Unbelievable

[eman]

Hey guys,


Been a little quiet since my first post but I did end up making a display this year, controlling the roof lines and spiral trees with one of Alan's controllers. Added an inflatable reindeer to the display and I was pleased with the outcome this year...
Turns out someone else liked it even more and decided to take our reindeer! They also ripped out the wiring to one of the trees. Just can't believe people would do that!


Anyone have any suggestions on how to keep inflatables secure?

 

[Jimbo]

Hey,

Its best to replace the little tent pegs these come with with the bigger longer tent pegs (you can get them in bunnings etc) this helps by making it harder to pull out.

 

[AAH]

You're never likely to keep any display element secure if some scum want to knock it off. Security cameras are a possible deterrent with signs to go with them. Even that isn't necessarily going to do much except possibly ID the culprit and when the stole the stuff. Two instances that I know of prove that. ShellNZ had a coro candy cane knocked off by a hens party and didn't know about it until they returned the candy cane and she then watched the footage. RyansChristmasLights got done over a bit better. He had his security cameras knocked off in the off season.

 

[i13]

A sensor light.

 

[john]

A 240 Volt electric fence. Sorry to hear about your show.

 

[Bird]

Sorry to hear about that. Dumb thing is that was most likely done by someone local to you and they cant even use it because a big reindeer would be rather obvious.

 

[eman]

Thanks for the suggestions and comments guys.


They didn't touch the santa so I've taken Jimbo's suggestion and used some decent steel tent pegs.
Might setup a couple of cameras in future Alan, already have some around the back but as you mentioned only useful if you can ID them

Bird they were that dumb they left the transformer behind, and I think they tripped on the wire going to the tree which was damaged


Think next year I might try a roof mounted inflatable

 

[bluzervic]

I had a bunch of reindeer stolen from me one year. Turned one of our neighbors was up at 4am and saw the culprit. She told me the guy across from us had a party and when the party broke up they took off with the goods.


So I confronted the guy across from us and he promptly paid me $400.00 US Dollars...paid for more than what they were worth.


Needless to say we moved from that neck of the woods and I have had no problems since.
I did get security cameras regardless, including a PTZ camera that will follow the peeps.


-Blu

 

[MarcD]

Some of my suggestions have already been mentioned, but I'll re-state them anyway:

Visible CCTV cameras (not the dummy ones either). We have two on the front of our house. It's impossible to miss them, especially at night with the visible red glow of the infra-red sensors. That's not just a Christmas thing either. Although, they have come in quite handy. We can sit inside and look at our iPad's. If someone comes into the yard, we can go out and greet them.

Bigger tent pegs help to. Not only that, cable tie the peg to inflatable.

Cable tie the living crap out of everything. Run all the cables together and stick cable ties about every 30cm.

Write your name and number on the inflatable in permanent marker. Somewhere not obvious, but easy to find.

Generally, these are crimes of opportunity and aren't well planned. They see something and discover it's easy to take. If they have to negotiate large pegs and have to cut off a hundred cable ties to remove the item, they won't bother. Especially if they know they're being watched. It probably won't be one of your neighbours. It's most likely someone from a nearby suburb or someone who has visited your display.

Contact Neighbourhood Watch groups in your area and put posts up on local community Facebook pages asking people to share the information. Even offer a small reward. You'd be surprised how widely and quickly Facebook posts spread, especially when it comes to incidents which ruin people's Christmas.