Security - now I am the victim

[toddmoon]

I think one thing that has helped me with my Christmas displays is that they have been buried in snow each year and it has been freezing cold outside.

I wonder if folks in the sunbelt areas have more issues than those who live in colder regions during the Christmas season? :shock:

I am going to add motion lights in key locations this year because we have had a lot of new folks move in and the kids have been all over the place and do not seem to understand that going into other peoples houses makes people upset and angry.

My wife will not let me use the paintball security system so am limited to camera's and lights and my dog. :X

[melwelch]

I am planning on adding this to my display this year for security...

[Ed P]

melwelch wrote:

I am planning on adding this to my display this year for security...

You are joking right?

You'll have fire, water and electric all together.

You are playing with fire, but you are aren't you?

[rwertz]

Greg Young wrote:

After all - we are talking protecting display elements vs causing personal injuries.

That is a very important point. Nobody wants their display vandalized, but is it really worth potentially harming another person? I'll bet there are few in this thread that weren't an [Foul Language Used] teenager at one point in their youth. Most of these delinquent youths grow up to be very respectable adults.

Then there's always the possibility you could accidentally hurt a neighbor's pet or a young child who wonders off while their parents are distracted shoveling snow or something. Even if the law did forgive me for something like that, I could never forgive myself.

[PaulXmas]

toddmoon wrote:

I think one thing that has helped me with my Christmas displays is that they have been buried in snow each year and it has been freezing cold outside.

I wonder if folks in the sunbelt areas have more issues than those who live in colder regions during the Christmas season? :shock:

I am going to add motion lights in key locations this year because we have had a lot of new folks move in and the kids have been all over the place and do not seem to understand that going into other peoples houses makes people upset and angry.

My wife will not let me use the paintball security system so am limited to camera's and lights and my dog. :X

I think having snow does help deter thief and vandalism. They would leave foot prints and it is hard to run in 2 feet of snow. And plus once it gets cold it is hard to pull anything out of the ground.

[Greg Young]

sorry - duplicate post

[Greg Young]

melwelch wrote:

I am planning on adding this to my display this year for security...

I use the water scarecrow (in the summer only as it would freeze up in the winter!) to keep the deer away from my Hosta species garden. (we have over 46 varieties, some of which are not inexpensive..)

It works great, and is quite harmless.

I tried most all of the other methods, and this has been the one that worked for me.

It's overpriced, but considering what it is protecting, it is worth it.

The deer are now relegated to eating the common variety hostas along the edges of the woods.

Greg

[melwelch]

Ed P wrote:

You are joking right?

You'll have fire, water and electric all together.

You are playing with fire, but you are aren't you?

Water has no effect on the display. Lights run and are safe in a down pour so a little water from a sprinkler will have no effect....

[toddmoon]

During the summer if you used the water scare crow and had some low voltage DC like 9 VDC and maybe 0.010 amps going through the wire frames of your displays anyone who tried to move it would get an en-lighting experience.

Not that I recommend it, I just remember making a device in high school that ran off of a 9v batteries that we would hook up to door knobs to shock people. It was just basic fun and it was fun to watch.

I would have to have my camera video system setup to make sure I got it on video. It just be a lot simpler if the kids would just leave my displays alone and I would not have to worry about it. There are some new kids in the neighborhood and all of the neighbors have had issues with the boys getting into their yards.

I still like the paint ball security system. Nice clean simple and effective. I just can not get the wife to go for it. The software lets you define target size and area as well as set time zones when it will or will not fire. Amazing software control. I have talked to police in town and I asked them what would happen if I had the system and it shot some kid trying to vandalize my displays. They told me nothing would happen if the kid was actually trying to vanadalize my displays. If the kid was just tresspassing in my yard that would be another story I could be charged with assualting a minor. I suppose you could rig a connection to all of your display items and if the connection was broken then the paint ball system would open up full auto!

[Scott T]

Here are two of the three cameras that I installed. They all have a red LED that flashes, but I did not install the batteries. Real cameras don't have flashing lights.

Attached files

[toddmoon]

I already have video cameras installed but that did not seem to make a difference to the delinquents that came into my yard. The one thing I did not have out at the time was my dog.

If anyone comes into the yard he lets me know about it. He really is my best security.

I am going to add some motion detector lights that I can unplug or switch off when I do not need them or they would interfere with my light show. I may put them on a timer so they only come on later at night.

I do have a cash and gift donation box for Toys for Tot so I do not want to scare off folks that are making donations so it is a delicate balance to protect and serve charity.

[toddmoon]

Ah, another item to add to my security. Should I add a remote fire capability and Taser the bugers that try and remove my displays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yk3MrpbJ9o

[TitusCarnathan]

take the taser idea and have a small robot moving around on your property some one inturdes have it go up and tase the person every 5 seconds until some one deactivates it

[jbzeus]

For those of you contemplating electric fence gadgets this is a must read:

Electric fences:

If you have ever used an electric fence or know someone who has one, you should read this.

The language used is a bit salty, but 'he tells it like it is' without cursing.

If you don't laugh hysterically at this, CHECK YOUR PULSE. It was sent by a retired dentist.


We have the standard 6 ft. fence in the backyard, and a few months ago, I heard about burglaries increasing dramatically in the entire city. To make sure this never happened to me, I got an electric fence and ran a single wire along the top of the fence.

Actually, I got the biggest cattle charger Tractor Supply had, made for 26 miles of fence. I then used an 8 ft. long ground rod, and drove it 7.5 feet into the ground. The ground rod is the key, with the more you have in the ground, the better the fence works.

One day I'm mowing the back yard with my cheapo Wal-Mart 6 hp big wheel push mower. The hot wire is broken and laying out in the yard. I knew for a fact that I unplugged the charger. I pushed the mower around the wire and reached down to grab it, to throw it out of the way.

It seems as though I hadn't remembered to unplug it after all.

Now I'm standing there, I've got the running lawnmower in my right hand and the 1.7 giga-volt fence wire in the other hand. Keep in mind the charger is about the size of a marine battery and has a picture of an upside down cow on fire on the cover.

Time stood still.

The first thing I notice is my pecker is trying to climb up the front side of my body as my ears curl downwards and I could feel the lawnmower ignition firing in the backside of my brain. Every time that Briggs & Stratton rolled over, I could feel the spark in my head as I was literally at one with the engine.

It seems as though the fence charger and the piece of [Foul Language Used] lawnmower were fighting over who would control my electrical impulses.

Science says you cannot crap, pee, and vomit at the same time. I beg to differ. Not only did I do all three at once, but my bowels emptied 3 different times in less than half of a second. It was a Matrix kind of bowel movement, where time is creeping along and you're all leaned back and BAM -- you just crap your pants 3 times. It seemed like there were minutes in between but in reality it was so close together it was like exhaust pulses from a big block Chevy turning 8 grand.

At this point I'm about 30 minutes (maybe 2 seconds) into holding onto the fence wire. My hand is wrapped around the wire palm down so I can't let go. I grew up on a farm so I know all about electric fences ... but Dad always had those piece of [Foul Language Used] chargers made by International or whoever that were like 9 volts and just kinda tickled.

This one I could not let go of. The 8 foot long ground rod is now accepting signals from me through the permadamp Ark-La-Tex river bottom soil. At this point I'm thinking I'm going to have to just man up and take it, until the lawnmower runs out of gas.

'Damn!' I think, as I remember I just filled the tank!

Now the lawnmower is starting to run rough. It has settled into a loping run pattern as if it had some kind of big lawnmower race cam in it. Covered in poop, pee, and with my vomit on my chest I think 'Oh God please die.... Pleeeeaze die'. But nooooo, it settles into the rough lumpy cam idle nicely and remains there, like a big bore roller cam EFI motor waiting for the go command from its owner's right foot.

So here I am in the middle of July, 104 degrees, 80% humidity, standing in my own backyard, begging God to kill me. God did not take me that day.... he left me there covered in my own fluids to writhe in the misery my own stupidity had created.

I honestly don't know how I got loose from the wire....

I woke up lying on the ground hours later. The lawnmower was beside me, out of gas. It was later on in the day and I was sunburned.

There were two large dead grass spots where I had been standing, and then another long skinny dead spot where the wire had laid while I was on the ground still holding on to it. I assume I finally had a seizure and in the resulting thrashing had somehow let go of the wire.

Upon waking from my electrically induced sleep I realized a few things:

1 - Three of the fillings in my teeth have melted.

2 - I now have cramps in the bottoms of my feet and my right butt cheek (not the left, just the right).

3 - Poop, pee, and vomit when all mixed together, do not smell as bad as you might think.

4 - My left eye will not open.

5 - My right eye will not close.

6 - The lawnmower runs like a “son nova bitch” now. Seriously! I think our little session cleared out some carbon fouling or something, because it was better than new after that.

7 - My nuts are almost a foot long.

8 - I can turn on the TV in the game room by farting while thinking of the number 4 (still don't understand this???).

That day changed my life. I now have a newfound respect for things. I appreciate the little things more, and now I always triple check to make sure the fence is unplugged before I mow.

The good news is that if a burglar does try to come over the fence, I can clearly visualize what my security system will do to him, and THAT gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling all over, which also reminds me to triple check before I mow.

[toddmoon]

Oh, Dammmmmmmm my sides hurt!

[toddmoon]

My wife has a beagle dog that was always running under our chain link fence and taking off for a run. So one day I ran an electric wire around the base of the fence to keep him from going under the fence.

He seemed to know that he should not after I got it turned on so instead he ran up to the fence where her rose bushes are and he decided to take a leak on her rose bush. She yelled at him not to and he seemed to just look and her with the attitude just try and stop me.

Well the pee hit the wire and he let out this tremendous yell and fell over. I thought that I had killed the dog and my wife was going to kill me.

Well the stupid dog lived and so I did too. We still have the dog five years later and he still will not go within 3 feet of the fence now.

[JeffF]

Now that was a good belly laugh!!!

[PaulXmas]

LOL at the guy and dog!

[Guest guest]

Scott T wrote:

Real cameras don't have flashing lights.

Actually this is not completely true. I don't have them any longer, but I did have some WIRELESS cameras and they had the option of NO LED, FLASHING LED or STEADY ON LED.

I have also worked in electronics and built security camera electronics, many commercial security cameras, do in fact, have the 3 options, FLASHING LED, STEADY ON LED or LED OFF on them, it is to serve as a power indicator so one knows the camera is getting power, just in case the camera is not providing any signal(video) to the base unit or receiver, the LED shows camera is, in fact, receiving power, so if its not working(no video output), then there is another issue to look at.

The Power LED can be turned off/disabled if the client doesn't want it on, and most folks would never notice the LED on some of these cameras if turned off because of the way they are mounted in them, most are recessed with just a small hole to allow the light from the LED to show, the LED does not stick out like the "fake camera" blinking LEDs do. Although dependng on the manufacturer, some security cameras don't have the power LED option at all, some do and some, yes, some even have the LED sticking out the case just like the fake ones(these are usually the cheap security cameras, most often the more expensive ones and better camera types have the LED recessed inside the case).

So to say "real" security cameras don't have these blinking LEDS. is in actuallity, more false than true.



BTW: My deterrent is, show ends for the night, one channel is set aside for floodlight to light my yard and display all night and off in the morning. Then my FM Transmitter comes on and starts broadcasting music all day until showtime riolls back around again. It has worked fine so far. Plus if anyone wants anything, they'll really have to work for it, everything is zip tied with thousands of black plastic zip/cable ties, screwed down with cable clamps and also tied to each other. Sure they could do damage and vandalize, but they can't get off with anything WITHOUT making it useless, especially if they were trying to steal it to sell for money.

Even before I went LOR(which this is my first year), I was using the same tie/screw down methods on cords and decor. No problems in over 20+ years.

[jjdurrant]

I went out and bought four 125w floods that will kick in after show completes. I am hoping that is good enough.