Recently had someone come into our house and try to steal our dogs through an open backdoor.
What are ways we can prevent this (other than of course locking all doors)? I have already ordered indoor and outdoor cameras as well as a ring doorbell.
Anything else I should consider?
Thanks, we have some in our garage and side area, but nothing for our porch and backyard. The cameras I purchased came with "sensor spotlights" - do you think that will be enough or would it be wiser to add some more of the motion sensor activated lights in?
I would add the bright floodlight variant. Not only as a deterrent that may scare off would-be approachers, but will be immediately obvious to you at night when they go on too.
Flipside is if you have birds/critters around that might set them off all the time I suppose.
Thanks for getting back to me. Will definitely do that then!
Are they decent cameras?
If they're similar to these Hikvision ColorVu cameras they give excellent quality colour vision at night if there's some ambient light around.
If there isn't much light around you simply set it so the LED lights stay on at night and you can get away without additional lighting.
For a really good LED flood light you can't go wrong with one of these - https://reductionrevolution.com.au/products/philips-led-floo…
Pair the flood light with a clipsal sensor - https://www.mjselectricalsupplies.com.au/clipsal-infrascan-o…
All the security lights you get at bunnings aren't worth bringing home in comparison, particularly the sensors on the lights which usually fail first (1-2 years), especially if it's in full sunlight.
Just as an aside to this, I recently noticed that TP-Link cameras can be set to turn on smart bulbs when they detect motion, all within the app. Others can do it via ifttt.
TP-Link app allows you to do it during certain times too (so your lights aren't coming on during the day)
So instead of looking for floodlights etc, utilise the cameras and replace all outside bulbs with smart bulbs
Get another dog, a guard dog to protect the other dogs?
My four dogs are on the smaller end… defs time to look at getting a GSD or a rottie.
It's not a bad idea to be fair. We have a labrador, and she'd be completely useless in reality if someone broke in, she'd sacrifice us for a sausage any day. She does however sound extremely aggressive when anyone approaches, most intruders wouldn't risk it.
From my perspective, it's all about deterring people. Lighting and cameras will put plenty of people off, if they see all that on your house they'll pick another that doesn't have it.
Get a bigger dog.
Beaten!
👍
Brill idea! I'll have a dog pack soon enough!
Release the hounds
through an open backdoor
Can you add a mechanism for self closing and electrified the door handle? :)
Hmm, not much of an inventor, but what an idea!
It is called a “man trap” and illegal. People trying to save you in your burning house will get hit as well. However, it would be interesting to look at “breaking” a laser beam and a loud alarm.
what kind of dogs do you have?
dognapping is on the rise
so much so that there are actual full time pet private detectives now
you were very lucky
They're cavvies, so very popular. One is a pup and they're all dearly beloved. I'm so glad that we caught them in the act - surprised they didn't take any of our valuables as it adds up to quite a bit and I honestly would prefer people taking our valuables than our dogs.
I’m with you on the pets. Everything is insured but the cats are sacrosanct. If you want to leave the door open for ventilation maybe look at getting one of the reinforced screen doors. Glad you didn’t lose any of your bubbies.
me too
are they all microchipped? - it does not help very much when it comes to theft but it's better than nothing, as it's not removable or changable by the vast majority of theives
as others have suggested; considering getting a guardian dog for them is not a bad idea.
i'd suggest you'd want a big dog who is submissive to other dogs. breeds can be a clue but you would need to ask about and evaluate each dog individually. a livestock guardian or herding breed of dog could be great as long as it had the right temperament.
Close and lock the back-door?
Signs to say "ozbargain protected"
Eneloop traps
More serious note: floodlights (auto on)
Haha, I can only do the first one, but will be getting auto floodlights installed!
so ur saying you never close or and lock back door? no wonder these guys are coming in - its an obvious invitation…..
Surely the sign should be “protected by bikies”.
You can use smart bulbs and smart plugs to turn on appliances like floor lamps at certain (or even random) times when you are not home to make people think the house is occupied.
Could also stream music on a smart speaker to give the illusion that someone's home.
There are sensors you can buy that fit onto doors and windows which sends you a notification or perform a programmed action whenever something is opened at certain hours of the day. e.g turn on lights when a window is opened and play a siren sound on a smart speaker.
We already have automatic timers for lights on in our home, but I like the streaming of music and will definitely use that. The sensors are so nifty, thank you so much for linking that! I'll definitely be buying those.
Hire Bikies
Got any recs?
Dog bikkies?
i watched on the news the cops are cracking down bikie gangs…..so they wont be of any help when they're trying to protect themselves or jailed up…. they also found the guy who killed the bikie gang leader at motoplex…was some ex-soldier who probably used a sniper rifle from a couple of kilometers away.
GPS tracking dog collar? Not sure if it's comfortable for the dogs though
I was thinking about this and initially with a tile, but I was unsure if they would immediately take it off and thus render them all useless :/
Are there any that don't look obvious?
The GPS trackers I've been looking at that can also be purchased in Australia look quite obvious, but I'll continue looking into it and hopefully find better options.
If you like to leave your doors open for the fresh air, then invest in a decent security screen door that is burglar resistant, such as 'crimsafe'.
What are ways we can prevent this
indoor and outdoor cameras as well as a ring doorbell are mostly after the fact?
Definitely a deterrent.
If I was looking to break into a house in a street and all the houses in that street didn't have security cameras except one, guess which house I'm going to avoid?
I've also got one of these cameras installed which alerts me to motion straight away at the front door. It has two way audio (speaker & microphone), so I can speak with whoever is there, regardless of whether I'm actually home or not. It also has a siren & strobe -
https://www.securitywholesalers.com.au/product/hikvision-acu…
The rest of our house perimeter is also covered by CCTV, so if anyone steps foot onto our property when I'm not there I'll know & I can phone the police and/or head home straight away.
guess which house I'm going to avoid?
A house in another street, that way, you're not caught on camera going to and from the only house without a camera.
As a neighbour of someone who has yappy little dogs, i can say that the thief would be doing everyone a favour.
I second that.
Had a neighbour with 2 dogs, looked like Pit Bull crosses, who barked non stop when their owner was away.
Was so happy when someone broke into their place and stole them.
I tried to find the thief so I could thank/reward them but was unsuccessful.
Robbers aren't going to kill them. They will bark on someone else's property.
Why not punish the owners, not the dogs that are born with seperation anxiety?
Cameras that upload to the cloud that are also viewable via your phone. Expensive to set up but might be worth it. And signs pointing out the existence of cameras.
Bikes
Bigger dog
A sign asking people not to steal your dogs (including the bigger dog)
+
what you’ve already mentioned you’ve got/ will get.
You are good to go my friend.
leave the front door open and everything else
robbers will think, him this is a trap and will rob someone elses house
Slightly ajar with some fake blood smears..
need to have a black van, tinted windows, radar dish on the top, like some police stakeout lol
robbers will think, him this is a trap and will rob someone elses house
Smart robbers would look pass it and see that it's not an obvious trap…and will promptly proceed to steal everything from the house.
Simple signs can have psychological effect and make people think twice. Moving on down the road.
Something as innocuous as-
https://shop.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1…
Phalanx CIWS.
Stop buying tiny yappy dogs
Recently had someone come into our house and try to steal our dogs through an open backdoor.
Lock the front door. This will stop them coming into your house and going through the open back door to the back yard where the dogs are..
Bubble wrap. Will prevent injuries when you bump into the house.
Mass breed your dogs until its worthless to steal.
Motion sensor activated lights.