How secure is your tack room?

[chocolategirl]

I work in the construction industry as a head of security...previous to that I spent thirty years in the Police...

I did a series of programmes with a reformed thief who taught me so so much...

The biggest lesson he taught me was to shut the gate! He stated that he hated being caught behind a closed gate...he had no excuse if confronted...

He would use just total front otherwise and would drive in to any site to scope it out for later...
if confronted he would just make up an excuse...got any scrap metal?, I”m looking for Pond Farm etc etc...

The moral of the story its all very well securing the place up at night but please don”t leave the place wide open during the day for all to see! Once they have clocked what you have got it won’t be long before they come back....

unfortunately with the advent of power tools especially small power angle grinders padlocks are of little use unless they are the enclosed type but even then a grinder will make small work of a cheap padlock...

Reduce the opportunity in the first place... keep valuables whether they be saddles or trailers lorries etc out of sight of the occasional visitor...lock machinery especially quads in a barn and use ground anchors where possible...don’t leave keys in tractors, or hide car keys under the sun visor or rubber mats! This is the first place they look!

Use things like driveway alarms..these are cheap as chips and will give you an alert in the house that someone is moving around your yard...they are battery powered and wireless and less than £35!
Mark your property!! Engrave it, stamp it, use an indelible pen...whatever...you won’t believe the amount of property that police seize from criminals but have to return it to them because they are unable to identify it... trust me it’s the worse feeling ever when they go off smirking with someone else’s property! There are lots of security kits out there many of which do specific farm kits or tack room kits... they may be the only chance of getting your stuff back...
Most importantly shut that gate! Don’t let them in...

Great advice, thank you! Can you recommend a driveway alarm that’s for putting inside a tack room please? There’s so many to choose from, but I’m guessing they all do the same thing??

 

[AdorableAlice]

Fabulous advice from Farmer Chalk. I would like to add that many police forces have rural crime officers and initiative. Our district has one and they visited us last weekend free of charge To provide extensive advice, property marking and stamping, lots of signage etc.

the first thing they said was SHUT the gate and keep it SHUT at all times. Plus, light the place in darkness hours, thieves hate light and being exposed. CCTV ideally the recording system. there Is nothing that will stop a determined thief but making life awkward and risky may deter them enough to look elsewhere I suppose.

 

[cremedemonthe]

As Farmer Chalk has said, shut the gate.
I have seen on Dene City farm in south London years ago, before they moved to their new site, thieves breaking in through the roof.
They had good locks, lights everything you could think of on the front door but the roof was easy pickings.
Took the tiles off and smashed their way in.
They nicked all the saddles and bridles I had just worked on which was even more annoying for the owners as all now sound and not needing repairs, so far more sellable.

I have also seen theft from a metal lorry container down at the back of Gatwick at a livery yard that was being used to house the tack. The owners of the yard had got a bracket welded over where the security paddlock went so you couldn't smash it off with a sledge hammer. What did they do?
Arrived at 2 am in a white transit, used an industrial petrol angle grinder (probably nicked as well) and ground the bracket and padlock right off in one. Cleared the lot into the back of the transit never to be seen again, surrounded by houses and had to pass a hotel to get to the yard, no one saw or heard anything!

 

[canteron]

Just as a random aside apparently thrives like windy nights - makes sense!!!

 

[Equi]

I have a metal tack locker inside a locked tack room with CCTV pointed at the door. I don't have anything of value because i just don't think you need to spend £2000 on a saddle lol but thats me and i don't really rug so he has like 2 from derby house lol. The only thing i have at home is a cart but good luck to anyone who wants to get it out cause i can't even get at it myself.

 

[IngramsRoughDiamond]

I'm a DIY on a livery yard that is also a beef cattle farm so we have Uber Security, we have gates with heavy duty chains and locks in multiple locations, CCTV cameras, the farmer and his sons live on different points of the farm so all areas are covered, plus we can't be seen from the road in any way and we have 6 fully trained guard dogs. I think it's mainly because of the cows but it benefits us too

 

[Bertolie]

Out tack room is double doored, inner one padlocked and outer one yale lock, and bars on windows. I think the biggest deterrent are the owners 9 dogs which live on site.....5 of which are rottweilers! We have had a few dodgy characters on site asking silly questions so we always point them in the direction of the house. For some reason they dont hang around long when greeted by growling dogs!

 

[Keith_Beef]

On the subject of going in through the roof... a little over a month ago thieves broke into an Aldi or a Lidl (I forget which) near to where I live. They cut off the electricity, went in through the roof right over the office, broke open the safe and stole around €9000. But with the power to the fridges and freezers off for several hours, €27000 of stock was spoiled.

 

[PippiPantoPony]

The last yard I was at had the heavy duty enclosed padlocks on the outer doors, and the inner tack room door. Barred windows. PIR and an alarm - the code of which was changed every time someone left the yard. But the best thing they ever did was provide emergency stabling for a heavily pregnant mare while the local family from the camp up the road went back to Ireland for a funeral. All the local stables were burgled but never ours.