Inovative anti-theft ideas?

[john_bud]

and yes you pretty much can't stop an intelligent determined thief.

Problem is most "intelligent determined" thieves already have their law degree and have found politics. Why steal from one person one at a time, when you can steal from all teh people all the time?

And, no method will stop a dedicated thief with a trailer and a winch. 2 minutes and they are gone.


However, for the stupider thieves. A simple ball valve or two that lock the steering cylinders in place.



While they are higher maintenance and prone to getting lost, invisible barkless attack dogs are good. Got an extra one in the cage, for sale if'n yer interested....


jb

 

[Soundguy]

I'm curious as to what type of tractor you have that a significant amount of 'copper' can't be used to bypass a missing relay. It's not too difficult to simple decide which wires need grounding, which need 'open' and which need power'. True that a 'rushed' or 'dumb' criminal won't go for it.. but someone with electrical or specific tractor experience might get it. or are we talking a 'solenoid'. 2 different things.. if solenoid.. then I can see some difficulty.. That just menas they have to pull it off, if geared. if hydro.. then.. well.. it's relegated to the rollback.

Soundguy

Nope - tried it just for fun. Without the starter relay - tractor doesn't start. If you can get to the back of the key switch (with jumpers) you might get it started. Not very practical as thieves don't want to spend that much time diagnosing the problem to get it started.

If you want to play that game - then the easiest thing for the thief to do is carry a starter relay to match the tractor. But, again, they'd first have to diagnose the problem. Is it a dead battery? Dead starter, bad solenoid, bad switch, etc.

What we've found in 25 years of doing high-end security work for a variety of government and private clients, is that if a thief can't steal a piece of equipment, or break into a building in a short amount of time - they'll go some place else.

Oh, yeah, and then at my place they have to get past two gates with high security (Medeco, concealed shackle) padlocks. Yep, if they'd only thought to bring their battery operated plasma cutter, they could get through the locks.

At some point, you have to figure they're going somewhere else because you've made getting the equipment or breaking in too time consuming and/or tool intensive.

 

[Soundguy]

I like the locked steering cyl idea. I guess you could also abb a hy bypass to sump on the main hyd pump, and kick that. Thus no implement lift.

Again.. as we have all said. A prepaired, smart, determined theif with a winch or rollback will get it.

Just look at repo people. I've witnessed heavy equipment being repo'd from another contractor that was working on one of our job sites.

Kinda neat seeing a huge wrecker pull up at lunch, 2 guys scramble around for about 30 seconds, while the driver lines up and , and then the wrecker pull down the street before anyone can get over there. That's like 3 determined, experienced theives, and less than a minute, in broad daylight, and a hugy piece of equipment. ( rubber tired.. not tracked, in this instance). I think a large piece of tracked equipment may have to be a 'dealer' recovery type thing...

Soundguy

Problem is most "intelligent determined" thieves already have their law degree and have found politics. Why steal from one person one at a time, when you can steal from all teh people all the time?

And, no method will stop a dedicated thief with a trailer and a winch. 2 minutes and they are gone.


However, for the stupider thieves. A simple ball valve or two that lock the steering cylinders in place.



While they are higher maintenance and prone to getting lost, invisible barkless attack dogs are good. Got an extra one in the cage, for sale if'n yer interested....


jb

 

[N80]

My dad was in law enforcement all his life. One day he and his partner were walking out of their office into the back parking lot to go to lunch. At the far end of the parking lot they saw a guy trying to get into another agent's car. When the guy saw them coming (both of them armed) he did not run away, he simply worked a little faster and before they could get to him he had the radio (some type of law enforecement unit) out, hopped the back fence and was gone. You almost have to admire that level of cool and talent.

 

[HappyCPE]

When the guy saw them coming (both of them armed) he did not run away, he simply worked a little faster and before they could get to him he had the radio (some type of law enforecement unit) out, hopped the back fence and was gone. You almost have to admire that level of cool and talent.

I grew up with some kids that wanted for nothing. Yet they stole, vandalized and generally raised cain. They did it for the adrenaline rush. I don't think you can stop that type of person. You take reasonable precautions, then have the insurance company deal with the rest.

 

[slowrev]

Umm, my tractor shed has a burgler alarm. Raises all kinds of heck! Strobe on top of the building and a siren. It is battery powered, so cutting the AC power has no effect Plus it is only a hundred feet from my bedroom and my shotgun...

 

[Soundguy]

The shotgun.. now that's a permanent deterrent. I'm all for that kind of an anti-theft device!!

Soundguy

 

[swines]

You can stop any thief - it's a matter of how much money you want to spend.

You can make it so that they can work for hours to try and get in and get nowhere. But, the cost to do that is easily in the six figure range. Also, every solution has to be site engineered to block all avenues of entry.

At one site we're designing K-50 barriers into the approach road. Those are barriers that can be hit by a 50,000 pound vehicle traveling at 55 MPH. The barriers retract into the surface of the pavement for ingress/egress by authorized vehicles.

I suppose, if you brought a D-6 or D-8 with you and spent some time you could dig up the foundation. If that is the case, then we would design a series of barriers of different types into the approach road and probably use some type of barriers at the perimeter.

If you ever have a chance to look at the Corps of Engineers Physical Security Manual - you'll soon get the idea that site enhancements can be made so that stopping vehicle ingress/egress can be done ... but, the price...ooooh yeah, like in some cases $3K - 5K per linear foot of perimeter.

But, as we're fond of saying..."All it takes is cubic dollars."

 

[the_sandman_454]

You could get some "inert" claymore mines and set them up at appropriate places around the tractor with some fake trip wires strung up. I'm not sure how legal it would be but with inert stuff I wouldn't think there'd be much they could do about it. Then again in this day and age of legal stupidity and general litigiousness, it's hard to say for sure. I can say that such a thing would certainly deter me...

 

[JRobyn]

Can't even use the shotgun deterrent anymore! There's a news spot today about the farmer who is being prosecuted for having a shotgun when he attempted to prevent some lowlife from pilfering fuel from a neighbors property. The shotgun wasn't even loaded, and the lowlife is defending the farmer! The prosecutors have decided to be lenient and reduce the felony assault charge to two misdemeanors of "pointing a gun" and "disorderly conduct". Sheesh!

Gas thief defends vigilante farmer - Crime & Punishment - MSNBC.com