rule number one .....bar your windows....especially if you have a large pane of glass....dont make it easy on them rule number two.......upgrade your alarm...... rule number three........have your system monitored,just because you have an alarm ....if its not monitored it isnt worth wasting your time installing it.......... three..............if you have tools ...lock them away,dont just leave your high dollar stuff laying around............ four.............keep your place well lit up at night...even leave some lights on inside...... five..........get your business insured ....very very important...if you do get robbed of all your costly possesions you can get enough money back to replace these things.......................... i hope these technical tips of ''how to secure your shop'' tips do everyone some good.........just remember to be secure you never know when a crickie is gonna get ya................................
six choose your location carefully seven (or maybe first) keep on good terms with your neighbors and watch out for them, they will watch out for you.
Well spoken RRF! From a man that has learned the hard way. Don't forget to have a cell phone backup,that works even if the lines are cut. I have a GermanB.M.F. security system at home.. B.M.F. German shepperdSparkxxx
I have a couple of German Shepherds inside my 5 ft chainlink fence. We live on a main road so the fence deters people from just wandering up to the shop and looking around. The GS keeps people from looking through the fence and act like a warning after dark. I posted a couple of signs saying the property is patrolled by German Shepherd Inc. My dogs would prolly just try and hump their leg but they don't know and most people don't wanna risk it. My Rat terrier is the one that will bite em.....right above the ankle.
Rule number 13: Go around looking and acting like a homicidal maniac so people are afraid you'll hack their head off with a machete and mail it to their mom. Chainsaws make too much noise. JOE
Tip #7 , have so much stuff and so condensed & cluttered that they don't have any idea what to steal, and couldn't get it out without moving 22 things anyway
I found a really cool tool that I use in my antique shop out back. It pretty cheap too. Its a motion sensor that sends off a alarm at a receiver in the home. I use this when the shops open and I have an occasional customer come in when I'm in the house. It immediately lets me know something is moving in there. I use it at night too when its locked up. Any alarm in the house and the shotgun comes out at night.
Alot of people turn off the interior lights so no one can look in & see what there is to steal. The problem is, when the thief is in there stealing stuff, the cops can't look in & see them, either. If a neighbor happens by & sees someone moving around thru the lit-up window when there isn't supposed to be anyone there, the neighbor can contact you and/or the authorities.
I had a very expensive break-in a long time ago. If it happens again I'll post the newspaper article about it, if I'm not in custody because of the outcome. At that time I'll walk you through my "system" Frank
Here's what I learned from a friend who owns a landscaping company with chronic thief problem. Tip #8 Know your enemy. The person stealing from you may be a client or, most likely, an employee, ex employee or employee's friend. Keep a suspicious eye out. Tip #9 He'll be back! The robber knows that, after he steals from you, you'll replace your stuff with brand spanking new stuff. Be very carefull after a first robery, the next one might be closer than you think.
i like side by sides: rocksalt on one side and broken glass on the other...i thought it was a cow eatin the corn, honestly, officer.
I'm a big fan of the BMF German Shepard, personally. If 175 lbs. of pissed off dog doesn't take care of you, 6 rounds from the Mossberg sure will.
I found taking my wolf and 2 pitbulls on a walk all by myself lets thieves know they are REAL. REAL big. REAL mean. REAL hungry.
Most folks that think their dogs are tough are wrong. Pets cant protect, they like humans. I can walk into your place with a couple steaks and a semi dead cat and make those pooches my pals any day.
Even if a person cant go in, tossing the same steak poisoned will fix up the dogs. My neighbors dogs have been shot with guns, crossbows and also poisoned. He wont get any more. The well trained dogs wont eat the stuff you bring, though. you can do all the aforementioned things, and if Cracky really wants your stuff, he'll get it. Just dont be lazy and let him have an easy time of it. And if you catch him, kill him, or he'll be back.
Maybe you can, but if you can't NICELY throw that dead cat about 200 feet without startling the dogs, they WILL bark. I WILL grab my gun. I WILL decorate my block walls with any intruders blood. I MAY go to jail if the cops don't buy that "serial numbers ground off the gun in your hand story" (its an old 22 we ground down "just in case") OR if my dogs cant dispose of the body before the cops come. Also, one neat little trick I have in store for guys. My block wall is wired for shock. It is not on normally, so if a kid touches my wall, he wont get shocked. HOWEVER, once you jump over my block wall and get near the shops sensors, when the lights come on all the way around the shop, the fence goes LIVE. Then you become the "belle of the ball" Last guy did manage to jump my fence without the dogs going outside to investigate, until the lights and buzzer came on. Then he couldn't get back over the fence. The court said my dogs were "protecting the safety and property of its owner" and the judge smiled at the lights rig, as it was LEGAL.
Neat idea S,R,I,!! I almost spewed my coffee when I read 'the belle of the ball" statement!! May I use your idea? Between the B.M.F. shep. and a high livewire'act' The NEXT Breakerinnerlowlifecrackhead,will be the last here. Sparky (zapp,zapp)
I have nice big fat re-bar welded over my two back windows. The one window has holes in the bars no larger than a sheet of looseleaf paper. Some skinny punk kid was actually small enough to slip through the window and broke in about 10 months ago. I can barely fit my head through the hole! The local cops busted him on a tip from one of his "buddies" who got pinched for something else. The kid that broke into my place was busted for about 10 or more breakins. Yet they still have not given me my stuff back nor sent me the restitution paperwork they said they would 6 months ago. He is still out on bail and has not been charged. This really pisses me off!!!
Having cameras hooked up to a video backup that does time lapse is a great thing as well. A friend has his shop set up so he can check on his guys during the day, and all around his shop. He had a theif hop the fence, get past the dogs, and just break a bunch of stuff. The cops were able to figure out who the guy was from the pictures.
Yeah, shooting them is a great idea...but off the movie screen, a couple of those smiley face signs that say "Smile, You're being video taped" posted next to doors and windows, along with a security system sign will be a big deterrent. Planting some very thorny bushes under your windows is also a great idea. I've got roses under a window--no way I'm going to crawl through those to try and peek into a window. Motion sensors to hook up to floodlights at the corners of the building are also a good idea. Generally, I think you're typical crack-head out looking for an easy score is more of a concern than a professional burglar. The pros will get your stuff, you can only make it hard for them. The crack-head is lazy, looking for an easy score, and doesn't want to get hurt or caught. Lots of lights, lots of thorns, leave the radio and a couple lights on. The point about an employee was a good one--I've got a friend who owns a feed and hardware store. They had some problems, and after a gun got stolen he finally told the cops he thought it was a 17 year old kid that worked for him. It was. Employees will know your patterns, habbits, what you have, and what a building's weaknesses are. -Brad
And then there is the shop at home. Garage door openers are very handy provided the code was changed by the installer from the all zeros the factory sets them to. Check yours and change it every once in a while. Watch out for the cruizers, who travel neighborhoods with a garage door opener checking to see what they can open and then steal. I installed a switch on the power to the garage door opener. When I go to bed at night, I shut the power off. No power, NO open. If we're gone for a couple of days, no power. Yeah I have to get out and let myself in the house before I can put the car away, but things are safer. Its a little thing but every little bit helps. Also, the garage door is down except for when it NEEDS to be open. If the thieves can't see in, its harder to see something desireable to steal. I'll soon add a buzzer to the garage door power circuit for inside the house. That way if the garage door opens, I'll know it inside the house. Yeah, the tool boxes are locked when I'm not in the garage using them. I do have to work on a way to secure them to something solid, so the whole box can't be carried away. Any other ideas?
a hunk of plate bolted to the floor with a big ring out it.....run a cable between all the boxes on the bottom side to the floor mount. all you need to do is put a slot in the bototm of the box to drop a ring through that is welded to a plate. you could padlock them since it will be a pain of a time trying to use bolt cutterd under a loaded toolbox. this way you can easily mox them about when needed by reaching under and unlocking them
i was thinking back to when i used to work in a bike shop and we had the main window busted out. The guy the pd sent over to clean out the mess was this guy with like 3 stubby fingers. he mentioned some cool stuff to help stop guys from coming through windows. Get plate glass windows installed (not safety...but real plate glass) but you can get them mylar coated, apparently when you smash this shit it all hangs together, you can beat it with a sledge and it will just keep breaking into smaller pieces, but it will flex and absorb the impacts. and cause plate glass doesn't crack like safety, there are usually lots of large pieces that are still left in the frame (keeps it in place) don't bother with coating safety glass in mylar, cause it cracks up and then you can just push it out also for garage door openers, wire in a kill switch (although not convienient for day to day, works great for vacations and sleep at night) my personal favorite for attractive theft abatement, is a bouganville vine/ plant (make sure you get the one with the big thorns: 2 - 3" fuckers and they grow like pretty quick too.) they are attractive, but are a mess when you are trying to get through one. so dont plant it anywhere you plan on having to access.
Feel free. What I did was go down to the "co-op" or anywhere that sells cattle guard equiptment. Instead of using the thin lil wire that comes with it, I bought the strongest shocker and changed the wire to a solid 10 gauge. I ran two wires. One on top of the block wall and one just below the surface on the backside. I added the backside wire, because someone clipped the top wire once. V the wires so that if one is clipped they still make the circut. Then the EASIEST way is to just buy one of those "light socket plug in adapters" and plug your shocker into it. The kid (18) that came to the "ball", jumped the fence, came up to the door and the lights came on. I also have a buzzer (like a doorbell chime) that comes on in my house, the dogs beat me outside (they use the doggie door, I have to grab a gun and run through a real door, not a fair race), by the time I got there, they already had him to the concrete and he was a mess. Of course I called my dogs off as soon as I could (well maybe I coulda been a bit faster,lol). Held him there at gunpoint (didn't need it by that time at all), called the cops. They arrested him (after laughing their asses off at my setup/story). He was convicted. He filed a civil suit from my dog attack and "security system" claiming he "fell over my block wall on accident" (yea, I fall over 7' walls almost daily, I felt him). Judge said that he "felt I did react in a timely matter according to the situation on removing the dogs" ( I think he actually meant "I woulda let them keep chewing for awhile"). As for the fence, he said Arizona does have a law that you can not electricute a fence, in case a police officer or fire person needs access, but then pointed out that my fence will not directly kill or even imobilise a person, just make it so they don't want to climb back over. If you had enough time to react to the dogs comming towards you, you can climb back over (hurts like hell, but) but people hear the dogs, run to the fence, get that heavy ZAP and it startles them long enough that the dogs get there. Feel free to use it, best $100> I ever spent.
Thanks man. In a related incident I had a proprieter,that had a graffitti artist that frequented his buissness. We wired a motion light,along with the sprinkler system switch. When it's 3;am and the lights go on,and you,and the block wall are soaking wet,you drop the rattle cans,and run home to 'mommy' ha ha ha . Perhaps the sprinkler idea would help with the 'livewire' act also Sparkxx
LMAO, I used to have it wired to a "mist stystem", but was told by one of my cop buddies that might be a bit too much. The point is to keep him there for the party, not to kill him.
SRI is my new security hero! No poser "I'd do this and that to the guy if I hear someone out there" bullshit. Glad the judge was a decent sort o' guy, too. Too many stories of badguys tripping on a roller skate in your house or being eaten by your dog in your house and then winning their court case. For securing your tool boxes: I drilled a hole in the bottom of my Craftsman chest, and put a big Eye-bolt with huge washer on it. Through the eye, I ran a short length of chain, that gets bolted to the floor with a lag screw. A piece of strap bolted to the back of a chest and top box will secure those two pieces together. Just don't leave your bolt cutter in plain sight. Or even in the shop. Walk to the house or basement when you need it. -Brad
Have your friends drive by your place and watch for activity. I always drive by my friends places and look . You will know who belongs and who does not.To help keep out recon patrols of theifs I have several signs that say keep out and if you dont know the owner by first name keep out. I also act like a crazy person to anyone who I dont know. I also lock to gates when I am working. Several times when I go to leave some one has had a breakdown and blocked my driveway. So I call the police and have them impound the car.I will buy a cattle shocker the next time I am in a supply house..one last thing if I am dressed I am armed..
The Jalopy Journal
