Workshop Security

[John Hill]

I brought a few landmines back from my time in Afghanistan and have placed them in the gravel driveway and in the lawn beside the house, I think the most likely approaches are well covered.

[Space Fan]

A very cheap deterent is what a friend of mine has done. On the inside at the top of his gate and fence, about 2" down, under the top rail as shown on your neighbour's fence, he has nailed carpet gripper strips, the ones used around the edges when having fitted carpets. He has them sticking out and pointing down, so as they grip to climb over, the 'spikes' dig in and hold their fingers to the fence, the more pressure they put on them the tighter they grip. His cats have no trouble with them, but nightime prowlers seem to do.
Just where your fingertips would automatically try to grab hold of to climb over.
Rather than hanging on by your fingertips, they would be being held on.

Within a week of him fitting them, the police had lovely DNA samples along the top of his garden gate and all the way down his drive. I bet the culprit couldn't scratch his a**e or pick his nose for a fair while.

As to the legality of what he has done, the police turned a blind eye (up to now), and no one has yet been back to complain.

I'm not condoning doing it, just a passing comment.

Bogs

Bogs,
That's called a man trap here in the US and will get us on the wrong side of the law quickly. We can use any reasonable active measure but an indiscriminant passive measure is a no no.
B

[Space Fan]

All this is Very true. Thee really is no security when you are not home. There is no way to keep someone out if they want to get in.
B

I don't want to alarm you, but then maybe I do....

I was pretty aware how easy it was to pick most locks, but it seems the kids are now teaching each other the joys of bumping...

That's lock bumping.......
Never heard of it, just look on Utube

If you have any sort of padlock or Yale type key door lock then you might as well leave the door open.

Oddly enough even Bump proof locks are not bump proof....fancy 10 pins with 7 side pins are very space age looking keys are no trouble.....beware...
The only type of lock that so far seems to be immune to bumping are mortise locks, but make sure it's a five lever type cos 3 leavers are fairly easy to pick.

It's all pretty worrying.
I'm insured I hear you say.....well maybe not. No sign of forced entry and the insurers say you must have forgotten to lock the door. They will not pay out. The police take the same view, no signs of forced entry.....then you must be pulling a fast one....

Sleep tight...

[Space Fan]

I'm looking at installing a house/garage security system that rings your mobile if one of the detectors goes off. It even tells you which detector and you can add a camera to watch/listen in.

They are not that expensive. I also like the fact that they also have smoke/water/heat detectors as well.

Darren,
This is a great idea. Lots of peace of mind.  I had a fancy truck, my first new one, years ago and I had a paging security system.  Touch it and I was notified.  Nice system.
B

[andyf]

I brought a few landmines back from my time in Afghanistan and have placed them in the gravel driveway and in the lawn beside the house, I think the most likely approaches are well covered.

I don't suppose you get out and about much nowadays, John. Still, you've hit on a good way of avoiding the lawnmower



Andy

[ieezitin]

I found the Glock although a nice piece of engineering, a very hard gun to shoot!. Gave me nappy rash on the index finger.

I too carry a 357 mag on a shoulder holster around the farm, it is a little uncomfortable. A more sleek design hand gun is needed just don’t have the loot right now!.

I too am not native to the states where you from space?

John Hill. Now that shows initiative ! If you ever invite me over for a beer please email me the mine-plan.

All the best.                Anthony.

[Space Fan]

I found the Glock although a nice piece of engineering, a very hard gun to shoot!. Gave me nappy rash on the index finger.

I too carry a 357 mag on a shoulder holster around the farm, it is a little uncomfortable. A more sleek design hand gun is needed just don’t have the loot right now!.

I too am not native to the states where you from space?

John Hill. Now that shows initiative ! If you ever invite me over for a beer please email me the mine-plan.

All the best.                Anthony.

I've had the misfortune of needing a gun and not having one so that will never again happen when my family is depending on me. Carrying one for me has never been for comfort, just safety. Not ment to be comfortable, just comforting

The Glock is a marvel in engineering and that trigger has been a source of concern for some.  It's perfectly acceptable to smooth it and get those grooves to stop taking hold so much.  There are many small light pistols out there.  The PPK is a great small one, there are a number of good ones from Kel-Tec like the PF-9 thats just under $250. That .357 is a monster to shoot though compared to these.

From the Frozen north originally, I am a real carpet bagger, just decided to stay .

Yes we are Not going to sneak up on Johns place!  

[John Hill]

John Hill. Now that shows initiative ! If you ever invite me over for a beer please email me the mine-plan.

All the best.                Anthony.

That wont be a problem Anthony,  I will send a border collie to the gate to lead you in. That dog is the only one who really remembers where they all are. 

Just stick close to her but be aware  she can move pretty fast so do try to keep up!  She left a couple of Mormon boys out there this morning and now I think she has gone off chasing rabbits.


John

[jatt]

Bernd.

Most things are if one is determined enough.

I recon a good percentage of would be theives are opportunists.

In OZ we cant just carry around hand cannons, even in the name of personal protection.  Firearms laws have gotten very strict in recent years in these parts.

But of course a bloke doesnt reveal all of his security measures, just the visually obvious stuff anyone can see when they walk in 

[Bernd]

Jatt,

Good answer. We'll leave your security at that then. No need to give out more info, right? 

Bernd

[Davo J]

Thought I'd throw this one in.
A mate's father shed was broken/walked into a while ago. The house is only 3mtrs off the shed and the mate lives in a caravan at the back of the shed so the shed door is usually left unlocked for him to come and go as thats his only access. They have high fences, 3 dogs and thought they were pretty safe. One morning they woke up to find the door open and mates brand new motor cross bike which was chained up gone. Looking around while they waiting for the police they found a set of bolt cutters, two coke cans and brown crumbs on the floor. Checking the fridge latter they found the thieves had gone to the fridge while they were there and helped themselves to a can of coke and a piece of chocolate cake and sat down eating it while they were cutting the chain. They also stole his MX boots, a road bike helmet and a set of ratchet ring spanners from his dad. Later that morning they got a call that the bike had been found in another suburb. Evidently the police had chased the thieves, and they jumped off and ran into the bush never to be seen again. He got the bike back but nothing else, they had to claim on the house insurance. The police said they couldn’t get finger prints off the coke cans either.
There are some brazen thieves out there.
Davo

[George Greer]

Locked fence, locked shed...  357Mag, 20 Gauge Shotgun, and pissy German Shepard.

If anyone can get thru that, and not wake me up and get away without being shot...

Well, they can have it.

[madman]

In Canada we are only allowed Stainless Steel Strips with Fish Hooks Silver Soldered onto them, Then using Tapcons mount inside window sills and on top of the Fence. Very Effective I have to say. The screams alone will wake you up Guaranteed. Have never had anyone come to the Door complaining with Mushy Bleeding Hands Yet and if they do Ill club him like a Seal. So far my cheap security system has been effective. I also set up IR cameras up in trees around the House. They are the cheap hunting type and very effective even at night shots. Total cost is very reasonable.

[DeereGuy]

Over here, you find them, ring police, wait several hours if not days depending how busy they are, (in my case it was over a week)

That's the exact reason I carry....a cop is to heavy for me..;)

[krv3000]

HI all well one of my workshop security sistems is a old 12volt car alarm 

[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

[Corvus corax]

Police are 30 minute response time from where I stay so it's pretty much left to me to secure my stuff.

[Powder Keg]

Looks like I'm going to have to get something going. A few little things have started to disappear from a trailer outside my shop. Probably just drunks rounding up scrap for some Mad Dog money. But I've woken up. I'm going to look into those deer cameras. Padlocks have been installed on the fence. I really need to beef up the door to the shop. I have work to do this weekend.....

Wes

[raynerd]

That is disappointing to know Wes. My Uncle has just got a security camera. £140, wireless, records to a 32GB SD card and loops. It is on a sensor so isn`t on all the time but apparently you get 48 hours of recording on that which I expect on my back yard, would work out at a few weeks recording with it only coming on when I am in the yard or going to the bin! So a couple of weeks before it loops and is wiped which would be plenty of time to see something has gone and view the camera - I`m strongly considering one. The day footage is excellent quality, the night footage is easily good enough to identify someone.

Hope you get sorted.


Edit, looks like this one. This is £200 so he must have got it cheaper, then again his Mrs was listening so he could have been quoting a little less!!
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/7003385.htm?CMPID=GS001&_$ja=tsid:11527%7Ccc:%7Cprd:7003385%7Ccat:garden+and+diy+%2F+home+security+%2F+home+safety+and+alarms+%2F

Looks l

[bp]

Here in South Australia some years ago, we were living in a well known Northern Suburb.  One evening we received about 5 or 6 'phone calls threatening to come and break in to retrieve something of his that he believed we had.  After a few phone calls I phoned the Police.  They were dead keen on coming out as it was clearly a distressing situation.  I gave the Police our address, as soon as I mentioned the suburb, the Policeman said "Oh, I'm sorry we don't go there at night"
The house was up for sale and we moved pretty soon afterwards!!
cheers
Bill Pudney

[AR1911]

"We don't go there at night" Damn. that's a Sign!

My shop is 30 miles away,, a 25x40 steel building in the middle of a rundown residential trailer park.
Hey, it was a bargain!

I'd had it about 2 years, long enough to fill it up with tools. I drove up one evening to find the door swinging on the hinges.
Everything of value was cleaned out.  I had never insured it, but I check with my homeonwers carrier anyway. I was delighted to find I was covered under "off-premises" coverage.
It was 10% of my homeowners coverage.
So, I added up my losses and got a nice check, went shopping for new tools 
Mind you, this was a automotive stuff, when I was racing but not yet machining.
I did add a HD deadbolt, and I bought a 2-zone wired alarm box from Radio Shack. I have motion sensors and door switches on it, a loud siren out of reach, and a strobe.And warning stickers.
That's been about 10 years and so far no one appears to have tested it. 

Today it's full of machine tools, so I really need to look into adding coverage.

I also carry a pocket pistol all the time, and have a revolver hidden in the shop.
You Brits need to fix that legal problem you have.