Topic: stealing from your shed

[moment]

is there really no way you can stop anyone stealing from your locked allotments sheds?what about rigging around it with an electric fence they use in horses fields-is this legal does anyone know or has anyone got any better ideas --all welcome!

[spudsmummy]

i would like to hear some ideas,
i had my petrol mower stolen last week and some one has been in there this week and messed it all up, thrown tools around the place  >:( >:( >:(

[saddad]

If there was I'm sure it would have caught on by now....  :(

[Larkshall]

Plan to be very, very untidy, the more tools that are chucked in and criss/crossed the better, particularly sharp edge tools. I have also rigged an alarm to the door which uses a motor horn and 12v battery (that should scare the B's off)

Earlier this year I had the lock cut through (with bolt croppers) and all they could reach without going in was a 50m extension cable reel (the shed was very untidy). After that I fitted the alarm (that will wake all the neighbours).

[tonybloke]

Most sheds are flimsy structures made of wood,!!! come on folks,don't store anything worth stealing in it.!! Locks only keep honest people out. ;) and the destruction of the shed door is really a pain, (I've had mine broken into 3 times in last 4 years) so now I do have a lock on it, but a good pull will dislodge the lock, without wrecking the door too much
and not too tidy inside, as larkshall said, plenty of trip hazards

[bridgehouse]

On my allotment site we can't have sheds for the very reason that they would be broken into. I take all my tools home with me .
There is always some low life who will steal given the chance.
Sorry to hear your petrol mower was stolen spudsmummy.
          June.

[moment]

Plan to be very, very untidy, the more tools that are chucked in and criss/crossed the better, particularly sharp edge tools. I have also rigged an alarm to the door which uses a motor horn and 12v battery (that should scare the B's off)

Earlier this year I had the lock cut through (with bolt croppers) and all they could reach without going in was a 50m extension cable reel (the shed was very untidy). After that I fitted the alarm (that will wake all the neighbours).

thanks for that larkshall, but i am wondering now --will a meyal shed be a better deterent? :-X ::)

[saddad]

"Touch Metal" they have always left mine alone... don't know why the lock's cr*p ....  :-\

[Bjerreby]

Ever wondered why electric fences are hung on isolators? An electric fence is easy to disable. Just connect it to the ground and for the intruder's practical purposes it is switched off. Doing this could conceivably start a fire too.

Anyway, be careful with anything that can cause an intruder harm, because you could find yoursef on the wrong end of legal action. You have an obligation under law to make sure people are not harmed by anything you do.............even if they are stealing from you............I am sure a legal expert can explain it better than I, but we have a different set up in the UK to, say, the USA :D

[Mr Smith]

The US do have a better system they just shoot the *fatherless children*, ;)

[redimp]

Shoot someone for stealing a mower or a spade?  I am so glad that the world is not in the incapable hands of Saddam Smith.

[ChrisBro]

Shoot someone for stealing a mower or a spade?  I am so glad that the world is not in the incapable hands of Saddam Smith.

Ha ha ha that brought a grin to my mush after a truly freadful day!!!!!

Anyhow I can understand peoples frustrations fully, the best advice I think is dont leave anything in ther you would be gutted to lose, hard to do though I would be gutted losing some of my small tools than the big ones lol, before you know it you will be taking everthing home and that just isnt practical really.

I like the alarm idea but doubt the neighbours would be very pleased with a car horn going off all night, especially the ones with young children.

Sadly there isn't an awful lot you can do if someone wants to steal they will, cant you raise it with your committee if you have one see at getting some cctv maybe? for the whole site? Its probably kid's, the tearaway hoodie generation, sadly there doesn't seem to be any taming them.

Maybe a good old fashioned german shephard? That should do the trick :)

Sorry about your losses and the best of luck :)

[Heartysoup]

Sometimes it's the lock itself that encourages break-ins: the bigger the lock the more booty it seems there must be. I never store anything of value in the shed and never lock it, if they want my canes and netting they can have it !

[Baaaaaaaa]

Me too. Never lock it and never keep anything valuable in it - just pots, string, canes etc.

The buggers that do come on to our lottie never even bother looking in my shed, whilst other have had to replace shed doors.

Metal sheds - dont bother opening the door, just lift 'em up to see whats inside, they ain't heavy and wont collapse if touched.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

the bloke on the plot next to mine had his shed broken into last weekend. He goes by the untidiness principle. He did have some stuff nicked, but he couldn't work out what it was.   :D On the other hand only Harry Houdini could have extricated anything valuable

[Mr Smith]

Redclanger,
                Don't you have a go at me after all this time, my sister moved to the US in 1953 long before you got involved in your sixth form politics and when you were still under  the cabbage leaf in the back waters of Lincolnshire,  she did shoot a person for coming on to her property while her husband was  away serving in Vietnam fortunately for the person that tried to rape my sister he did not get a good Lancashire Clogging  in the bargain off our kid before the cops arrested the subhuman 'If Ya get mi drift man', ;)

[spudsmummy]

i can see your point about taking things home with you but i live in a flat on the 4th floor and dont fancy carrying everything up and down with me every time. i have only got a few hand tools down there and i wouldnt be to bothered if the took them i would just go down the car boot and replace them. it was just the fact that they took the mower, i had only had it a few days and not even had a chance to use it yet. it was well covered behind boxes and all sorts of stuff, lol. it has never had a lock on it but it has 4 slide bolts (it was a free shed and these came with it)
i have to keep my shed tidy has i have a 2 year old who comes to the allotment with me every time. i am thinking about rigging it up with some kind of alarm to give the B*****s a fright when the open the door lol

[Oldhippy]

'I`d just go down to the car boot and replace them'

That`s where the little so and sos go to sell them.  ::)

[tomatoada]

Mr Smith.  I love your turn of phrase man.  I feel like shooting the young kid who carjacked me at the allotment gate 4 years ago.  But then I would have to live with having taken a human life .  I have moved to another safer site, but still very careful going in and out.

[Borlotti]

We are not allowed sheds on the allotment but I have a Council locker in a locked Council shed which is quite useful.  Mostly I hide the spade that I use all the time and the watering cans in redcurrant or gooseberry bush so they are not visible.  Then have to spend time remembering where I hid them and do an allotment search. Did have a petrol mower and rotavator that we bought off ebay and travelled miles to collect, used once, and they were both stolen from a rented garage.  They broke the door.  We have since replaced them and they are kept at home in a large garden shed (also off ebay) which means I have lost half of my small back garden.