Barn/house security

[appendix100]

What do all of you use for security on your property?

We live in an area where we have historically had no issues, leave our cars unlocked, etc. Recently there have been a spate of issues, neighbor got truck stolen, & now there are multiple incidents of that vehicle being used in other robberies locally, several barns in the area have had people come steal purses out of vehicles, & one recently lost a huge amount of tack.

Except for the truck all the barn robberies have been lesson/training/boarding barns.

However, it is making us rethink our casual view on security. We now lock the cars/trucks in the driveway, & lock the outside garage door. I am thinking I would like to get some security cameras as well.

What types of precautions does everyone take, & if you use cameras what do you use? Our wifi doesn’t reach out to our barn

[LCDR]

Mark all of your saddles with owner ID’s. Years ago we had a rash of barn burglaries like this. The culprit tried to sell one of the saddles to a local tack store owner. She recognized the name on the saddle flap and very smartly said she would take it on consignment and got his contact info.

Tack store owner and local police set up a sting. She called the thief to say the saddle was sold and he could come in for his money. Thief was arrested at the tack store. The barn thefts ended.

[OverandOnward]

Boarders and people who take their horses & tack to shows & group rides & such might consider stuffing an electronic locator inside a saddle somewhere. I’ve done this.

A simple locator such as Tile or Chipolo will not GPS find the saddle out in the wilds somewhere.

But the locator will ring if you summon it within so many feet. If you suspect you are in the vicinity of a missing saddle, you can at least find it, and that ring identifies it as yours.

This would be helpful if you think the thief has it stashed nearby, or if police take you to a group of recovered items to identify yours. Of course a name stamp is also effective in that case.

Find Your Keys, Wallet & Phone with Tile’s App and Bluetooth Tracker Device...

A GPS pet locator might be a consideration as well. I haven’t used one and don’t know which are best and have the longest range.

GPS Tracker for Dogs with Activity Monitoring

[trubandloki]

@appendix100

What types of precautions does everyone take, & if you use cameras what do you use? Our wifi doesn’t reach out to our barn

Extending the wifi to the barn should be doable (but don’t ask me how, Mr. Trub did it for us).

I am just going to add, before you spend a bunch of money on security cameras to get video of the idiots doing this, ask yourself if you live in an area where that will do anything.

What I mean is, well an example. Where Mr. Trub works has a great video system. They have very clear video of several car break-ins that happened in their parking lot. The police are so busy with other things that they are not interested. That type of crime is not worth their time (the murder rate is kind of high there so, I am not really blaming the police).

[appendix100]

@trubandloki

Extending the wifi to the barn should be doable (but don’t ask me how, Mr. Trub did it for us).

I am just going to add, before you spend a bunch of money on security cameras to get video of the idiots doing this, ask yourself if you live in an area where that will do anything.

What I mean is, well an example. Where Mr. Trub works has a great video system. They have very clear video of several car break-ins that happened in their parking lot. The police are so busy with other things that they are not interested. That type of crime is not worth their time (the murder rate is kind of high there so, I am not really blaming the police).

I don’t think this kind of crime is high priority for the police anywhere anymore. Too many other big things going. But, cameras would make me feel better, even if in real world terms they don’t do much.

[trubandloki]

@appendix100

But, cameras would make me feel better, even if in real world terms they don’t do much.

I understand.

We have a Blink mini camera set-up on our house and in the barn.

[Simkie]

I extended my WiFi to the barn with orbi (a mesh network) and have cameras all over the property. I started with Arlo, and have several on solar panels, and recently picked up a couple Eufy that have an integrated solar panel, which are pretty slick. I prefer Eufy.

For your tack, etc, be sure to have pictures of it all, including any unique identifiers like serial numbers. Consider branding it in some way that cannot be removed. Check with your insurance company about what is and is not covered in case of theft.

Do you have any sort of alert when people come onto the property? We have a cartel driveway alarm that alerts when people drive up. Smart lights also allow me to turn on everything outside with one action, which is nice when someone arrives unexpectedly late at night.

@OverandOnward I use Tractive on my dog, and it would be tough to use it for this purpose, unless you’re willing to charge it often (weekly.)

[Scribbler]

@appendix100

What do all of you use for security on your property?

We live in an area where we have historically had no issues, leave our cars unlocked, etc. Recently there have been a spate of issues, neighbor got truck stolen, & now there are multiple incidents of that vehicle being used in other robberies locally, several barns in the area have had people come steal purses out of vehicles, & one recently lost a huge amount of tack.

Except for the truck all the barn robberies have been lesson/training/boarding barns.

However, it is making us rethink our casual view on security. We now lock the cars/trucks in the driveway, & lock the outside garage door. I am thinking I would like to get some security cameras as well.

What types of precautions does everyone take, & if you use cameras what do you use? Our wifi doesn’t reach out to our barn

Around here all the horse acreage has automatic gates with fencing along the road frontage. Folks tend to trust their neighbors so the back pasture fences are not secure but everyone is gated off from the road.

We have a very active petty crime and drug population so in general hardening the targets with a gate tends to keep out opportunistic crime.

[LCDR]

I got wifi in my barn by running ethernet cat5e cable from the gateway (modem) in my house to the barn - a distance of around 250 feet. I bought a roll of bury- type cable on amazon, ends already atttached, and made a narrow slit trench maybe 3 inches deep for the cable. I put another modem on the barn end so the barn has its own separately named wifi setup. Everything is still working after 7 years in place.

As far as gates, all Mighty Mule gate controllers come with the same opener code. Many owners don’t bother to change it. So a thief can drive down the road with a $30 MM or GTO remote from Home Depot and be able to open a lot of farm gates.

[clanter]

@Simkie

We have a cartel driveway alarm that alerts when people drive up. Smart lights also allow me to turn on everything outside with one action,

a Cartel can also turn on the lights and be directional in that only doing so if the car comes up the drive

The original use of Cartels in the late 70s early 80s was to notify farmers/construction companies if a piece of equipment had been moved from its parked spot

[fourfillies]

I love my Eufy cameras recommended on this forum. At the house I have 2 solar versions on wifi. I added a battery version with a SIM card for the barn which is out of reach on my home wifi. It is awesome to “spy” on my horses but the motion AI triggers very reliably for people.

Love my Tractive but agree it would be a pain to keep charged.

[wsmoak]

DH is into this kind of thing so we have the whole setup with power-over-ethernet wired cameras recording to network attached storage here at home, accessible over a vpn. It is not trivial to install and maintain.

Separately, we have a few Reolink cameras for outdoor use when the RV is at a campsite.

With those cloud based solutions, I’d just say think about where you are putting them and what happens if they are compromised. How upset will you be if that video shows up on the internet?

If you cannot get your wifi extended to the barn, consider something like a Verizon hotspot.

It allll depends on how much you want to spend. I depend on being able to see video of my property when we are away. It brings me lots of reassurance that things are fine at home.

[appendix100]

@wsmoak

With those cloud based solutions, I’d just say think about where you are putting them and what happens if they are compromised. How upset will you be if that video shows up on the internet?

If someone thinks video of my tackroom door is instagram worthy I would be surprised. Unless the cat is doing something I am unaware of. …

[trubandloki]

@appendix100

@wsmoak

With those cloud based solutions, I’d just say think about where you are putting them and what happens if they are compromised. How upset will you be if that video shows up on the internet?

If someone thinks video of my tackroom door is instagram worthy I would be surprised. Unless the cat is doing something I am unaware of. …

Well, I did have a really cool video the other day of a spider dangling in front of the camera.

I am sure the internet is dying to have that one.

[appendix100]

@trubandloki

Well, I did have a really cool video the other day of a spider dangling in front of the camera.

I am sure the internet is dying to have that one.

I don’t know, compared to what I see out there the spider may have been one of the more camera worthy things to post…

[Weezer]

I agree with others that this is not going to be a priority for police to follow-up on so your focus should be on deterring theft rather than gathering evidence. If you are out in the country, chances are the cops wouldn’t get there in time if you called it in live anyway, and I wouldn’t confront thieves over a few saddles. Set up a few cameras that have a running light so people can see they’re on, but don’t worry if it’s not actually recording - potential thief’s don’t know that. Or get some trail cams that store the recordings on the camera itself. Put up some motion detector lights, a few security signs, and make sure your insurance is up to date. As long as nobody is harming or stealing horses, that’s about all I’d invest into security.

[OnAMission]

We seem to be doing well with a Great Pyrenees, pit/mastiff cross, German Shepherd, weird mutt and a chi that barks at the ice melting at base level. We’ve had low level thieves and bears all around us but no losses. I’m not sure we have the easiest system in the world but it’s working.

[Scribbler]

@clanter

@Simkie

We have a cartel driveway alarm that alerts when people drive up. Smart lights also allow me to turn on everything outside with one action,

a Cartel can also turn on the lights and be directional in that only doing so if the car comes up the drive

The original use of Cartels in the late 70s early 80s was to notify farmers/construction companies if a piece of equipment had been moved from its parked spot

Haha. I’m sure I saw a post where you talked about working with cartels down near the Mexican border and took away the entirely wrong idea!!!

[clanter]

actually it was in Chihuahua, Chihuahua MX

[Scribbler]

Ok well you can imagine what I thought.