Inovative anti-theft ideas?

[BTDT]

How about this. A cattleguard with one spiked tube, hooked to a motor or cylinder (like a gate opener) that turns spikes up if someone enters property unannounced. That is the purpose of sign. They have been warned not to enter. If they choose to do so, they break a beam upon entering, and spike strip is activated. Then they load up your stuff, and in their hurry to exit for a clean getaway, they will be easy to spot because they will have a bunch of flats.

 

[patrick_g]

The spike strip sounds good but in this modern age there may be some considerations. If your system accidentally deploys, or someone needs a way to sustain an injury or damage in order to be able to sue you, then you have provided them with a very good case. Remember this is the day and age where the criminal can sue you for damages sustained while trying to rob you. This is no joke! It has happened several times and the criminal has prevailed.

I ran the results of a brainstorming session by a lawyer just to get his reaction to various "proactive" trespass and theft deterrents. Everything from devices able to cause great bodily harm to stuff on a practical joke level. He started spouting precedences that would likely be used to take my $ in court and or land me in jail. I still like some of the ideas but first a suggestion for a sign at a gate: CAUTION, SEVERE TIRE DAMAGE POSSIBLE, YOUR TIRE, MY RIFLE!

One of my anti-carjacking ideas could be used at entry doors, windows or on tractors. A large canister of high powered pepper spray is routed to nozzles like used for windshield washers. On a tractor they could be mounted at about average face height and activation tied to any number of actions a thief may take in trying to start the unit.

This could save your equipment but get you sued as well as arrested. A classic case was a farmer in the Dakotas who had a house that was repetitively broken into by a local. The farmer rigged a shotgun to the door so anyone breaking in through the door would get shot. The bad guy broke in and got shot. The farmer went to jail. the farmer was sued for everything he had. The criminal survived just fine. My take on this was that the farmer made a couple mistakes: 1. aimed too low and 2. used the wrong load.

In Oklahoma we can use use potentially lethal force to protect life and property but in the form of personal activity not booby traps. I can shoot the bad guy but not catch him in a dead fall.

Pat

 

[Harvster]

Get medieval on there @$$ and build a moat. Wouldn't even have to be filled with water and gators. A reasonable ditch would be enough to stop a truck, trailer, or tractor from entering or exiting. The only issue is securing the drawbridge.

 

[kwolfe]

If you have a large enough tractor, you can suround it with higway conrete barriers. Box it in. Then when you want to work, chain the one in front up the the FEL and move it out of the way.

 

[Z-Michigan]

Spring guns are outlawed in all states for good reason - they are too likely to kill innocent people, especially kids.

Question - at what weight level is a tractor too heavy to be a significant theft risk? Even if the thieves have a trailer around (and I don't see them getting very far at 15mph without a trailer), is there a weight level where you just can't winch it on or the resulting trailer and cargo is too heavy to move? Seems to me unlikely that thieves would have anything over a 1-ton pickup, and that limits you to roughly 15,000lbs of trailer weight (trailer and cargo). Of course not many people on here have 15,000 lb tractors....

 

[638]

How come, every time that I try to open a PDF file my computer locks up???

ron

 

[cp1969]

Insurance came through for me on new replacement value of everything, now instead of a 20 year old compressor, saws etc,, I have a bran new compressor saws etc.

Does it suck, you betcha, but having new stuff takes a whole lot of the pain away. Don’t feel bad for the insurance company either I pay 30k plus a year in insurance, so in 10 years, they paid out 40k.

If I am reading this correctly, you'd have been WAY ahead to have been uninsured.

 

[Kendall69]

..If I am reading this correctly, you'd have been WAY ahead to have been uninsured.

Wouldn’t we all be way ahead if we put our insurance money in the bank, but that’s what insurance is all about. We pay for them covering us for the “big one” and they hope they never have to pay at all.

40 years of auto insurance, and never had to collect a dime, 30 years of house insurance, never collected a dime. 20 years of health insurance, they paid out $125K ( open heart ) but after 20 years, their ahead again.

That’s the game we play with insurance companies.

 

[DANOCHEESE]

Here is a link to the minnesota case. Yes we have a too many liberals in Minnesota and a few too many other things. I think we need a longer winter to wean a few of them out.

wcco.com - Farmer Charged For Chasing Alleged Robber With Gun

 

[patrick_g]

DANOCHEESE, Innocent folks being deprived of the right to protect themselves and their property against illegal actions up there in MN have my sympathy to a point. I think that state is still a democracy and the people have the right to petition for redress of grievances and the right to make changes to their laws and the way they are enforced within the guidelines of the constitution of the US.

I am heartened by the outpouring of public support for the farmer. He may be a tad on the aggressive side but he and many others should be held harmless for enforcing basic laws.

I keep hearing about how just plain folks shouldn't take the law into their own hands. BALDERDASH, every citizen in good standing not only has the right to arrest a lawbreaker but should be encouraged to do so when appropriate and should be given the latitude to use reasonable force to do so.

There is nothing MAGIC about being a policeman. Paid professional law enforcement people are a dire necessity, definitely needed. Life is NOT a union shop! We can't sit on our backside because we aren't in the appropriate union for the action currently needed. There are Good Samaritan laws to protect folks trying to do what prudent responders would do to try to render assistance to, say accident victims, or if someone runs into a burning building to rescue a child. Do we arrest the hero because he wasn't a professional fire fighter. You do the Heimlich maneuver in a restaurant and crack someones osteoporotic rib and you are protected by the Good Samaritan law. Acting in a prudent manner to prevent crime or apprehend a criminal is not only a right of any citizen it is a duty within the abilities of the citizen and the extant conditions.

I am really dismayed by the US AND THEM mentality of both many civilians and police. I am trained in first aid and will not sit idly by and watch someone bleed out when I could press an artery till help arrived. I rarely leave the house without my concealed carry. I do not look for opportunities to use it. In fact, I actively look for ways to avoid needing it and have never pointed it at a person (dropped some armadillos though) but if overtaken by circumstances I'm not going to wait for our hired surrogates to arrive to take action if there is something I can do within reasonable risk to protect life or property from illegal actions.

I'm not a constitutional scholar but I don't recall anywhere in the constitution where any rights were withheld from citizens and only sanctioned for our hireling protection squad. We hire them to do a job for us. In this age of specialization it is entirely reasonable to have law enforcement specialists as well as doctors and firefighters but that doesn't remove any rights or responsibilities from the citizens to act in a prudent manner according to their abilities as the situation requires and or allows.

At least for a little while longer ours is a participatory democracy and that participation is not restricted to periodic visits to the ballot box by an increasingly non representative minority.

Pat