Contents Insurance

I concur with Geoff. We use licence numbers with 'V' on the front. Further to that take down the serial numbers of your appliances - all of them. put them on the computer but back them up to a CD or floppy. Then put the back up disc somewhere safe. Do not just save it to your hard drive. The computer will be one of the first things to go. You've got no idea how many times I've asked about serial numbers and been told they were on the computer that's just been knocked off.

Unfortunately there are no laws to stop 2nd hand dealers from transferring goods to another store after the initial holding period is up. What a lot of them do here is wait for the holding period to finish (7 days) then transfer the stuff across town to their other store. As far as I'm concerned they're all shifty and should be shut down. The whole industry is based on stolen property and keeping druggies cashed up for their fix, at the expense and anguish of your typical law abiding citizen who has taken years to build up his possessions. I won't even set foot in one if it's not for work purposes.

Dan

If you want to keep your stuff you gota get serious.

Slow the buggers down, make it inconvoienient & hard.

A mate had several thou of tools stolen from his shed ( uninsured ) the nex day he got serious.

He built a tool room of 32mm ply wood & put a lockwood 303 on the 40mm plywood door. Then resolved to put away at the end of each day.
Chained or bolted down every thing that wasn't easy to put away.
The we installed an alarm. A very serious one.
most of the noise makers are inside the building. So many top hat screamers that it needed a seperate power supply to run them ( very loud even with muffs).

not bulit proof but a very uncomfortable place to be if you are a theif.

Oh. he also left a heap of donged powertools arround in easy places ( sacrificial anodes).

Oh he had all his tools very prominently marked, never seen or heard of any of them its now about 4 years.

Probably never will.
Trouble is that whoever bought these from the thieves probably didn't know at the time that they were hot items. Might have found out later, but if they hand them in, then they lose them for good because its a stolen item :(
Honesty doesnt seem to stretch as far when money is concerned :(

I find two barking dogs is a big help in keeping the crooks at bay

:-)

Quote:

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Originally posted by Kevin2003
I find two barking dogs is a big help in keeping the crooks at bay

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Only to a point....

The crook chucks a half-open can of dog food over the fence & while the dog/dogs are busy with it he opens the gate & waits at a safe distance.
Once the dogs go out the gate, he goes in & shuts the gate.
The funny thing about dogs is that they will bark while they are at home but if they are outside their normal territory, they won't.

This doesn't work if the dogs are tied up.
If they are tied up, the crook needs to have an accurate arm & a bait/baits laced with carsickness tables for dogs. (Sedatives)

Dogs are a deterrent only, not an insurance policy.

Get some Geese!

If dogs aren’t any real help then maybe a better deterrent is to move to a small deserted island that’s only accessible by sea, put your workshop in the middle of the island. On top of the workshop build a large watchtower, install surveillance cameras to cover 360 degrees (better still, radar if your budget can stretch that far). Finish off by building a large razor wire/brick/steel fence around the perimeter of the island

Wonder how much the insurance companies would quote to cover that.

Just trying to make light out of a serious subject
:)

If someone really wants to break in and steal from you workshop, they will regardless of what measures you put in place. Having said that, there are a number of things you can do to reduce the risk.

Dogs and Geese are excellent deterents. Decent visible padlocks are also worth it. Alarm systems that are not monitored are next to useless (how many times have you heard an alarm and ignored it?).

In the end, you need to make the thief think it is easier to break into you neighbours house rather than of yours.