N80
Super Member
Last week I went to do a little yard work and couldn't find my Stihl string trimmer. A little later I could not find my newish Echo chainsaw. I remembered that I had left them underneath my screen porch in the back yard. It is an area you can walk under where we keep gardening tools and a potting bench etc.
I live in town. Typical small city with shady trees, homes around 100 years old and a college nearby. Unfortunately 3-4 blocks in either directions are shady neighborhoods....what my kids call sketchy. There are very few break ins on our street but thefts of opportunity happen a few times a year.
Two neighbors had cars broken into during the night of July 3. Lots of fireworks going off, etc. That is probably when my stuff was stolen
So the moral of the story, as my wife has reminded me many times, is not to leave my stuff unlocked. It should have been locked in the walk in basement which you can access from the back yard.
But, the thief had to walk between my cars and my neighbor's cars down our shared driveway. The neighbor has a motion sensor light which would have come on. Our houses are no more than 20' apart. Then he would have had to gone through my gate or jump over the fence. There is a mercury vapor light on a pole in my back yard right were he would have gone through the gate, so it is fairly well lit (and probably made things easier for him. My point in all this is that whoever this person was did not mind coming well into my 'territory'. This stuff was not visible and a long way off the street. Either someone was just poking around looking for stuff to steal or they knew it was back there. I'm a little concerned about my neighbor's yard crew.
Anyway, other than locking my stuff up, what else can I do?
I may add another motion sensor light. Some suggest a camera. Other neighbors have done that. It is useless. No one ever get's ID'd.
I've thought about a motion detector alarm that goes off in the house. I'm sure most of this stuff happens at 2 am. I just wonder if that would drive me crazy with every cat or raccoon that wanders through.
Any other thoughts?
I live in town. Typical small city with shady trees, homes around 100 years old and a college nearby. Unfortunately 3-4 blocks in either directions are shady neighborhoods....what my kids call sketchy. There are very few break ins on our street but thefts of opportunity happen a few times a year.
Two neighbors had cars broken into during the night of July 3. Lots of fireworks going off, etc. That is probably when my stuff was stolen
So the moral of the story, as my wife has reminded me many times, is not to leave my stuff unlocked. It should have been locked in the walk in basement which you can access from the back yard.
But, the thief had to walk between my cars and my neighbor's cars down our shared driveway. The neighbor has a motion sensor light which would have come on. Our houses are no more than 20' apart. Then he would have had to gone through my gate or jump over the fence. There is a mercury vapor light on a pole in my back yard right were he would have gone through the gate, so it is fairly well lit (and probably made things easier for him. My point in all this is that whoever this person was did not mind coming well into my 'territory'. This stuff was not visible and a long way off the street. Either someone was just poking around looking for stuff to steal or they knew it was back there. I'm a little concerned about my neighbor's yard crew.
Anyway, other than locking my stuff up, what else can I do?
I may add another motion sensor light. Some suggest a camera. Other neighbors have done that. It is useless. No one ever get's ID'd.
I've thought about a motion detector alarm that goes off in the house. I'm sure most of this stuff happens at 2 am. I just wonder if that would drive me crazy with every cat or raccoon that wanders through.
Any other thoughts?
