The crooks broke into my shipping container

   / The crooks broke into my shipping container #1  

Highbeam

Super Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2005
Messages
5,039
Location
South Puget Sound, WA
Tractor
Kioti CK30HST
I am a little paranoid by nature, I don't trust strangers by default, I even carry a concealed weapon lots of times. My wife thought I was a little nuts for buying a 20' steel shipping container for use as a secure garage on my vacant 15 acre property out in the boonies. I use it to park my bulldozer inside and store fuel, rigging, and floodlights.

I lock 3 of the four handles with three different types of locks. The container is out of sight from the road and the driveway has a locked gate.

Well the crooks managed to come in on foot around the gate and then popped off a plain masterlock, then a padlock with the stainless steel shrouds that cover most of the lock bar. The third lock was one of those rotary style locks that looks round and the bar rotates around the center to lock, they couldn't get that off and it had to come off to open either door of the container. It looks like they then took a wedge and sledge hammer and drove a wedge between the container and the locking door handle until the assembly was pried from the container. The rotary lock was still hanging from the handle when I got there, completely reusable.

The crooks must have been looking for good pawn shop stuff since they took nothing and didn't even vandalize the dozer. I thought they would at least take the floodlights.

I relocked the unbroken door handle with the surviving rotary lock and wrote a note on the door with my black magic marker. "No tools, fuel cans, or generators inside, please stay away." This is the first attempted break in in the year it has been there.

The crooks spent a lot of effort to get inside, the oppurtunity thief would have walked away. I highly recommend the rotary style locks unless you want to intentionally make it "sort of" easy to get inside.
 

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   / The crooks broke into my shipping container #2  
Highbeam,

Sorry to hear what happened.

I'd think they were locals who had been there before and knew you had the storage container. Now that they have been there once, it's just a matter of time until either they come back or their friends they tell abou it. Either to get what they left behind, or to see if anything new is in the container.

A friend had some land next to a park. There was a fence along the property lines with lots of no tresspassing signs, but people figure nobody is around, so they crossed it all the time to look around. He did the same thing, put up a sign explaining there was nothing of value in the container or his cabin. It didn't make a difference, they broke in just to make sure.

He had a thick steel box welded over the lock on his container covering the sides and top of the lock. The only part exposed was the bottom. No way to break anything off. The lock was totally protected. If you didn't have a key, you needed a torch!

Eddie
 
   / The crooks broke into my shipping container #3  
Sorry! And I just recommended your setup!
 
   / The crooks broke into my shipping container #4  
Well that stinks! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif
Is it possible to move the container closer to the road? That may deter intruders if they had to break in, in plain sight.
 
   / The crooks broke into my shipping container #5  
How about a motion camera like you see in Cabelas that hunters use to catch deer and other animals?
 
   / The crooks broke into my shipping container #6  
I would put a big radiation sticker on both doors of the container and use a black magic marker to write DANGER CONTAINER BOOBY-TRAPPED

If they are smart enough to read I'll bet that does it.
 
   / The crooks broke into my shipping container
  • Thread Starter
#7  
Thanks for the suggestions. I have already made an open bottomed box of 3/16" plate and hadn't put it on yet... doesn't that figure.

I still think the container is the best solution. I have no regrets since anything else would have made it even easier.

The question I have is do you make it harder to break in or do you make it easier? I can certainly fortify the snot out of it to prevent all but the most determined crooks from getting in but when they do I will have a heavily damaged non-lockable container. Replacing cut locks is easy. The best I can ever hope for is to keep out the less determined crooks, agreed?

I left the note in hopes of reminding them about their last experience of wasted break-in effort. Just like no-trespassing signs, they only work as a mental/moral deterent. No harm done.

I have certainly pondered the camera idea for animals and crooks. My problem is the flash, if a crook sees the flash then I loose the camera. If I get a picture of the crook then I have a nice picture of a stranger, police aren't much help. I suppose I could tape the crook's picture to the container for the next time.

I have decided that I will not be putting a tractor in the container until I live out there. Instead I will tow it back and forth the 40 miles. This was a relatively nice reminder of the risk in vacant land.
 
   / The crooks broke into my shipping container
  • Thread Starter
#8  
To get in they had to bypass the lock and break the linkage off of the door. The vertical crank bar stayed put but the tab that holds the crank lever in the lock position was ripped off of the door and the crank lever was bent pretty good. Anybody have any good pictures of a lock box used on a container? I have a welder, steel, and an attitude.
 
   / The crooks broke into my shipping container #9  
i have two containers like yours. one was broken into also but the never touched the locks. seems a stout pair of bolt cutters can snip the holes the locks go through. i never would have thought of that. any way they got cought but i now have a solution. 1, go to the local locksmith, he has a four inch round i think it is master lock made lock that will weld one piece on each door, with lock in the middle. it will work.

tim
 
   / The crooks broke into my shipping container #10  
I have certainly pondered the camera idea for animals and crooks. My problem is the flash, if a crook sees the flash then I loose the camera. If I get a picture of the crook then I have a nice picture of a stranger, police aren't much help. I suppose I could tape the crook's picture to the container for the next time.

Hey Highbeam I was told by the guy I work with that the flash can be disabled. And even if the cops can't help, imagine if someone knew the people or if the cops had an idea. Just don't discount the idea until you've researched it some.
 
 
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