Garage Security

[sllib]

I have a 6' locked chain link fence around my back yard, my detached garage has the windows bolted shut, a monitored wireless system with door contacts and a motion sensor. Two weeks ago at 9:00 am someone ripped the fence from my gate, jimmied my garage door and stole about $600 worth of tools, including both my torque wrenches. The police arrived in minutes but didn't see anything unusual so they assumed it was a false alarm. I was in the dentist's chair with my cell phone out in the truck. By the time I got home the thief had broken out a back window and and crawled out. The investigating officer thinks the thief was hiding in the garage when they showed up since the window was broken from the inside and was intact on their first visit. I have since heavily reinforced my pedestrian door, boarded up up my windows with extra 2x4's on the inside, added extra locks and cut the power off to the garage when I'm not home. I travel out of the US for months at a time (now in Sarajevo) and this has totally wrecked my piece of mind. If they want your stuff bad enough they'll do anything to get it. All we can do is make it hard as h@ll for the little monsters to get in.
Bill Stradtner

[427sharpe]

Trip sensors on all doors, windows, and motion sensors. Tie all of it to an alarm in a reinforced metal box in the eaves (out of reach) and tie it to an alarm that summons cops AND one that goes off at the building, as loud as possible. I found that the use of 'hidden beam' type reflectors work better for motion than the generic motion sensor if you have birds about, or squirrels. I had a local alarm company install the basic alarm, and added in an alarm that I bought from the local county (air raid siren or tornado warning I think) at a surplus sale. The audible alarm is loud enough to be heard at least a mile away, and will leave your hearing suspect if you are inside when it triggers. I also had forged steel full eye bolts installed in the slab under the door and the ends, and ran a length of 1/8" thick steel the entire length of the bottom of the door. The door (and steel plate) passes OVER the eye bolts, and get HD round key locks on each end. So some SOB may be able to break thru one of the high mounted windows (sill about 6'5" off ground level) or thru the man door, but the alarm will go off in 30 seconds and I doubt he will hang around. Video is good, too...Fry's Electronics system cost me $400, and has 5 color cameras with decent resolution that I tied to a loop style digital recorder. 3 days record at a time. Finally, to make sure my box doesn't grow legs, I welded a steel frame of of 1/4" wall 4x4, removed the wheels off of the box, put the box on the frame and filled with tools. Outside of hammers and generic tools, EVERYTHING is locked or secured. For tools rarely used, I ran a shelf at the top of the roof line for storage, and lock the ladder to the outside of the building. Inside, anything in place permanently is bolted to the slab. As a last item of security, a 1911 always works well!

[CobraDan]