boob, that's a rough situation, sorry to hear about that! y'all be careful with everything slowing down and more junkies losing their part time jobs...vandalism is gonna be on a slight rise. sounds like a few hundred ideas for a simple alarm. I like the one run off a car battery. if you can do basic wiring, it'd be pretty easy to set up your own system if you wanted; you can run some pretty damn loud horns off one or two car batts and keep a really low amp trickle charger/battery maintainer wired up. dogs will usually scare away the casual thief and most certainly warn you before your alarm system will. but a heavy hitter will have some creative ways to deal with this 'nuisance'. as for your girl working out of the house and you not being there...do you take her shooting ever? nothing kicks ass like the urine marked drawers of a good for nothing dangerous criminal brought down by a woman!! women should be all the more armed and able to defend themselves equally! I hope to God that I never have to kill anyone and have yet to watch someone die; but if a criminal makes the decision to put my life or a nearby loved one's life in danger of injury or death, I am ready and train to use deadly force to preserve innocent lives. all the stupid "what if's" are life in general BS...yeah, you can sit there and ask 20 different questions of "what if"...but ANYONE in the world should know, if you go screw with someone's shop out in the country at 2am, you're a lucky S.O.B. if you don't get shot, whether you're the neighbor's kid or a felon on the run. "what if" you're driving on the road and die in a wreck, "what if" you get food poisoning at a restaurant and die, "what if" something bad might happen if you leave your house today, "what if" something bad might happen if you don't leave your house today? that's called LIFE, it's HARD, sometimes you have to DEAL WITH IT. you guys over there in Berkeley seem to have a pretty warped perception of dealing with life. "guns are bad...we need to have more laws"...more laws for the criminals to follow. read that again. they're criminals, they don't follow the laws already in place, why are more going to help?!?! the people that go to jail for self defense are the ones in areas that try to kick the military recruiting office out of city limits (ahem... Berkeley), areas that have a bunch of no-common sense idiots. in TX, you guys are lucky to have a castle doctrine. at least here in central Commiefornia, we have a bunch of country folk in crop care/food production...most of the crime/theft here is in the cities and little po-dunk surrounding towns that house the migrant workers and welfare leeches. even the meth heads know not to mess with most farmers 'cause they'll get shot, chased by dogs that chase and eat coyotes for fun and possibly will find themselves trying to run from a big ass 4x4 diesel truck that's faster than the average 'vette.
What I have always done is line the top of your fence with cattle guard wire. But instead of leaving it live, hook the control unit of the wire to the motion sensor AND a bell to the sensor. That way they can climb over with no effort, but once they hit the motion sensor, the bell startles him, wakes you, and the lil prick is stuck in your compound. Then you or the pit can deal with him as needed.
Yeah, talk the stupid Berkeley shit all you want - heard it all before. You're not that creative in those regards. But, thanks for at least spelling it properly. The reality is, I'll be the first to straighten someone's ass out one way or another if it comes to it, trust me. I don't risk lives for property; not my own, not my dog's and definitely not my family's. But if someone decides they are going to endanger me or my families lives for whatever reason, they will have one hell of a fight on their hands. The point I was trying to make is that there are better, more intelligent and actually cheaper ways to deal with securing a garage space and property theft and it's real simple - insurance and an actual real and effective alarm system. Alarms are cheaper than dogs and insurance is cheaper than getting shot/stabbed or paying lawyers. If you live out in the middle of nowhere, dogs and guns are probably a pretty good idea. But, I would still suggest good basic common sense security and an alarm system as a front line defenses might actually save you a lot of trouble and risk and possibly you and your dogs from getting shot or stabbed in the first place. Don't make yourself a target, have security, an alarm and insurance and keep yourself out of harms way. It is a shame when good people get hurt or die over stupid pieces of property. What's really the point in that? If you can't afford to secure what you have without unnecessary risk to yourself or family, then maybe you need to reconsider having it in the first place. ( note emphasis on "unnecessary". I realize everything has risk, but unnecessary risk means just that. )
The alarm companies here are a waste. The auto dialer they put in can be unplugged from outside, response time is with in an hour. What works best hear is a combination of loud noises flashing lights and fake cameras.
My dad was a mechanic for Kenworth and did car work on the side he had a sighn in his garage and it sed THIS SHOP GAURDED ONE NIGHT A WEEK WITH A DOUBLE BARREL YOU PICK THE NIGHT !! He never was broke into lucky i guess
Very nice, Mine is wired to a 1950s US navy submarine siren that so freaking loud and obnoxious that it will make one dizzy and disorientated. A Loud and obnoxious alarm is key to scare theives out.
In TEXAS, we have a nifty law know as the castle doctrine, which allows one to protect their family and possessions, up to and including the use of deadly force. While I would not recommend going toe to toe with a burglar, bringing a knife to a gun fight is never recommended. I'd rather be judged by twelve than carried by six. That said, big noise triggered by motion, glass breakage or entry points being breached is what I would do. What you do after you catch them is up to you.
He kinda stole my thunder.I mean in texas a man shot a man robbing his neighbors home in the neighbors front yard it is all caught on 911 call its posted on you tube,And i shoot uspsa comp. pistol because i decided to carry daily.Heck before i moved more of my neighbors were using my tools than me.
Booby traps, work every time. When the crook hurts himself on one of your booby traps, whats he going to do, call the Cops? I don't think so. Be creative with the traps,use razor blades in scrapers screwed to window and door jambs,nails up thru plywood covered with small stones, 110 volts wired up to floor mats, door jambs, window frames. Use your imagination. Cheers
Booby Traps are illeagle, what if a rescue worker trys to get in because you are passed out or hurt. Years ago my shop was next to a frozen food locker and the tweakers would jump down thru the skylights an on to the refer and then raid the refer back up thu the broken skylights. The worker had enough of this and pounded a bunch of nails into a sheet of plywood and placed it under the skylights. One morning he opened up to find blood all over the place and though he did good and taught that tweak a lesson. Three days later the police, a lawyer , and the crook showed up and HE was arrested and the owner sued.
I have all the regular services but with the response time it made me feel uneasy. I set up a red flashing light on the roof off of an old ambulance. Its set off by motion detector and turned on when I leave. The one thing those guys don't like is attention. Alarms and the regular bells and whistles loose their effectiveness after a few false alarms. Flashing lights always draws attention. Im in an industrial area but Im amazed at how many friends and customers keep an eye out for me all hours of the day and night. And the others are right, If they want in there going to get in! Just make it really hard on them! I have gone so far as to not let anyone into the shop that I dont know. Nobody needs to know where the doors and windows are much less where the hand tools are kept at night. I know it sucks but it is our lively hoods and its up to us to us to out smart the Bastards! I leave the radio cranking a lot of nights and rotate which cars I drive home. And I never have regular hours. Some nights I leave at midnight some nights at 4pm. All my work is by appointment only so it works for me. Hang tough and good luck. Think its going to get worse before it gets better!
I think a REALLY loud alarm siren would do the trick. They wouldn't have time to grab anything b/c they would be running to get out of there. I live about 20 miles from the nearest whereof, so I'm in your same boat, gotta check on stuff myself.
Booby traps are a real bad idea, your kids,wife,family or you could forget and get hurt. When I was a kid someone kept stealing my familys firewood until my dad took a small log and drilled out a large hole in it on his drill press and installed two M-1000s and capped it off with sawdust/glue. about a month later our neighbors garage was burnt down when I came home from school. Thank God nobody was killed or burned. The firewood was never stolen again.
I always figured a train horn hooked to a big CO2 bottle and activated by a tripwire would work pretty good. Just would want to put the trigger or control valve sort of out of the way or hidden from sight. Bleeding ears make stuff not worth quite as much!!
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