Had an uninvited visitor in my shop this morning!

CMcAllister · 09-19-2010, 01:18 PM

I have had this happen to me, it is not a good feeling.

My first thought is get another dog. They are a great early warning system and some knucklehead looking to steal something does not want to deal with a 100 pound GSD. They will look for easier prey. Just be careful, a dog attacking an innocent person on your property can become an ugly legal mess.

How did they get in if you had a monitored alarm? Does your alarm have an outside horn? Makes a godawful noise in the middle of the night. I don't know the layout of your property, but dusk to dawn lighting, motion lighting, systems to alert you when someone comes up your driveway or approaches on foot (infrared, etc.) can be considered. Public awareness (whether real or perceived) of you possessing the means and the willingness to inflict bodily harm, on anyone who comes onto your property for the wrong reason, can also be effective. Rumors of trespassers being shot at in the middle of the night (regardless their source) can be useful in convincing the bad guys to avoid your place.

Here's the number one thing to my mind. Did you recognize this person? Has he been in your shop or know someone who has? Is this a business or a personal shop? I pretty much had an open door policy. People would stop to bench race or see what projects we had. The person who burglarized me had been in my shop, he had tagged along with another person who had stopped by one day. I remember him walking around looking at everything. When he came back, he had his shopping list ready and knew how to get in. After that, my place was closed up tight. You needed to be family, an old friend or a trusted customer to have access to my work area. You may not want to appear unfriendly, but you have to limit access to you building. Gearheads and others passing by will want to stop and check out the cool cars and shoot the breeze. They may not all be innocent enthusiasts. Burglar alarms are not very effective if the perp has been able to inspect the system. There should be a public area for customers if you are doing business. Either way, you have to limit public knowledge and access to your stuff.

Sadly, the times we live in force us to be less friendly and trusting than we may want to be.

ETA...Reread your post and see that I had assumed you had a monitored alarm. The same type hardware can be used to alert you without having a monitoring service since you are right there. But, who's going to respond if you're out of town next time?

09-19-2010, 01:18 PM	#5
CMcAllister Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Fulton County, PA Posts: 612 Likes: 16 Liked 916 Times in 257 Posts	Re: Had an uninvited visitor in my shop this morning! I have had this happen to me, it is not a good feeling. My first thought is get another dog. They are a great early warning system and some knucklehead looking to steal something does not want to deal with a 100 pound GSD. They will look for easier prey. Just be careful, a dog attacking an innocent person on your property can become an ugly legal mess. How did they get in if you had a monitored alarm? Does your alarm have an outside horn? Makes a godawful noise in the middle of the night. I don't know the layout of your property, but dusk to dawn lighting, motion lighting, systems to alert you when someone comes up your driveway or approaches on foot (infrared, etc.) can be considered. Public awareness (whether real or perceived) of you possessing the means and the willingness to inflict bodily harm, on anyone who comes onto your property for the wrong reason, can also be effective. Rumors of trespassers being shot at in the middle of the night (regardless their source) can be useful in convincing the bad guys to avoid your place. Here's the number one thing to my mind. Did you recognize this person? Has he been in your shop or know someone who has? Is this a business or a personal shop? I pretty much had an open door policy. People would stop to bench race or see what projects we had. The person who burglarized me had been in my shop, he had tagged along with another person who had stopped by one day. I remember him walking around looking at everything. When he came back, he had his shopping list ready and knew how to get in. After that, my place was closed up tight. You needed to be family, an old friend or a trusted customer to have access to my work area. You may not want to appear unfriendly, but you have to limit access to you building. Gearheads and others passing by will want to stop and check out the cool cars and shoot the breeze. They may not all be innocent enthusiasts. Burglar alarms are not very effective if the perp has been able to inspect the system. There should be a public area for customers if you are doing business. Either way, you have to limit public knowledge and access to your stuff. Sadly, the times we live in force us to be less friendly and trusting than we may want to be. ETA...Reread your post and see that I had assumed you had a monitored alarm. The same type hardware can be used to alert you without having a monitoring service since you are right there. But, who's going to respond if you're out of town next time? Last edited by CMcAllister; 09-19-2010 at 01:26 PM. Reason: add info.