Securing Decorations

[zoommedic]

How do you guys go about securing your decorations from people stealing/damaging your items?

[BF210]

Santa's Reindeer are really pit bulls. :-D

But seriously, the CSI who came when stuff was recently taken from my back yard said a camera & DVR system is the most useful.

Everything that makes it harder for them to grab the goodies makes it harder for you to tear down the display after the holiday. I'll probably use rebar and metal straps where feasible, but my crooks came prepared to break two locks to fill their shopping list. I don't think anything less than a bank vault is gonna slow 'em down much. Using aircraft cable to string your mega-tree might slow down the wire-cutting vandals a bit, but is it worth the hassle for lights costing less than a buck a string?

(yet another Don)

[oldcqr]

Cable locks, dog run cork screws, and cinder blocks. Enough to slow down the casual thief.

[jrock64]

A half inch of freezing rain or mist.
20 degree temperatures.
6 inches of snow on top of the ice.

Nothing moves until the spring thaw.
Works flawlessly most years.

JOel

[zoommedic]

How wide spread is the vandalism of the displays?

[lbro]

hit me two years in a row, last I had none.

[deplanche]

I can't seem to find the thread that I was looking for, but last year someone got hit where they threw one of the light up deer or something similiar through the strings of their mega tree and broke lots of stuff. I don't think they stole anything, but really messed up the display. So do keep in mind that theft of your stuff can be much different than someone vandalizing it. Not sure if there is anything you can do to prevent both.

[TERBObob]

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-4-Channel-DVR-PCI-CARD-For-Security-Camera-CCTV_W0QQitemZ180363339887QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_De faultDomain_0?hash=item29fe7e286f&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1309%7C 301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

[cgarwood]

Motion lights to an extent seem to be a good deterrent. I got hit one time last year, but the people were too chicken to actually step within range of my motion lights. They only ripped down a few strings on the very far edges of my display, where there is no motion light coverage.

Joke's on them though, I fixed everything they broke and this year you won't be able to set foot inside the display perimeter without getting lit up.

I figure the large outdoor camera enclosure i had in a tree watching the middle of my display also helped somewhat.

I could have caught them too if I tried. It had been unseasonably windy all night and I went to bed listening to the wind blow the tail lights off of my star into the house all night. Something woke me up in the middle of the night and I just assumed it was the wind and went back to sleep. :(

[fkostyun]

I've had good luck with LOTS of floods also - 6 of the 150 watt ones, and three motion sensors (all sensors tied together to drive an SSR - one motion sensor goes off - it lights it ALL up - and pretty much anything moves from ~5 feet into the street inword and they are on)

Another thing - the motions are not "active" when the show is on. I do this by putting a little bulb by the night time eye.

Also, I think another thing that helps is that I do cut the display ~10:30 - discourages the "late night revelers" from having some "fun" that they more than likely would not attempt on a normal day.

Anything within reason is tied down with aircraft cable - that will discourage a "grab and run"

On a side note: have you seen me?
http://gallery.kostyun.com/ssp_director/p.php?a=VlNfMSInOyA2Pz47PW5xbC4zJis%2FOzouMzY5LTI% 2BMCU%2BIy0jJjs%3D

2002 Was the last time I had an isssue - someone pulled a single bulb out of every string (again - leaving the lights on super late)

This is my only vandal

[mrpackethead]

Are shotguns legal in your part of the world?..

Seriously though.. Put up a sign that says

" DANGER: 47,000 Ohms in operation 24x7 "

Those that are dumb enough to want to smash up displays are not smart enough to realise that the mickey is being taken.

[WWNF911]

I like that one.

[bmcgeeny]

Several things I do and have never had a problem. First, I have a 4 camera DVR system runs 24 7. Second. Down the side and front of my display I put a 150' Rope light "fence" on short posts about 3' off the ground. Display Items are 5' back from this. I have three sets of motion detectors with 2 150 what floods each. They are out at the fence pointing in, so you have to cross the fence to set them off. Also attached to the motion detectors I have a cheap but powerfull white strobe lite. When the floods come on, the strobes flash. Living on a street with 8,000 cars daily this is noticible. Also on the rope light fence I hang Danger High Voltage signs and Under Video Survailence signs.
I run all the security stuff with vixen. I just set up a night time sequece. when the show turns off, the floods come on. The cameras run all the time and shut off 15 seconds every hour to shut down, startup and readjust the exposure control. I suppose you could try something while the display is on and the floods are off, but with 3-5 cars in front most of the time the show is on, somebody would probably notice.

[daviddth]

I run a 4 camera DVR 24/7, but this year that will be increased to between 8 and 12 cameras, with some cheaper waterproof cameras to be mounted out in the display area pointing back into the yard. A 4 chan DVR card & 1 camera was just ordered to see how they go.

I'm also going to put 4 or 5 white LED floodlights in the yard. Not sure how they will be triggered, but probably by a few motion sensors, with 1 operating and all lights activating. I'll leave these up all year round & probably in operation all year round as well. I'll have to change the way the led's are mounted too, so I can spread the light over a larger distance if the led's are not as wide angle as I want. I might mount them 3mm above the board to allow some bending & twisting should it be needed. I'll have to work out how to stop them being triggered during the display as well.

[cgarwood]

Here's a thought...

Vixen has a trigger response system. How difficult would it be to wire some motion detectors up to a computer/be read by Vixen? I've never used Vixen's trigger response, so I'm not sure how it would work. My thinking is if someone triggers a motion sensor, you could have Vixen turn on the entire display along with some added flood lights that aren't used during the display itself. Maybe even have it play an audio file over the speakers outside...

[Wayne J]

Cool idea, as long as critters don't set it off. LOL

[cgarwood]

Yeah, I'm sure my neighbors would not like my entire house lighting up and an alarm/siren going off every time a cat ran by the sensor.

I need to get a couple air cannons like they use in haunted houses and put them on motion triggers. Trip the sensor and you hear "i'll give ya to the count of 10 to get yer ugly, yella, no good keister off ma property. 1... 2... 10!" and then the air cannon starts going off. :twisted:

[Wayne J]

Yeah, I'm sure my neighbors would not like my entire house lighting up and an alarm/siren going off every time a cat ran by the sensor.

I need to get a couple air cannons like they use in haunted houses and put them on motion triggers. Trip the sensor and you hear "i'll give ya to the count of 10 to get yer ugly, yella, no good keister off ma property. 1... 2... 10!" and then the air cannon starts going off. :twisted:

LOL!! yep, that would be cool!!

[WireWrap]

...
I need to get a couple air cannons like they use in haunted houses and put them on motion triggers. Trip the sensor and you hear "i'll give ya to the count of 10 to get yer ugly, yella, no good keister off ma property. 1... 2... 10!" and then the air cannon starts going off. :twisted:

You may want to rethink this idea.

It's bad enough having to clean up after the dogs using the front yard.

What you're looking to do......... Well................ :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:



.:) :) :) :)

[Macrosill]

Yeah, I'm sure my neighbors would not like my entire house lighting up and an alarm/siren going off every time a cat ran by the sensor.

I need to get a couple air cannons like they use in haunted houses and put them on motion triggers. Trip the sensor and you hear "i'll give ya to the count of 10 to get yer ugly, yella, no good keister off ma property. 1... 2... 10!" and then the air cannon starts going off. :twisted:

Thats great!

[cgarwood]

Motion lights to an extent seem to be a good deterrent. I got hit one time last year, but the people were too chicken to actually step within range of my motion lights. They only ripped down a few strings on the very far edges of my display, where there is no motion light coverage.

So i found out who hit my display last year.

3 Junior High aged kids. One of them lives 2 houses away. The other 2 go to my church (oh the irony).

One of the kids rode by on his bike last night while I was wrapping up my display work for the night. Convo went something like this..

kid: putting your lights up already?
me: yeah
kid: cool. hope they don't get ripped down like they did last year.
me: (thinking.. wait a minute. how would you know they got messed with, everything was fixed the same day...)
me: yeah. someone thought that would be a great idea last year.
kid: yeah i know who did it
me: oh. who?
kid: me, bob, and henry (editors note: names changed to protect the innoc..er guilty)
me: ...don't do it again this year.
kid: oh we won't. we're going for the rich people this year
me: Thats *stupid*
kid: yeah.. they have cameras.
me: So do I.
kid: oh... :shock:

and he left in a hurry.

I was on the phone with a family member at the time this went down otherwise it may have been more ugly.

Needless to say, I'll remember this and if anything gets messed with this year, the police will be getting a list of suspects as soon as they get called.

Now the debate is on what I should leave sitting by my door with my million candlepower flashlight.. a paintball gun or a supersoaker. Indiana winters do get pretty cold and windy..

[Wayne J]

Gotta love that. I had a similar situation, but it involved tires ($400). :(

[mnmike3]

I hope nobody messes with my stuff this year (first year) i don't trust the kids living next to me, i swear the oldest one is only 16 and their is about 6 of them living ina two bedroom house. ive come home after work (5:15pm) to find about 15-20 people in their yard and mine and some punk pissing on my shed before.

I was hoping my 100+ pound security system (1 70lb black lab german shepard wolf mix and 1 45lb black lab american bulldog mix puppy looks like a big pitbull) would deter anything but the girlfriend insists on telling everybody both dogs are harmless (which they are). we had a couple b&e's this summer so i left the wolf mix out hoping to stop anything from happening. I know it may seem bad to have a "guard dog" but they are 100% harmless and if i were a thief or vandal i wouldn't go near a big dog i didn't know. even inside the house the wolf mix has a bark that would raise the dead when he hears something out of the normal outside.

[kfindley]

I am just hoping my 130lb rot does the trick and the camera. There was a kid that showed up out of nowhere as i started setting up the other day and he sat on the curb about 2 houses down for about an hour. o yea i also have nosy neighbors that never sleep to. but if i catch them i have a couple paintball guns ready with pepper spray in them. (Its nice to know a few cops to get supplies from HEHE).

[Photovor]

I've been trying to figure out how to secure a few items this year as well. We have about 75' of hedges in the front yard, but I wanted to put some leaping arches directly in front of these hedges, which puts them about 10' off of the street.

Because the arches are right in front of the hedges, a camera won't see them, and a flood light would be shining through the hedges a little, so that probably won't be much of a deterrent.

I was already planning on running cable through the pvc arches and tying them all together, then to the hedges, but I'm just concerned about reckless vandalism. Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?


I had often though about putting a thin wire/rope in front of the display that would set off a security system if it was broken. Ya know.. something that you couldn't see until you tripped it.

[cgarwood]

For my perimeter this year I'm putting some large-ish stakes in each corner of the perimeter, plus a couple in the middle of the long runs. Steel cable will be run through the stakes with the lights zip-tied to the cable.

My father keeps telling me i should hook his old electric fence thing to the steel cable... I'll pass on that, although in theory its a good idea--but I don't think it will be in practice

[Sky-Lights]

Shame we have to resort to this , but , ya gotta do , what ya gotta do ....
view the video , and hook to the LOUDEST car horn or alarm you can get your hands on .

tripwirealarm.wmv - 29.14MB (http://www.zshare.net/video/68285246c0737586/)

[budude]

Love the "Easy" button option at the end!

[mnmike3]

Ironicly i posted here last night about protecting stuff and this morning i woke up to find somebody had helped themselves to my ipod and some money from my truck. :-(

[djulien]

I was hoping my 100+ pound security system (1 70lb black lab german shepard wolf mix and 1 45lb black lab american bulldog mix puppy looks like a big pitbull) would deter anything but the girlfriend insists on telling everybody both dogs are harmless (which they are). we had a couple b&e's this summer so i left the wolf mix out hoping to stop anything from happening. I know it may seem bad to have a "guard dog" but they are 100% harmless and if i were a thief or vandal i wouldn't go near a big dog i didn't know. even inside the house the wolf mix has a bark that would raise the dead when he hears something out of the normal outside.

If you made an MP3 of them, and used a motion sensor as a trigger to Vixen, you could make a short sequence that played back the barking and then a turned on a light or 2 in response to any movement in the yard.

don

[mnmike3]

If you made an MP3 of them, and used a motion sensor as a trigger to Vixen, you could make a short sequence that played back the barking and then a turned on a light or 2 in response to any movement in the yard.

don

not a bad idea. normally i wouldn't go through all the trouble but after sombody stole stuff out of my truck last night I have a whole new outlook on protecting whats mine. then again it could just be the anger talking, i tend to get easily wound up when stuff like this happens.

[daviddth]

I started with 4 ordinary quality cameras on the yard. Now I have 10, 3 motion sensing lights, a 5 foot gate and medium barking alarm in the back yard. Oh and I make no secret out of the cameras and so far it's worked....

[djulien]

Oh and I make no secret out of the cameras and so far it's worked....

Last year I took my time putting up cameras, and made a day of it (interspersed with other tasks). I was hoping that any "interested parties" would have an opportunity to see that I was putting up cameras. ;)

don

[budude]

So - - those of you using cameras - - Are you using standard cable/video or IP based (wired/wireless) cameras?

[WireWrap]

I started with 4 ordinary quality cameras on the yard. Now I have 10, 3 motion sensing lights, a 5 foot gate and medium barking alarm in the back yard. Oh and I make no secret out of the cameras and so far it's worked....

One thing is to ensure that at least one of your cameras is in an extremely inaccessible location. Otherwise, you may be pointing out just what to steal or destroy ahead of time!

Who, me? Cynical??? Naaaaaahhhhhhh!!! :roll: :rolleyes: :roll: :rolleyes: :roll:


.

[Tom3982s]

Well a big Dog may help. But the issue is with most decorations, they are just too easy to steal. Installing a camera to catch the thieves license plate could be a good idea..