remote home protection [RE-wrenches]

[Travis Creswell]

We have a remote off grid customer that was plagued with theft at his rarely
occupied cabin.  About a year ago we installed dummy camera's complete with
a flashing LED (powered by a 9v battery) and put up very official looking
"Protected by Electronic Security" signs.  No problems since then but they
also pretty much cleaned him out the last time so maybe they've just not
came back.  He was broke into at least 3x's before and it was probably the
same crooks each time.

We looked into all sorts of real security systems.  Most of them required a
phone line.  All required electricity, etc.  Motion sensing cameras have
limited memory and so what if you get a picture of the people ransacking
your place?  You still have to find them and it might be two months after
the crime before you even discover it.  We found the local deputy sheriff's
unable/unwilling to help.  Even caught one of them on the customers place
hunting once...how do you tell an armed sheriff to get off of your property?
Sounds like the same things you are going through.

This customer as well as other customers who've had problems and myself all
suspect that the most likely suspects are people who've been there working.
This afforded them ability to "case the joint".  IE; it's probably not the
plumber himself but the transient laborer he hired the week before that job
and who quit a quite/got fired a week later.

It might be anecdotal but customers who built everything themselves have had
the least problems.

Travis Creswell
Ozark Energy Services


-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Yago [mailto:jryago at netscape.com] 
Sent: Saturday, April 14, 2007 9:22 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: remote home protection [RE-wrenches]


I sometimes write articles and have recently received very sad stories from
several different readers living in off-grid cabins or remote homes. Each
had been away for a few days or left for a long trip to town and returned to
find their homes and storage buildings totally trashed and all of their
tools, chain-saws, guns, stored foods, and electronics were missing. What
was not stolen was broken or trashed because there was no hurry since nobody
lived anywhere near them. Several of these folks were women living alone in
what they had thought were very peaceful areas of their states, and all
complained that the local police/sheriff was a joke and they felt like they
had been raped.

I was wondering if this is a new trend in crime as more and more
homesteaders head for rural areas and if you all have run into this with
some of your remote off-grid clients. Of course the next question is - were
the criminals ever caught and what, if anything, did the homeowner do
afterwards to try and reduce their risk?

Several have suggested one of those motion sensing video recorders or motion
sensing hunters cameras. Of course being off-grid or remote the solution
should not require lots of electrical power. Most of my rural clients are
well armed, but that is no good if the criminals wait until they leave their
land.

Any stories you can tell or advice we all could use to reduce the risk?

Jeff Yago

_____________________________________________________________
Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.


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