The Shop > Our Shop
Workshop Security
MrFluffy:
When I lived in the uk, I used to have mesh on the inside of my sheds on insulator standoffs, and connected to a electric fence generator set to "Bull" mode and we had it as a zone of the house alarm as we lived in a rough inner town slum type area and it was well known the contents were interesting. Someone did once peel back the roof and stick their hand through once, but only once.
I had a friend who did the same in desperation after having his shop workshop burgled 8 times in a year despite steel doors and 1/4" plate lock boxes etc, and being dropped by his insurance company. However he used 240v, and no mcb. I asked him what he'd do if he found a dead scrote one day, and he said throw them in the back of the van and toss them out at the docks. No compassion for thieves and they were killing his business. Just a small one man band trying to make a meagre living. He found a very bent and curly screwdriver one day where they'd tried to dig through the big huge heavy doors to get to the bolts made from motorcycle fork legs and open them. They never came back either...
When I moved to France, because i live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a few vacant holiday homes it was a concern, but nothing was normally touched. Apart from stuff in the field which was a few fields away from the house where things would get picked clean of useful things. Van's would loose their wheels and be found on blocks etc. I suspected a local so when my wife wanted to go away for a fortnight which would mean the dog had to go live in the kennels for it, I got good and ready.
6 days into the holiday my house alarm rang me at 3am to say the workshop zone had triggered. So I telephoned my father in law and he drove over (about 30 minutes away) with strict instructions not to enter the building whatever, and not to let anyone else in either. He found the double doors popped and managed to secure them and reset the alarm.
I drove back the next day with that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and I went straight to check it out, and found a trail of blood leading out of the middle shop and noticed the local with a severe limp. Someone had found the home made alarm mine with a fishing line trip, loaded with a blank cartridge, only it seems somehow some rock salt and a few tacks had fell into the barrel section aimed at leg height. All I can say is its a good job he got the message, as there were far far nastier things involving the three phase and live metal surfaces waiting further in. It was the last time the house or workshops were touched.
I have "danger of death, enter at own risk" in two languages on the entrances, and I have a checklist I follow to disarm and arm all the systems which I follow religiously to save getting bit by them myself. And I only use them when we're away overnight and the second and third contacts for the alarm know the score about not entering. For the rest of the time we have a large and noisy dog, who's sole job is to wake me up.
Corvus corax:
My basement shop is only accessible from outside the house, because of this I put a decent lock on the door and rigged a small alarm system which also warns of flooding.
Aside from that: It's just paranoid old me who works from home, is therefore at home most of the time and has a 12 G shotgun and a couple of rifles.
benchmark:
Lucky for me the crime rate is very low here and when there is a break-in, they vandals hardly carry anything huge away and usually just look for cash, jewelry and alcohol.
Since we bought our current house, there has only been one burglary in the area we live and in that particular case ,the house owner was away for 2 months when it happened( i think it was an inside job)
That being said , i still have CCD cameras mounted around with the accompanying notification signs. Added to this i have infrared GSM alarms that ring to my (and my wifes) mobile phone if an intruder comes within 6 meters of any sensor.
Luckily, Police response time for us is 3-6mins.
Bogstandard:
Lucky for you, if it is a standard break in here, it can take a day to never before they turn up.
They normally just give you a report number when you phone in about it and tell you to claim off your insurance.
They are more interested in catching speeding motorists, they make more money out of it.
Bogs
MrFluffy:
If you phone up and say "im not the homeowner, but I think the proprietor of XYZ acacia av has caught a thief and is bundling him into a outbuilding roughly" they come right away :)
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