Breaking and entering problems

[JohnG]

  Nice Mark!

Oklahoma's law is called Make My Day as well. I can't belive that guy got in trouble for making dummy mortar rounds for WW2 reenacting. That tells me to be careful when I start doing it. All I need is to be in prison for having a awesome WW2 kit.

[JTheotonio]

I uses a trick when traveling - when I am in a hotel and go out I always turn on the TV.  This way no one is sure that I am not in the room.  I also leave on a light.

You could do the same at home.  Turn on the TV and put a timer on some of your lights.  Set the timers to go on and off at different times.  Some timers can handle multiple programs, so you could turn on and off a light in the same room a couple or more times.  You can also get a computer program to do this.

Record a barking dog and have it playing - just make sure it is not the same small loop.

Cardboard cutouts of humans to make a shadow in your window - works if you have a rocking chair. (but hard to do)

If this is a gang of some sort and not neighborhood kids - they will soon leave when it gets too hot for them. 

If you have a small sherrif office - can they place a dummy car in the area?

Finally - living in fear is not good - stuff happens and all you can do is protect you and your family.  It sounds as if you are in the country - can you do a little target shooting? Do that every day - maybe someone watching will get the idea that your place is well protected.

Check out these sites for good ideas: (you got me thinking about installing cameras again)

http://www.homesecurityinformation.com/ideas/

http://softwarebizsummit.com/

http://www.homesecurityinformation.com/

[Mark Sarsfield]

Find some Viet Nam vintage "caltrops".  The special forces used them on trails for the V.C.  Ninjas also use them, but you don't want the ninja version.  The ones that I am thinking of look like jacks but with nasty spikes and they sit a few inches high.  No matter how they hit the ground, at least one nasty spike is sticking up.  If that punctures a tire, it will make it go instantly flat.  You could easily lay them out in the morning and have them tied in a long chain with kite string - you'll know fior sure that they're all picked up this way.  They are usually a dark steel color.  So, camoflage paint patterns would help them blend in to a gravel/grass/dirt driveway.

[JohnG]

They are very easy to make your self too. All you need is 2 pieces of steel and bend and weld then sharpen. If they worked against horses in Medieval times I am sure a rubber tire is FUBARed.

[Mark Sarsfield]

One of my a**hole neighbors in K.C. was driving through my yard, because they thought that I had called the cops them when they were "making too much noise" with their crappy drum playing - it took me several months to piece all of the clues together.  Anyway, I put several boards in my yard with a bunch of nails sticking up and painted them and covered them with leaves. I was just praying to find a disabled vehicle down the street with a nail board jammed into its tires and undercarriage.  At a minimum, a pound of sugar would have found its way into the gas tank.  Bye bye fuel injectors.   At worst, the car would have been torched.  I guess it would have depended on my mood at the time.

[JohnG]

So...DID you ever find a abandoned car with a board of nails stuck to it?

[Lance Dean]

I have a couple of friends who work at the dispatch office.  They said there have been over 30 break-ins since the end of May inside this county.  That's a LOT for this area.

[Mark Sarsfield]

No, I didn't, because the neighbors were also letting their dogs crap in my yard on their early morning walks - I almost caught them in the act one morning - and, of course, they noticed the nail boards.  So, they didn't do that anymore.  Usually, I would put them out at dusk and then hide them before going to work, since these events tended to happen at night or early morning - and I didn't need a neighborhood kid finding them or falling on them.  Once I figured out who it was I was tempted to retaliate, but it wouldn't have been the same as them driving through my yard and getting tire damage.  The sugar was still tempting. 

[JohnG]

Sugar is sweet......sweet revenge!

[Mark Sarsfield]

They would have thought twice about vandalizing someone's yard again after their engine was trashed out.  I was happy that they moved 3 months later.

[Lance Dean]

Well, it finally made it to the local news.

http://www.wtok.com/home/headlines/25523314.html

Watch the video if you wanna see what it's like here....Mississippi.

[Lance Dean]

Break-ins are still running rampant.  More every day.  No one has been caught.

Just got word that my next door neighbor, my elderly great uncle, had his home broken TODAY when I was at home.  He had gone to be with his son who was having heart surgery at the hospital.

These people are scum.  I am fully prepared to put the Castle Doctrine into effect. 

[Mark Sarsfield]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE shoot these idiots!  It's you're duty as an American citizen to rid the world of a-holes and scum - foreign and domestic.  Do you have an MG-42?  You can go all Omaha Beach on their sorry a$$es.

[JTheotonio]

You live in the country so go to Fish and Game and request a few animal traps (you have a pest problem with skunks or something), set the traps around the area. Nothing like a big old bear trap to catch a rat!     Of course Smith and Wesson always works too!   

[nomad66]

Lance,

Make sure you have all the info on how far you can go protecting your property and that of a relative. This is usually not the same as self defense or defending someone with you. Many states have laws that deadly force can only be used when a life is threatened. If you are allowed to use deadly force when protecting your property. make sure the criminal can not sue you for injuries, ect. I'm sure you know my meaning. Good Luck