Is it illegal to plants mines on your allotment ???

[Mr Bones]

Sorry to hear about that Chaz. Last November I lost all my Wolf tools, Mantis and a load of other bits; they loaded it into my old trusty wheel barrow to cart it all away.

[jonny the plant pot]

Best way to deter the thief is just put your rake behind the shed door .
It's deterred me from going in my shed as everytime I do I stand on it and get a whack on the head

[ESBkevin]

In our area the sheds get done every couple of years. The police suggest it's 'travellers' as the sites in the area get done all within a week of one another. Hand tools being the main items taken. Also the baster...er...thieves take the padlocks with them, apparently this indicates professionalism as forensics can tie the cutter marks to the locks and similar incidents.
I've added a mortice lock as well as a padlock and put a stand alone shed alarm in there. The alarm will likely just pis...annoy the intruder but just might be enough in the dead of night with houses backing onto the other row of plots.
Finally I've made great efforts to not hang all the tools neatly on the walls, they are stuffed hap-hazzardly such that they need to be untangled from one another before use, expensive items are buried under cardboard covered in rolled up netting, empty compost bags, bucket, folding seat, a huge lump of metal for my tractor sub soiler etc. It takes me about 20 minuets to get the rotavator out in daylight, you have to be determined!
Can you buy claymores in the UK?

[Nicos]

Tis the season of the car boot sales isn't it?
Always seem to coincide.

I think things will just get worse over the next few years as there'll be less spare dosh about and the unscrupulous will find way of making money .
Sad- but a reality.

[bearded bloke]

What Nicos said ^^^^ Sad but true

If you are buying from carboot fairs or similar ask the seller questions, why you selling, how long you had it, what you replacing it with, type of thing, if it's not the type of response that you as a gardener would give, walk away

[Nicos]

Good answer BB !

Might also be worth keeping an eye out for regular punters who have a regular supply of 2nd hand gardening tools.
No harm taking their car reg...and even go as far as mentioning it to the police if you become suspicious

[Nicos]

Does anyone mark their tools with anything either obvious or invisible markers???

[Dalrimple]

Alarm Mines can be bought from Henry Kranks ,William Powells , not illegal to use,around £14 to£15,and if you but them in a bag of chillie powder it becomes a whole deferent ball game LOL.
atb Dal ps you could leave a roll of toilet paper for the scallys .

[cheapskate chaz]

Thanks for your generous replies, trip wire you say? funny you should mention that....., but as said anything put in harms way intentionally means...more work for the funeral director,ha! Going up there a bit later to see if there`s been anymore visits, I have got a so called"rape" alarm, triggered by pulling a length of cord out and it does `alf make a racket !! will fit that. Plod is around tomorrow to mark everything for me, wonder if she`ll do the Calabrese that the catapillars are nicking, and they do get the death penalty if caught.
Catch ya all later. have e very nice weekend regardless of the weather.

chaz

[Bigmallly]

I bought 1 of these for the garden shed & for £4 it's worth every penny...............it's loud as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVn8bvTz81s

Wireless Door Alarm For Shed Garage Caravan With Security Keypad And Panic Alarm | eBay

[starloc]

I can now guard things a bit better as im in Bulgaria... but... in the UK trip wires worked! too well... I kept tripping

I have a concrete building here right at the other end of my garden that has one door that will not close enough to lock....it looks closed but just not quite enough to lock it on an outbuilding...inside I have all sorts of tools and machines including laser engravers, milling machine, garden tools, a jet engine.... and things like that

so to stop any potential thieves....

I have the inside of the door tied shut.....held by a bit of weight......tied onto 6 of the 3 foot long 1 inch diameter pointy steel marquee tent pegs on a ledge up near the roof inside over the door.....
if the door opens the pegs will swing down through the door way....and whack!

also inside the doors of outbuildings in case people try and pull them or windows open i have metal strip screwed on...not just any metal strip....razor sharp die cutting blade strip that is used to make press form tools for chopping paper/cloth/leather....hands may get in through a broken window and try to undo a lock but will come out minus fingers
I have used this inside door cards on cars in the past to stop car thieves getting to inside ( or to stop hands coming back out ) of the door to unlock them as well ...its great stuff!

As well as that as im living here its easier I also have some cameras, very anti social rescued dogs and also other things balanced that may fall `if knocked` inside the barns like empty 45 gallon drums up on ledges with string tied on as trip wire as most of my barns have no locks, just bits of string or wire to hold them shut

Not had that many problems here but im just being careful and listen to the neighbours and see what they do

[Nicos]

^^^^ flippin 'eck!

[Cadalot]

Starloc you are not Macaulay Culkin are you?

[starloc]

its not that its dangerous here (many years ago it probably was ) but You have to remember many people in other larger poorer towns here work for £5 a day a good wage is about £60 a week , many people dont work at all , in our town of about 1000 houses, probably 100 people living,we have 1 policeman.... some of the time....occasionally.... main police station something like 30 miles away ,
many holiday homes are here and often used for growing food, all have food growing, firewood, tools and equipment that could be sold.....
so all houses are a massive target to some of the very poor non locals from the main towns. main targets for theft here are garden equipment like tractors and chainsaws, firewood and trees from your garden and..... wallnuts.... as they sell for £10 a kilo and a lot of people sell them to pay the house rates every year.
People living here have very low income they live from the garden but have no money to replace the tools they all protect everything like this as if things were stolen they would probably die.
when I moved here i was told , if someone does not act thee same way to protect things then you are a soft target to criminals and stupid! so when people showed us `normal` protection we just joined in!
When I bought the house i live in, it was just before they fitted electric street lights and fixed things a lot to modernise things like making a tarmac road, back then in about 2010 the house had metal window gaurds and door gaurds and they were wired up with big cables and coat hangers to the mains wires running past outside the house to electrify it and stop people breaking in....

[Muddy_Boots]

You might want to try this ..... ONLY $80

www. edited out

Now that's a thought for my new plot ......