The phones are running a free IP camera app, while in airplane mode, with WiFi turned on. Then, I've got an old whitebox (PIII / 1GB RAM) running Lubuntu, that monitors the feeds via Motion[1]. Everything is isolated on a subnet, where WAN access is denied. If needed, it's easy to allow remote access to the whitebox and/or camera feeds, automatic FTP uploads of captured data, and email alerts.
It was unbelievably simple to set up, completely free, and it works like a charm. The most difficult part was physically positioning the phones. You could get fancy and use ZoneMinder, but Motion's footprint is tiny enough that the old Lubuntu machine doesn't even break a sweat (7-12% CPU / 10% RAM total, including the OS).