Urgent, need security help

[ilander]

Gents, I had a break-in at my property last week. They defeated the entrance cattlegate, easy to do and as shown in the pic, and they drove in to steal a 5x10 trailer, a couple of non-functional 4wheelers, and a bunch of other little things. But they didn't get into the workshops and the house, yet.

We are there only on the weekends and the locals know it so, can you please give me some ideas, with pics, on how I can build a better gate in front of or behind the current gate? Steel and cement I would assume would be they right materials to use so as they can't open and drive in.

Your immediate help will be greatly appreciated!

So sorry to hear of your security problem, especially when you worry about your wife if she's home alone.

It appears you want to stop them at the gate. We have remote property with multiple break in issues. We went through great lengths to secure this property, which included double gating. I presumed thieves are lazy, and after getting through one gate would not waste the effort on the second.

The first gate was a short and long 1/4 log chain welded to two large ash trees connected with high security locks. I routed channels in two 2x4's and concealed the chain in a sandwich. Those trying to crash through were in for a big surprise.

The second gate was several hundred feet down our one lane road. There the gate had 3" steel pipe posts cemented into the ground and braced. This was a common farm gate. The hinged end had steel chain wrapped around it and locked so if the hinges were removed it could not be opened. Same goes for the other end, a chain and lock. No one ever got through it.

We went through great lengths to secure our buildings that would be a very lengthy second subject I won't get into because nothing we did worked. Local thieves were using chain saws for wooden structures and battery powered drills with sockets for metal siding.

The final batch of thieves came in through a long round about way via another owners field and then down a power line right of way that goes through our property. At that right of way I had steel posts driven into the ground so only the lineman's ATV could get through. Tracks proved they used a snowmobile through the posts. We resolved the issue by moving the buildings to our home lot where we have never been bothered.

My point is if they want to get in, they will. I don't know how you, your wife, the community or local LEO's feel about firearms, but personally speaking, that's our method of home defense in case of unlawful entry. If you're not already into it, there's lots of good sporting clubs out there that offer training, licensing help and advice on weapons selection.

 

[mikehaugen]

So sorry to hear of your security problem, especially when you worry about your wife if she's home alone.

It appears you want to stop them at the gate. We have remote property with multiple break in issues. We went through great lengths to secure this property, which included double gating. I presumed thieves are lazy, and after getting through one gate would not waste the effort on the second.

The first gate was a short and long 1/4 log chain welded to two large ash trees connected with high security locks. I routed channels in two 2x4's and concealed the chain in a sandwich. Those trying to crash through were in for a big surprise.

The second gate was several hundred feet down our one lane road. There the gate had 3" steel pipe posts cemented into the ground and braced. This was a common farm gate. The hinged end had steel chain wrapped around it and locked so if the hinges were removed it could not be opened. Same goes for the other end, a chain and lock. No one ever got through it.

We went through great lengths to secure our buildings that would be a very lengthy second subject I won't get into because nothing we did worked. Local thieves were using chain saws for wooden structures and battery powered drills with sockets for metal siding.

The final batch of thieves came in through a long round about way via another owners field and then down a power line right of way that goes through our property. At that right of way I had steel posts driven into the ground so only the lineman's ATV could get through. Tracks proved they used a snowmobile through the posts. We resolved the issue by moving the buildings to our home lot where we have never been bothered.

My point is if they want to get in, they will. I don't know how you, your wife, the community or local LEO's feel about firearms, but personally speaking, that's our method of home defense in case of unlawful entry. If you're not already into it, there's lots of good sporting clubs out there that offer training, licensing help and advice on weapons selection.

without sounding too sarcastic, how do you weld chain to a tree? I am assuming you mean you wrapped it around and welded it to itself?

Did you have a lot of valuable stuff in the building that people knew about or what? Seems like a lot of effort for something unless they knew.

 

[ilander]

You're not sarcastic, you just asked a honest question. Yes, I have a Lincoln welder on a trailer, wrapped the chain around the tree, welded a couple links together. The tree bark right now is engulfing the chain. If it was not the dead of winter and so far away, I'd take a picture.

The buildings contained tools and household goods, we lost about $5,000. The building was very well secured, beyond what a typical person would do. We worked in the western part of the state, lived in rented property and chose to store our extra stuff on our own property in the north central part of the state.

I presume hunters spotted the buildings back in the woods. Posting means nothing to many hunters. The windows had bars, and pieces of plywood blocking the view, so there was no way anyone could have known what was in there.

I said earlier they use chain saws and tools to gain entrance, I thought I had them defeated in that department. I both glued and screwed metal siding to OSB glued to the 2x4 frame of the building, so a chain saw and wrench would do no good.

The doors were a home made glued laminate consisting of a layer of OSB, expanded metal, plywood, and corrugated siding with a angle iron framing on the inside. The hinge side of the door was made in such a way if the hinge pins were removed, that side of the door could not be opened. The latch side of the door had a standard door knob type latch.

The door was close to a building corner. At this corner I took 1" plastic electric conduit and came up from the ground, glued it to a LB junction box with the other end of the LB pointed towards the door. To the average joe this just looked like a simple electric service, but it was all fake. When the cover was removed the head of a bolt could be seen. This bolt protruded through the building framing and screwed into the door. This was in fact a hidden dead bolt. Removing the LB cover, inserting a socket, and backing out the bolt about 20 turns would free the door. A couple times the regular door knobs were knocked off so they could just stick a needle nose in there to open the door, but of course that did not work due to the hidden bolt.

When first built, the sheriff was up and was very impressed with my system. But like I said in the earlier post, it was only good for 15 years. The thieves took a pry bar, and maybe a hammer, and literally chipped away at the door of one building until the bolt was discovered, then used tools to back off the bolt. Another building had a much more complicated hidden bolt system that could only be described with a picture, but to release this door the same LB trick was used.

Like I said earlier, I went to great lengths, and was so disgusted we just moved the buildings. One of the buildings is a quarter mile away, and if you are really interested in this system, I could go take pics tomorrow and post them.

 

[gcp]

Gents, once again thank you for your kind words of support. They cleaned out all the metal and I have two likely candidates who could have done this. The search is on through LE and personal.

greasemonkey, good idea.
jf, daily security is more important than planning around possible fire and/or or LEO entrance. At worst case they can walk in, it's only 500+ yards to the house.
CNC and islander, being a long time shooter and reloader, I can provide my own targets with punched out bulls eyes, both in rifles and pistols. I pity the fool that enters uninvited while we're here....not that I relish the thought of hurting anyone, in self defense it's the last resort option.

 

[NICKB304]

We had someone drop off a 12ft tall pile of tires at the opposite end of our property when i was a kid. My dad ended up using two old 12" OD x .5" wall culvert pipes that were 12 ft long cemented them halfway into the ground as gate post. We used a 16ft heavy gate from tsc (was quality farm and fleet back then) and added bracing similar to the gate shown in a previous post. Also built a heavy duty pin latch set up with a lock. The tsc gate was basically cosmetic because all the beef was behind it. We were fortunate the entrance to the property was an old rail road bed with swamp/pond and steep banks on each side. The only way on then was through water or push over gate with a dozer.

 

[camshawn]

battery powered grinders are now cheap and work well. steel pins for locks and tanges to insert the locks need to be wide enough that a grinder can not cut all the way through. We are using 1/2x3 for pins so the 4inch cutting disk can not cut to the 1/2 way from each side.
Unfortunately, locks and gates are for honest people.
Cam

 

[ededic]

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=291429"/> This works for me !

While funny, looks like a good place to bury dead bodies. Hope you have a good lawyer.

Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

 

[gcp]

islander, after reading your post one can get depressed in a hurry.

Pics would be great, I love seeing innovation at play.

 

[skylarkguy]

You could also place a hidden camera after building a stout gate, maybe do some additional rock landscaping and insert this camera in a rock...spendy but looks like of neat

Hidden Rock Camera Long Battery Life Motion Activated With Built In DVR

 

[ilander]

islander, after reading your post one can get depressed in a hurry.

Pics would be great, I love seeing innovation at play.

OK, thanks for the invite, I think since this is sort off topic from yours, I will start a separate thread under Projects heading like you did. Once I get wound up saying stuff, as you can see, I get quite lengthy and I will include pictures. Keep in mind the most complicated door latch is the one only a 1/4 mile from home so that will be the one for the pics. Gotta warm up (it's 9 degrees F out there), get on the ATV and go there, I will entitle it "Remote building security" if you want to look for it, in a few hours.