I've got thieves

I would leave plently of strongly worded letters posted around your property, that will scare them off. Oh and use red ink it, that means business.

 

Get a big alligator,and don't feed it.You might have to put some longjohns on it though.

 

Forget dogs. People torment dogs and can be cruel to dogs.

Get some Jehovah's Witnesses!

 

go to walmart and get a few of these, just set them up and then you will have pic's for the cop's
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Moultrie-Game-Spy-D-55IR/14972098

 

One thing about the booby traps. I don't know about canada but in the US they are a big no no. If anyone is injured on your property by a trap regardless of their motives you are in big doodoo. And should police ever have to serve a search warrant and one of them gets injured....say goodbye to freedom for a long time.

One creative thing I read on a heavy equipment site was from a guy who was having problems with people joyriding his equipment. He was a techie and set up pressure switches in the seats of his equipment linked to laser pointers in the trees. When someone sat on the seat the laser pointer came on pointed at their chest. Anyone with intelligence would figure out the gag eventually but I guess someone did piss their pants in one of his big loader seats.

 

How about a bright flood light with motion sensor, rats, ####roaches and thieves don't like light...

 

now we are cookin' with gas!

they would scare anyone off

 

"Radio Shack sells fake security camara's"

to go with that, put them on a used 40FT telephone pole with a couple of old rubber duckie cellphone antennas painted white and sticking up from a box. -a little white metal box you can make up from a dead car stereo amp which you gut and cover over the ends where all the holes are, and paint gloss white, and a fake solar panel made of a 1x1FT metal plate painted with a square of metallic blue on one side. Add a few black cables such as scraps of RG-8 and RG-59 from piece to piece. Put a big ### lens (off an old camcorder?) on the one pointed at the back of the storage trailer so it looks like a close-up. and another longer lensed camera pointed at the entrance and driveway. You can even embellish by finding an old 440MHz ham beam antenna, repainting it to hide the rust, and aiming it towards the nearest telephone company building or city hall. Instead of RS fake cameras that every crackhead knows about, find some 'real' cameras that are deceased or quite old. $5 at a junk sale. Think of this as a do-it-yourself scale model.

If you want to go high tech, put a real solar panel and 6 amp-hour gel-cel with solar controller up there, and wire it to LEDs on the cameras. For night use, put a green LED inside the lens of the close-up camera to make them think it is night vision because they are so ignorant that they would think the green glow deep inside the lens means something, due to their sitting on the couch eating chips and watching cops and military shows.

put a motion detector up that operates a strobe flash about once a couple minutes. arrange for a beeping sound by using a 'sonalert'. some electronics buddy of yours might help.

Lastly there are real life lowlight cameras that will record for hours on a 4GB flash card, and can be activated by a motion detector.

They can't reach any of it, can't get a decent look at it, and will assume it is a wireless surveillance they can not avoid, and assume they have already been seen by the time they see it and they will leave. Theives hate cameras because they always get "caught on tape" one way or another.

Just don't make it look too hokey, don't add everything mentioned, think minimalistic, as if you are paying hard cash for the gear you are representing. Just random thoughts to get creative on how to fool them.


A better solution is to put an old mobile home there and let a somewhat trustworthy but belligerent redneck live there. Leave him an old pump shotgun and some ammo, and make sure the shotgun has a tactical light on it. He can also feed the dog.

 

Don't get one with a flash and put it really high up, they will definetly steal it too if they know there pic is on there.

 

As the owner of 46 acres in the middle of no where I can tell you a thing or two that worked for me...

Background.
I was building a 'Farm' from the 'Pocket', so I didn't have huge finance fees and contractor costs in the process.

I purchased a 24' truck body and shipping container for 'Secure' storage.

I quickly found out they weren't 'Secure' enough!

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RULE #1.
It's usually 'Locals' that are doing the stealing/vandalism.

The local clowns are the ones that know about the place and have knowledge about the times you are there, when you aren't, and have access to vehicles/tools used to break in.

These guys are usually the local 'Meth Heads' and down right scum.
Anything they can steal for dope is fair game to them.

Contact the 'Honest' people around, ask them to keep an eye on the place. Grant hunting rights to the ones that are willing to patrol the area.
Once they feel this is 'Their' land too will be the ones to keep track of the area.

RULE #2.
RESTRICT ACCESS.
Gates, rocks, fences, ect. will make it difficult to even get to your stuff, and put obstacles in the path of anyone trying to cart your stuff away.

I personally put up a gate at a 'Choke' point (Deep ditches on both sides) and then put a 'Tire Killer' in the path.
The tire killer was nothing more than a board with sharpened bolts sticking up through it.
Found several of the bolts bent, and the board moved several times,
But also saw where several tires had been changed.

Once it's found, move it to a different location.
You can kill tires LEGALLY! (around here, don't know about other places).
And I killed several over about a 6 month period.

Started checking around at the tire stores locally, and found where two vehicles in particular were having tires replaced regularly...
Which lead the local county Sheriff to keep an eye on the owners.

Using paint markers works also, see below...

RULE #3.
What they can't see, they can't steal.

HIDING your stuff keeps it safe.
I put my truck body up on blocks, put in some underpinning, and hid my small, expensive stuff UNDER the van body with no visible access to it.
They broke INTO the box several times, but never looked UNDER the body.

I built a work bench with lower shelf, and hid several small power tools UNDER the bottom shelf.
They never got touched in three different break-ins.
The stuff ON the lower shelf got gone through, but the stuff UNDER the shelf never got stolen or moved around.

RULE #4.
SECURITY.
Along with the 4 locks on the shipping container,
I welded a honkin' large bar ACROSS the doors.
Used a 'Arms Room' security lock on it.
They had to deal with that arms room lock and security pocket on that bar before they could even begin to attack the locks on the doors.

RULE #5.
MOTION SENSOR LIGHTS/SIREN!
Used a Harbor Freight solar panel to charge an old car battery,
Wired motion sensor lights and siren to the battery.

Lights and loud noises unnerve potential thieves.
When your 'Honest' neighbors know what the siren is, they will let the police know when the siren goes off...

Radio Shack sells a security kit that will even call a phone number, even a cell phone, when the system goes off.

The problem with that was deer kept setting the thing off in my case...
Cameras hidden in the light housings caught several pictures of the thieves looking right into the lights at close range!
Which FINALLY lead to evidence even the local cops couldn't ignore.

RULE #6.
I found out that you CAN NOT do anything that will harm a human, not even paint marking.
I did rig a 'Paint Marker' using CO2 to power it (Can't use anything explosive), to paint the offenders vehicle to make it easier to identify.

My 'Tire Killers' were 'Questionable', but taking action against a vehicle on a closed, gated, posted driveway passed around here...
I'm not sure it would in every case in every state, but around here, I got away with it.

I used both travel path and overhead paint markers to do this, but I started noticing 2 vehicles in particular that had signs of bright orange paint, along with fresh 'Rattle Can' paint on the areas that got coated.

Not 'Proof' to the local cops, but since it was the same vehicles that had a lot of flat tires, and later I got pictures of the same vehicle owners (plus others) at the container, the evidence finally piled up enough even the local cops couldn't ignore it.

I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH!
If you decide to use 'Counter Measures', make SURE you give type, locations and ways to circumvent your counter measures to the police and the neighbors you trust to watch/use the place!

If you give permission to ANYONE to enter the property,
And they sustain damage,
YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DAMAGES!

PERSONAL INJURIES ARE A CRIMINAL OFFENSE, AND THE STATE WILL PURSUE THEM!

You can NOT inflict injuries, including painting the offenders!
(Ask me how I found that out!)

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Motion sensors are cheap, easy to install and pretty effective.
Wired to sirens, lights and motion sensor cameras you should be able to defeat all but the most determined thieves.

Mounting the cameras at ground level is pretty useless...
I had them stolen or destroyed before I put them up out of easy reach.

WHERE you mount the cameras is essential.
I finally welded a metal box on the top of the shipping container and hid the camera inside, while making the box look like a mount for the lights/motion sensors.
When the lights came on, the idiots looked right into the camera!

The best camera I had captured the LICENCE PLATE of the vehicle without the occupants knowing they were photographed!
I mounted it on the hinge post of the entry gate.
Since they only messed with the lock side, they never saw the camera on the hinge side, and it snagged photos of the plates and the buttholes getting into/out of the vehicle when they closed the gate behind them!

For some reason, the police figured the plate numbers were more important that the FACES of the thieves!

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Vehicle security is a real issue.
I left a tractor out there with a backhoe on it, and it was vandalized more times than I can count.
I never left a passenger vehicle out there, didn't want it vandalized.

Everything from the idiots cutting the wiring/hoses on it to trying to burn it down where it sat.
I don't know what to tell you about vehicles unless you can secure them in a container or something like that.

I spent the night out there a few times, and never snagged anyone doing anything stupid.
The most I saw was local neighbors hunting mushrooms and one guy squirrel hunting.

These guys are so random it's VERY hard to catch in the act since their exposure time is short and you can't be there for long periods.

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Since I now have power (Solar Cells) and the garage built, and lots of lights, fences, gates, ect. up, I haven't had any problems...
But I'm out at the shop a lot more now, and that just can't be a bad thing.

We are working on the house, mostly poured concrete, but I have 'Kid' tracks in some of the concrete,
Meaning the local 'Kids' were out there right after we poured concrete and left!
I wouldn't have thought there were enough 'Kids' in the area to be screwing around out there, but the facts prove me wrong!

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One of the most effective things I've done is to put up my rifle targets up on the property, with the range to the target (Example: Target with "150 Yards" written on it) in all directions from the storage container and shop.
Once they see the human shaped target with the face shot out of it and the range marked on it, they think twice!

Now you have to remember, I DID NOT shoot the targets in place, and in fact some of the holes were poked in them with an ink pen, but the point was made!
(Try explaining that to the police when they show up!)

By rotating the cameras, tire killers (They only work a few times anyway before the thieves start looking for them) things like lights, noise makers (Truck air horns or 'Train Horns' work pretty well if you can come up with them cheap), paint markers, and deterrents like targets with holes punched in them,
Expanding circles of security, like several gates at choke points and extra locks/security on your storage makes it more trouble than it's worth to break in...

Spending the night out there with your vehicle hidden helps also, let people KNOW you are out there...
The THREAT of someone being present at any given time (Like making sure you eat locally and tell people you were out there TRYING to catch the thieves), that information travels VERY FAST in rural communities.