Had the diesel siphoned out of the four 7.5t lorries in our yard again in the early hours of today. Two of them have 100 litre tanks, one is 120 litre, one is 150 litre. So that's £350 worth. Just like last week. And three weeks ago. And eight weeks ago. I fitted locking fuel caps to all the lorries yesterday, today they're all bent and laying on the floor.
The yard is square, with brick-built units on two opposing sides, a 7ft brick wall with 7ft high metal gates at the front, which are locked at night, and a 7ft chainlink fence to the rear, bordering a water authority underground reservoir. What appears to be happening is that the fuel thieves are getting into the water board property, then either lifting up or pulling down the wire fence to get into our yard. We have sensor floodlights but no CCTV, and the yard is located at the end of a 1-mile long industrial estate road. Short of sleeping in one of the lorries with a baseball bat, or spending lots and lots of money on cameras, has anyone got any suggestions as to how we can stop it happening? The police are patrolling the road every hour at night at the moment, but it still happened last night without anyone seeing anything.
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2 hungry (and angry) dobermans
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Bearing in mind the amount of money you're losing every time this happens, is there any chance of replacing the wire fence with another 7ft brick wall?
HF
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Heard of a hifi shop owner in USA who installed a mean and hungry doberman after several break-ins. Next break-in, the dog was nicked. :(
Oz (as was)
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Experience of CCTV is that it can be vastly overated. The only bonus is that you can watch the thieving s**s stealing your property the next day. Identifying them is a completely different matter! To shift that much fuel would require containers transport and time. From your brief description anyone inside the yard would be hidden from the road where the Police patrol.
Not a quick fix solution but are other buisnesses in the immediate vicinity suffering? If so could you club together for some on site security? How about some decent infra-red triggering device wired up to some serious light/noise eg ships claxon!!!!
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Would locking fuel caps help?
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Would locking fuel caps help?
small extract from D The T\'s post \"I fitted locking fuel caps to all the lorries yesterday, today they\'re all bent and laying on the floor\"
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Oops, that's speed reading for ya!
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Beware the locking fuel caps idea.
I bought a batch of vans from British Gas, that all had the bottom of the fuel tank holed, so that the diesel could be drained into a bowl? or something similar.This was from a depot in 24 hour use!!
If they climb over a wall, how about a liberal application of grease on the top.Shouldn't be doing anything to upset the 'Don't hurt the criminals' brigade.I think they still make paint that doesn't dry, for drainpipes etc, too.
The idea of tight parking, may help.
Mark
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Another thought. Is it possible to park the vehicles in such a manner as to frustrate access to the fuel tanks. Re the vehicle needed to shift the fuel are they gaining access via the resevoir to the rear? If so could that not be made inaccesable by the owners?
Dont know the set up but is it possibly an employee with gate keys?
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And another thought if this is getting regular have a word with your local crime prevention officer there are some special toys!
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Micromark do (or did do) a cctv system that had an incorporated PIR dectector that automatically starts a VCR recording only when movement is detected. The model No. is MM23142. Cost £99. Argos used to sell them, but now discontinued. Found this website however that still sells them. secure.ukworlds.com/shopkeeper/P.E.D/sp_10361-15.h...2 I believe Do-It-All and some of the other DIY shops still sell it. The advantage with this system is you only have to wade through a small amount of video tape as opposed to 8 hours worth. Picture quality isn't too bad either. Enough for police evidence.
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Could some form of wire be fitted to the fuel cap that would trigger spotlights/siren etc. if the wire was broken or disturbed? Some years ago there were thefts of capping stones from local gardens(including mine.) When I replaced them, and before the mortar was set, I fitted a 'sensor' to the top of the wall which connected to the front doorbell - anyone moving a length of wood from the top of the wall would trigger it.
Hope you find a way to scupper the thieving toerags!
Regards,
P.
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DtD
As Full Chat states have a word with your local Plod, the Officer dealing with your crime/Crime Prevention Officer.
Any Force of substance will have a Scientific Aids Department with access Regionally to the lastest surviellance equipment
As this appears to be reular occurrence and will be so until they get caught, ask them to bug/alarm your place.
Failing this any chance of parking your vehicles side by side
diesel tanks together and across the back like the wagon trains of the wild west???
If you consider a four stone bundle of teeth on four legs be very careful as their is legislation on what you can do under the Guard Dogs Act.
Three or four ganders (Geese) on your plot will make a hell of a din if chummies attacked with the bonus of a feast at Xmas.
Countryman MM could explain this better.
DVD
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A power-inverter shoving out 240V? Touch the vehicle, you get nastily shocked.
We'd get away with it here - don't know about the nanny state, though...
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Hi, Obtain a video camera ideally one that can run in low level light, a PC and Video input card. You may already have these. Down load From the Creative Labs Web site there Web Cam go Plus software which includes Spy Software which only grabs pictures when objects move in the field of view. When triggered the software can either, when a modem/phone line is available, ring your house number, your mobile, or sent an email to you.
Now if that’s too much try this. Obtain and external IR detector £20 and an SD01 Auto dialler £80 and a 12 volt DC power supply to power the SD01 and the IR monitor. The IR sensor can now trigger the Auto dialler which can ring up to 3 numbers in sequence. You are not allowed to Dial 999 from an auto dialler. Speak to your local Security Electrical trade warehouse. The auto dialler is made by Menvier and numerous companies make IR movement detectors.
You could of course wire the flood lights to sound a loud alarm so the thieves .…er off. However if no one responds they will come back and just carry on. Regards Peter
P.S. It must take a fair while to syphon that much fuel and into what and a lot of can and weight to shift. Are you sure they are not actually driving into you yard and they lock up again when finished.
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I suspect these guys pull up outside your yard in a van/truck, run a pipe 15 mm or so through your gate whilst the guy on inside of the gate opens the caps and sticks the pipe in the tanks and the outside van/truck runs an electric pump to shift the fuel. Look carefully for the marks where a pipe has been lying in the dirt or something. Regards Peter
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Ian (Cape Town) unfortunately our laws aren't quite as sensible as yours. Just like we can't have flame throwers out of the side of our cars.
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I wish ... ;-)
Oz (as was)
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Remember, any security devices or precautions you take must be comlient with relevent Health and Safety laws and a bit of legistlation that reduces your liability should some thieving person be injured whilst stealing your property.
I think IIRC that a wall of over 2 meters can have what they call "topping" in the trade, things that hurt in other words but they must be compliant and carry a CE mark.
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Surely the same health and safety law says someone needs to take reasonable care in their own health and safety? A wall with spikes on the top where the spikes are well lit and clearly sign posted in several languages should be allowed. Anyone that climbs over a wall where they can see the spikes is obviously not exercising a duty of care. It would certainly make an interesting test case ;-)
teabelly
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Please be carefull if you decide to get a dog or dogs for your yard. Magistrates will order a dog destroyed at the drop of a hat.
If you do, make sure that you have a place far away and logistics in place, to get the dog away quickly in the event that he should "nip a perp" whilst doing the job that you put him there to do.
This warning in fond memory of Zacky. Never forgotten and may he rest in peace.
British justice ? ( Answer unprintable )
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To add to the dogs idea, if you go down this road (excuse pun) you can't let the dogs roam around on their own in the compound. They must have a handler with them at all times, kept on a lead I believe, and a sign warning of Guard Dogs On Patrol.
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Thanks for all suggestions so far guys, at the moment it's looking like some sort of motion detection linked to an audible alarm to alert us when something is occurring. I went over to the reservoir today (well, yesterday technically, but it's still today to me until I've had a sleep!) and spoke to some maintenance workers. They've had a water board official visit to ask if they'd seen anything, they said no, he went away again. I walked round the perimeter of the reservoir site with one of the contractors and found 2 holes in the fence and one of our fuel caps in the grass. We've now patched up the fence as best we could, and also parked the trucks offside to offside with a gap of about an inch.
I'm working on selling the CCTV idea to the powers that be, although I can see me, ladders and wiring coming together fairly soon if that idea gets the nod...
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The more I read her - health and safety issues, guard dogs must be with handler etc - makes me believe the old big lads, balaclavas, baseball bats and watertight alibis scenario might be best.
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