufy, Tove Berkhout emailed the CV Independent last week after seeing the story discussing a Community Crime Meeting in Yamba, and former police officer, Andre Els success using the eufy CCTV cameras, of which he has installed more than 80 around Goonellabah.

“I recently came upon Rodney Stevens’ story (on Australian Rural and Regional News) about Andre Els and the eufy cameras he’s been installing,” Mr Berkhout wrote.

“I shared the piece with the whole office, and they loved it!

“We’re so glad that the whole community is having a great experience with our security cameras!

“We were hoping to get in touch with Rodney to see if we could arrange a new eufy camera for Andre to try out (if he’s interested of course!).

“Thanks, looking forward to hearing from you!”

When the CV Independent contacted Mr Els and informed him, he was elated.

“That is really nice of you, Rod, and you getting involved in this project to help the community is so good,” Mr Els said.

“I feel the crime is totally out of hand and someone needs to do something because I know the Police are totally understaffed and I really feel for them.

“I’ve been trying to get the community to work hand in hand with the Police.

“Thanks for coming on board, mate, and it’s great to have people like you around to help us with this scourge in our society.”

Mr Els said the initiative has been successful due to eufy CCTV cameras around Goonellabah.

“I’ve been supporting eufy for no other reason than I have 6 cameras which have been wonderful, and they have worked so well in keeping people off my property that I thought if everyone in our district had them, it would certainly pretty well stop the crime,” he said.

The CV Independent has put Mr Els in touch with Mr Berkhout so they can discuss the community crime initiative, and the role eufy security cameras are playing in catching offenders.

This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 19 February 2025.
Related story: Community Crime Crackdown