[karlooben]

i had a really really bad night last night an thanks to that i am now stepping up security in the run.

the allotment site behind my house got robbed again last night at around 9pm { last time they hit us at 12 midnite } - 3 times now i mite add.
 we had a phone call at 10 am from a plot holder who lives at the entrance to the lane an he said the main gate was open so him myself an my lodger got the torches out an we went checking the site in the pouring rain an wind to find each an every shed was busted open an lawn mowers etc were missing , they also got in our back garden again but failed to get into the shed which after the last time is like fort knox i can  tell you .

i must of scared them when i turned my bedroom lights on  but i was so so scared that the chickens had been stolen but thankfully their gate an run was fine but i really really think they will be back . they stole a jcb wood shredder from my neighbours garden shed and left that by the main gate to the site so i reckon they were coming back for it . i have a gut feeling they will be back very soon possibly even tonight or the weekend like they did before an we know its the same ppl.

so tomorw a cctv unit will be going up on the chicken house so i can hopfully derter  them from taking my girls , god forbid if that ever happened i would be gutted . it is a fake one but its better then nothing and i was also going to think about putting up a laser beam alarm thing that could go across the gate to the run at shoulder height that could go of in the house  but they are quite expensive .

as like before my dogs never barked that i dont understand .

[bunch29]

Thats awful
I suppose the police are no help either ! do you think they would go for the girls i dont suppose they would know how to handle them or what to do with them, or have they stolen chooks in the past ?
Its reall that you have to go to such extremes just to grow some fruit and veg hope they dont come back tonight.
x

[sunshineband]

Feel for you. You can get alarms to ut on gates etc that go off really loud if disturbed -- might make them run, or alert the dogs at least.

Best of luck

[agapanthus]

Is there not a magic item that is tripped by a beam and sets off a sound like dogs barking?? I'm sure I read about one somewhere

[karlooben]

i have looked at all alarms etc  but the ones which have a long range are very expensive . i was thinking of putting bells on top of the gate or something similar so that if the gate is opened they will make one hell of a racket an i hope that would scare them of .
i doubt the girls wont get nicked but u never know nowadays ppl will take anything .

but i have to be carefull if i am to use something that will make a noise as the other day when i had my woodchips deleived the guy pressed  the button for the back of the truck to tip an it made a beep beep type noise well the girls totally pooed themselves an they litterally flew into the house they were that scared. and no the police were not interested although the last time we were hit they turned up but thats only cause we disturbed the burglars in the act  though we never saw them in the dark, as the shed alarm went of i was downstairs in the garden within 20 secs , so they had only just gone out the gate and the police turned up saying they had a choice come to us or go to a noisy party complaint so they choose us ,,lmao .

[chooknewbie]

i know how you feel re the break ins... i have been hit twice on the lottie....thankfully i dont keep anything in my shed anymore....in fact  i dont even lock it anymore...its too much of a nightmare trying to fix it....i am tempted to get one of those signs that vans have on them...nothing left in the shed overnight... its the girls down there i worry about...although the only birds that went missing from our lotties were fighting cocks apparently... (wasnt aware they were legal)...

I did see something in my parents shooting mag that looked like an interesting idea... its a trip wire attached to a machine that fires blanks when its tripped....if i didnt think my chooks would have a heart attack then it would be very tempting... apparently it is sold as a fox/burglar scarer..frightener..sort of thing...cant remember exactly.... wasnt too expensive either..

[karlooben]

i mite look into that for our back garden gate that leads onto the site , i am sitting here now just waiting for something to happen and its spooky. i had to go out there at about 6,30 pm tonite as i could not remeber locking the run door but i did as i placed soemthing in front of the lock so in the morning i will know if anything or anyone has been close by .i got to the back gate locked out into the dark turned went back in doors an got my dog lmao :lol:i got scared .

[chooknewbie]

lol...that would be me.... how are they getting onto your lotties?  apparently here they think that the people theiving have gotten hold of a copy of our gate key, so now after 9.15 the gates have another lock on until 6.15 in the morning...anyone wanting access between those times has to get in touch with the secretary....

if you want i will get hold of the mag..assuming they still have it...and get you the details of that alarm..have had a look online but havent been able to find anything as yet 

[peapod]

Not sure if you have one, but what about a few high wattage lights that are triggered when someone gets too close to them?

[arrowni]

That's terrible, sad thing is they will just keep on doing it. Maybe the best alarm would be yourself and a few neighbours with a couple of baseball bats lying low in the alotment.

[Stree]

Call the police, get a crime number, and make sure everyone else from the allotment does the same. This will nudge the crime figures up and they  just have to catch  probably two, thieves and how many crimes will they then be able to report as solved? It will be in their interest to sort it out so they reach the targets, apart from it being their duty to do so anyway...
and dont spend on alarms, dummy alarms, etc, the bad 'uns know all about deterrents, and will ignore or disable them

[andreadon]

yes, they all know what a dummy is as well, just tkaing one look.

We've got bright halogen lights that go on - it's a PIR, which I think detects light/shade.

If you got a real cctv camera, you could hook it up to your telly and watch the chickens when you're in the house for fun - it'd be like the chickencam.co.uk.  It would be more of an investment especially if it catches the crooks in action.

[karlooben]

the last breakin we had  was bad they took everything from ppls shed , also they done my house shed and took our £300 strimmer but as they were doing that we must of disturbed them by turning on the lights same  as what happened the other night . the police came within 5 mins an even got the dogs out within 10 mins but they never got anyone . the  forsenics turned up the next day but they could not get much.

u can reach our site from the main a30 , from the cementy even from someones garden if u really wanted to be stupid . our council like most dont like to spend money so the fencings all round are pants, an the main gate did have spikes on it until last year but because of health an safety they had to be cut of  .

i now have to get my mum to come out in the mornings with me to let the girls out as i have to do them at 6am when its dark ethier that or they stay locked in until 10 am .

[chooknewbie]

total logistical nightmare where security is concerned then...   ruddy councils really dont seem to give two hoots about this sort of thing either...so long as they are getting their rent, or are bulldozing it all to build some awful thing or another....  *sighs*

[karlooben]

total logistical nightmare where security is concerned then...   ruddy councils really dont seem to give two hoots about this sort of thing either...so long as they are getting their rent, or are bulldozing it all to build some awful thing or another....  *sighs*



u can say that again , we have a rite fight to get them to do anything at all. a guy whos in charge of the maintence came over to re do the locks on main gate after the other nite an he says the thiefs have started early this year. 4 sites near me where done over 2 weeks ago. normally they wait until march april time , thing is we have lived here 29 years an until 3 years ago there was never  ever any probelms with break ins.