12
Mar
2013
By Calvin at 16:02 GMT, 13 years ago
It’s obviously that time of year again, because Herefordshire police are urging local people to improve security after a notable and recent rise in shed break-ins across the county.
And they are absolutely right to raise this matter, because not only do we keep things of value in our sheds, but our sheds are often the source of the very tools that burglars use to break into our homes.
So, what’s in a shed?
This is what’s in mine: A leaf blower/vacuum; an over-wintering Greek urn water feature; hand and power tools galore; materials such as nails, screws, lead, copper; a microwave, a tumble drier and a cuddly toy. Oh, and of course, my office (from where I’m writing to you). I expect the value of the contents runs into thousands, so it’s alarmed and properly secured.
The tee hinges on the doors are coach bolted in place, not screwed. The mortice sashlock is BS 3621, but as my shed has a double leaf door, not only is the second opening leaf bolted in place with mortice rack bolts, but I lock them further still at night using a hasp, staple and padlock.
The windows are locked, grilled and netted, so nobody can look in to see what I’ve got and my more expensive power tools and even the garden spade and fork are permanently engraved with my postcode. And to top it all off I also employ a shed alarm.
Because I use the front third of my rather big shed as an office, the walls have been insulated and sheeted with thick plywood. I don’t think I could do any more than I have, but should the worse happen at least I’m insured.
I hope you can see from my example that there’s much that can be done to secure a shed and if you’re keen to follow the warning from Herefordshire police take a look at the information on this website here
So where does stuff stolen from sheds end up? - CAR BOOT SALES!
When I joined the police in the late 70s car boot sales were just beginning to appear. Up until then sheds were normally only broken into for tools with which to break into the house. The advent of the car boot sale provided a new market place to sell virtually anything, and this saw the beginning of the rise in shed break-ins, a crime that has continued to rise against the general trend of reductions in most other crime categories. Car boot sales are Aladdin caves for property that would otherwise have been rarely stolen, such as spades, garden forks, shovels, rakes, plastic netting, old electric drills, saws, screwdrivers and so on; and we should also remember that a market for this type of property also put allotment gardens at greater risk.
In spite of this increased threat I’m amazed at how so few people are securing the shed to the extent necessary. I don’t know if you’ve tried out the Home Security Survey on this website, but it’s interesting to see how people describe the security of their sheds:
Of the 1,023 respondents who say they have a shed in the garden, an astonishing 39% reckon that their shed is ‘not very well secured’ and only 13.5% state that their shed is ‘very well secured’ (like mine). In addition to this, 23.8% of respondents admit that they have tools lying around the garden or kept in insecure outbuildings, so it’s no wonder why shed crime is so high and car 'loot' sales are doing so well! (By the way, my apologies to the vast majority of honest people who are selling off the contents of their attics)
So what can we do about it?
Well, I’m just a retired old cop operating a little website, but what I can do is to freely and candidly spell things out and make plain that we’ve all got to do a whole lot better than we currently are!
If you’re one of my Partners operating a website can I urge you to include some of what I’ve said on your own news pages and in your newsletters? Spring weather isn’t that too far away (well at least we hope so!) and lots of us will start to experience those urges to get outside into the garden. So now is the very best time to make shed security an absolute number one priority for this season.
Let’s put the SHED SECURITY DREAD TO BED this season – you know it makes sense!
Shed Security: http://thecrimepreventionwebsite.com/preventing-theft-from-the-garden/606/security-for-garden-outbuildings/
Original Story West Mercia Police: http://www.westmercia.police.uk/news/news-articles/security-advice-following-herefordshire-shed-breaks.html
