Mr. Magpie
08-14-2005, 02:02 PM
I feel so bad for the dudes on here that have gotten their stuff jacked. It's a damn shame that we live in a world where people are totally indifferent to other people's well-being.
My brother and I have been expanding and we have been thinking about theft WAY too much that past several months. And we have talked to many many LCO's in the area about theft. We have been going so far as to begin thinking like thieves so that we can beat them before they get us! We are becoming experts in the field actually!
I want to try and make a list of controllable variables in the fight against theft for the sake of all of us on this board. These are for during work and down time in between shifts. Here it goes, and by all means, feel free to add:
1) Side-access doors on enclosed trailers are vulnerable to force entry. Stay away from them if possible.
2) Covered-shackle locks eliminate the scrub thieves (95% of all thieves) who depend on simple bolt cutters. Combo locks are easy to manage. And remember, popular key locks do not have an infinite amount of differing sets of keys! Thieving bastards everywhere probably have sets and sets of different keys organized by manufacturer.... combo locks rule when used with other options.
3) If you keep your trailer on your residence, it is fairly safe from noise-making theft since you are right inside most of the time at night, and so are your neighbors. Also, there are some new laws about using deadly force on tresspassers, which oughta make thieves think twice. If your trailers are not stored on residence, you need to be that much more secure.
4) Thieves will only break into a trailer if they know what is in it. The less people know what is contained, the better. (We have been considering a magnetic sign that goes up when we aren't cutting, something along the lines of, "Trash Hauling", or "Mess Clean-up". This would repel thieves like flies from citronella.)
5) Consider an alarm on the trailer. Give those bastards a nice little suprise as you run from the backyard with weedwacker in hand, WOT!!
6) Have a crappy looking trailer, so as to not draw attention. If you got an open trailer, spray-paint your equipment assinine bright colors to identify it or dull colors to make it look like hell.
7) Keep a dog chained up in the trailer (preferrably an aggressive style dog)! Train him to go for the nuts.
8) For those who ride solo, keep an inflatable dummy in the passenger seat to "guard" your equipment. Better yet, make it a BIG mean looking dummy! Tinted windows and you can't tell the difference!
9) Overnight at residence, keep trailer hitch locked and rims/wheels locked to the nearest tree or post. With an alarm set (and a glock under your pillow inside), it is as good as Fort Knox.
10) Hire a kid to sit in the truck and guard equipment. Give him a blow horn or something. While he's at it, tell him to keep the equipment full of fuel and such...
11) Parking choice at properties is key. Choose a logical spot with tough ingress/egress from transients. Also, on large commercial props, use multiple staging areas so you are not too far from truck.
12) Keep a shotgun on a rack (locked up of course) in the back of the truck, visible for all to see. Might spook some thieves, who knows!?
13) Keep a surveillance camera pointed towards the truck all day, visible or hidden, during work and afterhours. Possibly two pointed at each other so no one can sneak up on it and break it. There's only one thing better than keeping your equipment safe from thieves..... catching someone stealing it and getting them thrown in jail for it!
14) I thought about electrically energizing all the metal on the rig to shock whoever touches it. Very doubtful if this could ever be a valid idea.....
15) Most thieves are not going to steal your truck with a trailer on it while you are working because it does not make a very good getaway vehicle. Spend your effort on keeping the trailer secure. Certain rural areas this might not apply.
16) Lastly, sawzalls can cut through anything, and quick. You can't hope to have your stuff out on an open trailer locked up on racks and think it is secure. You need more security.
Let's make this thread useful by listing lots of different ideas for us to keep secure. And, of course, this post is begging for some good jokes! Thanks.
My brother and I have been expanding and we have been thinking about theft WAY too much that past several months. And we have talked to many many LCO's in the area about theft. We have been going so far as to begin thinking like thieves so that we can beat them before they get us! We are becoming experts in the field actually!
I want to try and make a list of controllable variables in the fight against theft for the sake of all of us on this board. These are for during work and down time in between shifts. Here it goes, and by all means, feel free to add:
1) Side-access doors on enclosed trailers are vulnerable to force entry. Stay away from them if possible.
2) Covered-shackle locks eliminate the scrub thieves (95% of all thieves) who depend on simple bolt cutters. Combo locks are easy to manage. And remember, popular key locks do not have an infinite amount of differing sets of keys! Thieving bastards everywhere probably have sets and sets of different keys organized by manufacturer.... combo locks rule when used with other options.
3) If you keep your trailer on your residence, it is fairly safe from noise-making theft since you are right inside most of the time at night, and so are your neighbors. Also, there are some new laws about using deadly force on tresspassers, which oughta make thieves think twice. If your trailers are not stored on residence, you need to be that much more secure.
4) Thieves will only break into a trailer if they know what is in it. The less people know what is contained, the better. (We have been considering a magnetic sign that goes up when we aren't cutting, something along the lines of, "Trash Hauling", or "Mess Clean-up". This would repel thieves like flies from citronella.)
5) Consider an alarm on the trailer. Give those bastards a nice little suprise as you run from the backyard with weedwacker in hand, WOT!!
6) Have a crappy looking trailer, so as to not draw attention. If you got an open trailer, spray-paint your equipment assinine bright colors to identify it or dull colors to make it look like hell.
7) Keep a dog chained up in the trailer (preferrably an aggressive style dog)! Train him to go for the nuts.
8) For those who ride solo, keep an inflatable dummy in the passenger seat to "guard" your equipment. Better yet, make it a BIG mean looking dummy! Tinted windows and you can't tell the difference!
9) Overnight at residence, keep trailer hitch locked and rims/wheels locked to the nearest tree or post. With an alarm set (and a glock under your pillow inside), it is as good as Fort Knox.
10) Hire a kid to sit in the truck and guard equipment. Give him a blow horn or something. While he's at it, tell him to keep the equipment full of fuel and such...
11) Parking choice at properties is key. Choose a logical spot with tough ingress/egress from transients. Also, on large commercial props, use multiple staging areas so you are not too far from truck.
12) Keep a shotgun on a rack (locked up of course) in the back of the truck, visible for all to see. Might spook some thieves, who knows!?
13) Keep a surveillance camera pointed towards the truck all day, visible or hidden, during work and afterhours. Possibly two pointed at each other so no one can sneak up on it and break it. There's only one thing better than keeping your equipment safe from thieves..... catching someone stealing it and getting them thrown in jail for it!
14) I thought about electrically energizing all the metal on the rig to shock whoever touches it. Very doubtful if this could ever be a valid idea.....
15) Most thieves are not going to steal your truck with a trailer on it while you are working because it does not make a very good getaway vehicle. Spend your effort on keeping the trailer secure. Certain rural areas this might not apply.
16) Lastly, sawzalls can cut through anything, and quick. You can't hope to have your stuff out on an open trailer locked up on racks and think it is secure. You need more security.
Let's make this thread useful by listing lots of different ideas for us to keep secure. And, of course, this post is begging for some good jokes! Thanks.