POLL: DO you place your LOR controllers close to the lights, or far away inside with long cable runs

[Guest guest]

jeffostroff wrote:

What do you mean bby "Both Setups Got Hit"? Do you mean stolen?

I had 4 LOR boxes in the yard. 2 of the 4 got cut open and wires sliced inside as well as extension cords cut. One was in my mega tree and the other was hidden behind bushes. If vandals want to find a box, all they need to do is follow the cords.

[Guest guest]

Maybe a good future improvement for LOR would be an Anthrax coating on the outside of the controller box. That way you as the owner know to handle it with gloves.

But if a theif takes off with it, you just follow the trail of vomit.

[Guest guest]

I'm against most of the people here...I put my controllers in the garage so that they have a smaller chance of getting stolen and/or weatherbeaten. I have tons of extension cords from past years, probably almost enough to run my entire display

[Guest guest]

I had one controller bolted to the back side of the house (it controlled the snowflakes on the roof) and two more out front near the display last year. This year I'll still bolt the one on the backside but the other 4 controllers will be out in front as close to the display as possible. I'd rather not have huge long runs of cords--its bad enough as it is. To conceal two of them, I used white garbage bags because they blended in with the snow--making the controllers very hard to find if you didn't know where they were (following the cords could have been option--but they would have had to pull and dig them out first). Only one was in plain sight out front, bolted to a panel which was driven into the ground on stakes.

If the "bad guys" come, I just don't think there is much we can do about it except try to deter them and/or make it harder. I'd rather have my controllers stolen than some of my blowmolds. My insurance will cover the controllers and I can replace them--but I cannot replace many of the blow molds.

Isn't it sad to think about? Thinking in terms of which thing you would rather have trashed or stolen?

[Guest guest]

Carrie Sansing wrote:

My insurance will cover the controllers and I can replace them--but I cannot replace many of the blow molds.

Interesting. Is it because the insurance company just don't cover outdoor decor?

[Guest guest]

Wes wrote:

Sounds like it. I guess it's really depends on what area you are in. In NY, we tend to be a bit more careful.

For me, it's practicality. Our lot is roughly 200' x 200'. Many of our lights aren't all that close to our house. I know some folks will take the time and expense to home-run everything (Chuck did/does, Mark Obermiller decorated a much bigger area than ours, and he home-ran everything, etc). But for me, I'd go nuts. Maybe I'd change my tune if we had controllers stolen, but I'm much more worried about general vandalism then theft.

-Tim

[Guest guest]

Wait, I'm just loaded with great security ideas tonight!

Place the controllers underneath the Donations box, where you KNOW that no one ever goes!

[Guest guest]

Wes wrote:

Carrie Sansing wrote:

My insurance will cover the controllers and I can replace them--but I cannot replace many of the blow molds.

Interesting. Is it because the insurance company just don't cover outdoor decor?

Wes, the reason is many of my blow molds are no longer being made and cannot be purchased. The insurance would cover a theft, but the proceeds generally wouldn't be able to replace what I had lost because they are difficult, very hard to find items. The only source for some of the molds would be via eBay--so I'd be at the mercy of the auction process--you can't insure against that (well you can, but the premiums would be enormous--LOL)

[Guest guest]

jeffostroff wrote:

Wait, I'm just loaded with great security ideas tonight!

Place the controllers underneath the Donations box, where you KNOW that no one ever goes!

LOL. You know it! :laughing:

[Guest guest]

jeffostroff wrote:

Wait, I'm just loaded with great security ideas tonight!

Place the controllers underneath the Donations box, where you KNOW that no one ever goes!

Hell you are in Florida... with the nice warm winter weather, why not put up a walk thru trail that lures people to walk a path that is not visible to the road. We often collect over $1000 a week in donations and this isnt counting Christmas week. I had resisted for years until neighbors insisted I try it... I thought we would be just spending hours counting nickles and pennies. Nope, unbelievable stacks of $20, $2 bills, golden dollars, and even a few $50's and $100's.

You can imagine what the bank thinks when you show up with 2 xerox copy paper boxes packed with neatly stacked ones, fives and tens and stay at the bank 2 hours while tellers count it.

I was shocked and never realized I was wasting an opportunity to have decent funds to really reinvest into the display and get the electric bill paid. Hell we've had such surpluses above our costs that we've taken up charitable causes with the left over, seaking out a few really needy poverty stricken families and making sure Santa Claus was really good to their kids that year (like $500 per kid in gifts).

[Guest guest]

Carrie Sansing wrote:

I had one controller bolted to the back side of the house (it controlled the snowflakes on the roof) and two more out front near the display last year. This year I'll still bolt the one on the backside but the other 4 controllers will be out in front as close to the display as possible. I'd rather not have huge long runs of cords--its bad enough as it is. To conceal two of them, I used white garbage bags because they blended in with the snow--making the controllers very hard to find if you didn't know where they were (following the cords could have been option--but they would have had to pull and dig them out first). Only one was in plain sight out front, bolted to a panel which was driven into the ground on stakes.

A really effective trick is to use a separate after hours sound system. First of all record the homeowner's own voice making sounds like clearing your throat, coughing. Make little mini 5 second WAV files, load them into Winamp or Windows Media Player. Second, make a no sound blank recording, I think you can only recordup to 1 minute on the free one that comes with windows. Now make a playlist so that you have 1 to 2 minutes of silence being played, then play the throat clearing, then another 1 to 2 minutes of silence then it plays the cough. Set up the separate sound system so that it does NOT play thru your FM radio or theives become wise to you. Have a dark shadow somewhere in the yard and set the speakers there and adjust volume so its very believable that YOU are sitting there watching your display in the dark shadow.

Let me say, about 8 years ago, WE got vandalized here, lost a projector and a rake covered in lights, it was part of a scene that looked like the lit rakes was raking up glowing/flashing leaves in the ground and a christmas lighted wheel barrel to gather the leaves. Anyways we sort of caught what was happening just as the teenagers were driving off. Well I was really troubled by the vandalism. Thought of many ideas which included cow shockers for barbed wire fencing (I still have, install and arm every Christmas to "shock" would be theives) . I also sat up several nights until 4 AM sitting in the dark shadow waiting for them to return. One night they did and I was sitting there. As they started to approach, I couldnt help but cough and the kids took off running and this is where I got the idea. I set up the sound system, and later from inside the house, saw the kids approach yet again, but the sound system activated and it worked... with me NOT being out there, they took off thinking I WAS.

Since then my coughs and throat clearing have played anytime I leave the house with display running or after hours when lights go out and I have yet to have any vandalism since. The coughts and throat clearings work far better then cow shockers, night vision video cameras, you name it. I suggest problem plagued or paranoid people out there try it! It works great.

[Guest guest]

Hmmmm..... Pocketing the donations box. What a nifty idea.

Joseph Ayo wrote:

Hell you are in Florida... with the nice warm winter weather, why not put up a walk thru trail that lures people to walk a path that is not visible to the road. We often collect over $1000 a week in donations and this isnt counting Christmas week. I had resisted for years until neighbors insisted I try it... I thought we would be just spending hours counting nickles and pennies. Nope, unbelievable stacks of $20, $2 bills, golden dollars, and even a few $50's and $100's.

You can imagine what the bank thinks when you show up with 2 xerox copy paper boxes packed with neatly stacked ones, fives and tens and stay at the bank 2 hours while tellers count it.

I was shocked and never realized I was wasting an opportunity to have decent funds to really reinvest into the display and get the electric bill paid. Hell we've had such surpluses above our costs that we've taken up charitable causes with the left over, seaking out a few really needy poverty stricken families and making sure Santa Claus was really good to their kids that year (like $500 per kid in gifts).