My biggest fear (almost) has materialized

"Moshe Eshel" wrote: (clip) I hope this doesn't happen to any of you, ever! ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ It already has, more times than I can remember. You have my sympathy, and thank goodness it wasn't worse. You have to deal with a very important question right now: What are you going to do to prevent a recurrence? I suggest the following:

1. Pass a chain through as many movable tools as possible and padlock them to your lathe. Put your lathe tools and similar inside a metal tool box, and padlock it to the chain.

2. Install a burglar alarm.

1. Beef up the lock on the shed door. My plastic sheds all have plastic locking hardware. I replaced with steel.

Do the easiest stuff first, but do not wait. The thief knows what he left behind and may be back within a few days.

Hi Moshe

I lost a lot of tools and equipment, stolen in several breakins, You can't keep the varmins out if they really want to get in, they take what is easily sold and valuable, if you make your own tools and clearly mark them, they will be harder to sell and worth less, if it is not there they can't take it. So, take, for instance a plastic bucket cut 2 disk, one in the bottom and one to fit higher in the bucket and drill holes in that disk to set in your tools, just take the bucket with tools into your house after your turning session and the other stuff you don't use all the time, chain it all together, like Leo Lightman suggested, or keep it in your house. Noise and light at night are surely not enjoyed by thieves, but can be annoying though when triggered by cats, dogs and falling leaves and whipping branches.

Happened to me once. Two stupid jerks broke a window and got into my shop. Only took a worn out chainsaw. We lived in a gated community with video cameras at the gate. Got their picture going and coming. They were picked up next morning and got the saw back. Still had to repair the window on my own.

Its amazing what a Rotweiler, Doberman or Pitbull will do to deter such a crime. Grandpa John

I agree completely with everything Leo L. said. Over the years as a contractor I have had enough tools stolen from me to fill Home Depot. Get the lights out there, some of the new flourescents cost only pennies a night to have on all night and the bigger ones put out a ton of light. Put the light high enough to be out of reach.

You can buy a motion sensing alarm at Radio Shack very inexpensively, and that would certainly be a great addition to your arsenal of prevention. I cannot imagine sneaking around in the dead of night an then have a screaming alarm go off in a confined space. I would probably run for it.

I second what Mssr. Vanderloo said about marking the tools. You can buy woodburning brands from different companies for about $80, and they can put two lines of clear text in brass for you. These brands will burn wood (tool handles), melt plastic, do all kinds of other neat, permanent things. One of the hospitals here in town uses one to burn their name and contact number on the cases of their mobile medical machines they take from room to room.

The last demo I went to that we all took a bunch of our personal stuff to use was the first one I went to that nothing disappeared, got lost or misplaced. Each tool was clearly marked:

"This tool was stolen from Robert L. Witte - Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX"

Something to consider.

Sorry about your loss - it just makes you sick when that happens to you.

Robert

Thanks for all your advice. I will definitley put up flood lights (started by motion detection), and will find some noise creating thingy to be set if someone opens (or tries to open) the door. Another thing I will try is to lock-up as much as possible, the fact being that I can't really anchor anything to the floor (plastic). But at least chain light things to heavier ones.

About the marking thing, I don't know - I don't think the people stealing my stuff actualy care about that - they just take, and if later they find they can't use it they just leave it where it is (they don't bring it back). Actually on the same night the my stuff was stolen, other people were also robbed - but some of the stuff was just left behind in some persons backyard (none of mine). But I might jsu mark them for the heck of it...

It really comforts to get all the support from you guys - I knew when I started that this could be a problem, but I think that nothing is worth the satisfaction of accomplishing what you want - even if it is a little discouraging. I will prevail :-)

Assuming that Israeli is similar to the US, most break ins like yours are done by kids... They don't know what's valuable and what isn't.. just what looks "cool" to steal..

All the security suggestions are good, but the least expensive might be a length of chain long enough to go around your shed and a padlock... If that isn't enough, there isn't much else you can do, with out spending a lot of money or hurting someone...

It's been my experience that locks only keep kids and less-than-honest folks out... the "professionals" will get into wherever they need to..

Mac

SNIP .............. ===============

Check with your power company for lighting. The local power company here and at my last residence provide mercury vapor lights for about $6.00 ea/ month. They come on at dusk and off at dawn, provide a LOT of light, and since they're mounted on the power pole, they're plenty high to prevent vandalism (guns excluded) and give good coverage. In areas out of their coverage, you can mount all weather flood lights. The 50 watt versions give good lighting at a modest cost. They can be set up with a motion detector/alarms or "dusk on-dawn off" light sensors. Besides the burglar repellant effect, my wife likes the extra security she feels when going to/from the car in the dark. HTH.

Ken Moon Webberville, TX.