Workshop security

[white90]

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=111068357

http://defensedevices.com/shotgun-alarm-signal1.html

http://www.airpistol.co.uk/alarm_gun_tripwire_activated.htm

http://www.henrykrank.com/alarm_mine.html

These are useful

may deter

[pinny]

i worked for five years alongside a police dog handler attending many burglaries residential/commercial theives will cut cladding go through walls etc to get what thay want ,make it as hard as possible thay dont want to spend too much time an alarm that is as noisy as possible is a good deterent there is some out there that will make you physically disiorentated ,not trying to tell you to suck eggs but if your alarm is activated dont attend on your own go with someone. cctv is a good deterent just my thoughts chris

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

How about buying specially trained Guard dogs and Cats, these are the ultrarare "Shaolin Kung Fu" trained pets.

See below rare action photo of a pair practising the reverved " Crouching Winalot" technique

Nige

[landroversforever]

When this came up before someone mentioned a setup to trigger a shotgun blank or two!

[pinny]

When this came up before someone mentioned a setup to trigger a shotgun blank or two!

a 12g blank on a tripwire inside a 45 gallon drum makes a good thud

[Turbocharger]

A mate of mine had a container in a farmyard with a lathe, mill etc in it, lovely portable workshop. After several attempted break-ins he increased security each time - padlock became bigger padlock became integral lock inside a 3mm box welded on the door etc.

Finally he got sick of all the messing about, turned the container through 180 degrees and welded a few bars and levers securely onto the closed end to make it look like a door mechanism. The problem seems to have gone away.

As was said above, you're only going to slow them down (and convince them they're working towards something worth having). Smoke and excessive noise is probably the best way to go. If you have a 'net connection up there you could have a webcam and an old PC set to monitor a picture and use a freeware screen grabber to save the image to HDD or the web each time it changes. Won't save your stuff but someone might recognise the scrote who took it.

[Astro_Al]

Thanks again guys. Loads of great ideas.

I am really liking the PIR triggered smoke bombs - if they can't see, they can't steal. As well as the eardrum bursting! Excellent. Fridge, I looked for the 12V triggered smoke, but no luck. Any ideas? All that would slow them down and give me time to get there.

I know I can't keep people out, so its just to delay them really.

White - nice plan, but its not really practical. The floor area is 400 square metres and stuff is spread out all over it. There's no way I could pack everything up each day. Sadly...

Stupid question - can anyone buy 12g blanks, or do you need a licence?

Cheers again! Al.

[FridgeFreezer]

Al - try RS Components #201-3373

[Troddenmasses]

Stupid question - can anyone buy 12g blanks, or do you need a licence?

No licence required, unless you decided to alter it to take a proper cartridge - then you would be in a whole world of hurt - don't. Most gun shops sell them (and the actual sprung part that sets it off)

[white90]

Careful though as a disgruntled thief may decide to torch a place that has caused him annoyance

[WHO?]

my vote goes to the shotgun blank, its worked for my neighbour for quite a while, mind you he has updated to a maze of lazer beams, set above cat height that seems to work very well

[ThreeSheds]

Just talked to a pyrotechnician friend of mine who recommended theatrical flash-bang and smokes. Apparently they are easily available from theatrical suppliers and (he says) as long as the devices are on private land and are not intended to cause injury then you are ok. Must admit I am now thinking along these lines...

[Madcowz]

Just talked to a pyrotechnician friend of mine who recommended theatrical flash-bang and smokes. Apparently they are easily available from theatrical suppliers and (he says) as long as the devices are on private land and are not intended to cause injury then you are ok. Must admit I am now thinking along these lines...

Just need to accidentally leave them close to a bag of nuts and bolts or ball bearings and you could have a rather nice deterrent.

cough

[FridgeFreezer]

The problem with some of the more, ahem, enthusiastic suggestions is that you've got to have a good way of turning it off and preventing it from being triggered accidentally - the last thing you want is to walk into the workshop and have all hell break loose, or have some small animal find its way in and your place light up like bonfire night and wake the whole county up.

You could do a double-cross here - find a reasonably good keyswitch or similar and mount it near the door, perhaps in a wall box with a flashing LED, then leave the box door swinging, the key in the lock and have a label on the switch for "alarm deactivate". Then hide the real switch somewhere less obvious (but easy to get to). The dummy switch could even kick off the proper pyrotechnics as the only person touching it should be a criminal - for example you could have a loud siren that goes off within a few seconds of opening the door, but when the switch is hit the alarm gets louder and the place fills with smoke you'd want it on a latching relay so that once it's been switched it cannot be unswitched

[pinny]

No licence required, unless you decided to alter it to take a proper cartridge - then you would be in a whole world of hurt - don't. Most gun shops sell them (and the actual sprung part that sets it off)

hfm pyrotechnics have plenty of different electrical activated bangs etc 12g blanks all by mail order including military smoke grenades good on a tripwire

[simonr]

The two best ideas I've seen are:

1. Leave your unit as it is, with obviously average security but get a shipping container or similar - and armour it to the teeth with heavy plate, big hinges and more locks than you can shake a stick at.

2. If you have an empty bit of wall outside - make some fake heavy steel doors with near nuclear bunker proportions - and just bolt them to the surface of the wall.

In both cases - the armoured doors will be a more obvious target.

Opposite one of my suppliers, there is a company who makes stuff out of valuable metals. After repeated thefts, they got a shipping container. Filled it with concrete and welded very chunky doors on the front. Undesirables must have spent hours trying to cut through the doors (they left the back and sides untouched bizarrely) and thefts from the unit stopped.

Another place had the fake door on the outside plus the main access door replaced with a knackered old plank door made of holes - no lock or handle. Then on the inside made a door out of a box. When you open the outside door - you just see the interior of the box. It had a urinal and old tins of paint in it - but swung open to gain access to the unit.

Unless you can be able to appear as if by magic with a shotgun - I think the more obvious security you add - the more of a target you become!

[SteveG]

Another place had the fake door on the outside plus the main access door replaced with a knackered old plank door made of holes - no lock or handle. Then on the inside made a door out of a box. When you open the outside door - you just see the interior of the box. It had a urinal and old tins of paint in it - but swung open to gain access to the unit.

Was this in your days of working for U.N.C.L.E fighting Smersh?? ;) ;)

[simonr]

Was this in your days of working for U.N.C.L.E fighting Smersh??

I could tell you but I'd............

Si

[steve_d]

I think smoke is your best defence.

My local Tesco Express has a system fitted that fills the whole store with very dense smoke if the alarm is set off. Once the smoke has been cleared business continues as normal so the smoke itself cannot be harmful or damaging as no stock is replaced apart from the fresh bread etc.

I like the alarm sounder and the deactivate box open as it will go some way to avoid false activation in the course of your normal business. Fit the alarm sounder inside making it very painful to be in there.

Steve

[tacr2man]

Its getting to the point over here where we need to think about a firm I saw in ZA , the names plastered all along the side of their vehicles

CHUBB ARMED RESPONSE

[A Twig]

South Africa's ADT are pretty good, wonder if they'd consider expanding...

[JimAttrill]

With Chubb, read the contract carefully, you may find that they lock you in with penalty clauses. I hardly ever see one of their vehicles so their response time is most likely slow.

I used to use ADT but they were very slow to respond, so I swopped to a smaller local outfit. ADT were originally called ''Armed Response"or something like that but were taken over by ADT (a UK firm I think) and it all went downhill from then on.

Anythng is better than the cops, their response time seems to be about 15hrs.

[rusty_wingnut]

what about mustard gas or something similar, so when thieves break in they get knocked out for say 20mins giving you a chance to get there and tooled up ready to seriously mame them

[will_warne]

The two best ideas I've seen are:

1. Leave your unit as it is, with obviously average security but get a shipping container or similar - and armour it to the teeth with heavy plate, big hinges and more locks than you can shake a stick at.

2. If you have an empty bit of wall outside - make some fake heavy steel doors with near nuclear bunker proportions - and just bolt them to the surface of the wall.

In both cases - the armoured doors will be a more obvious target.

Opposite one of my suppliers, there is a company who makes stuff out of valuable metals. After repeated thefts, they got a shipping container. Filled it with concrete and welded very chunky doors on the front. Undesirables must have spent hours trying to cut through the doors (they left the back and sides untouched bizarrely) and thefts from the unit stopped.

Another place had the fake door on the outside plus the main access door replaced with a knackered old plank door made of holes - no lock or handle. Then on the inside made a door out of a box. When you open the outside door - you just see the interior of the box. It had a urinal and old tins of paint in it - but swung open to gain access to the unit.

Unless you can be able to appear as if by magic with a shotgun - I think the more obvious security you add - the more of a target you become!

I'd agree with Si here - unless you live on sight and can get there ASAP (or are perceived as being able to get there quickly). However, turning up to confront a group of potentially armed people may not be the best option as, even if you have the capacity to give them a bad day the last thing you want is to be facing charges - the law is an ass.

Misdirection is a very powerful tool as its unlikely that all bar very specialist thieves will know exactly where things are on your property. Therefore, something to throw them off the scent (eg false armoured door or container) plus a reliable alarm system to contact you and/or the police is probably the best bet. In reality the only people you can keep out is opportunists - anyone else needs to be fooled or caught quickly.

[rusty_wingnut]

they've only got to watch you to see which part of the workshop you use most to see where your tools are.

I have heard of people trying to misguide thieves and most little pikeys are fooled but the pro's watch your place for days before the robbery, they check when you come and go, what your habits are etc.

I used to work in a shop that sold tools so i spoke to lads with vans, some who had workshops etc. If you leave your tools in a van it's a nightmare, I heard of one van left on a site while the owner went for a drink, when he got back thieves had cut the side door out

Units, normally thieves use bog windows, and I have heard of some coming through roofs. Gates no matter how beefy, can often be broken at where lock plates meet.