Are steel security cables choppable?

[Huge]

Perhaps while dragging the stumps of their legs behind them?

[dennis]

If it had been a networked DVR or IP cameras connected to a broadband (wireless) network you would still have the pictures.

[Adrian]

Huge gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Mmm. I think you might find that the law regards snares, man-traps and landmines a snidge inadvisable for protecting property against theft.

Whether that's a good thing or not is something I intend to leave as an exercise for the reader.

[Bill]

In message , "dennis@home" writes

Indeed, slight problem in that the nearest civilisation is some miles away, it would have needed to be a wireless link and they weren't willing to pay. Like most of the problems on the site it was an inside job.

[Andy Dingley]

BMW vs. General Motors.

First off, locks don't get picked. UK tea leaves just aren't that hard- working. Also we have better padlocks than the Yanks, so picking just never took off here the way it did over there. Don't ask me to explain it - they have some fantastic locks and keying systems, then they put them on houses made of chipboard. Last time I was burgled it was some meathead Geordie who walked through a steel door, probably by chewing it. Our thieves break stuff - they're not this subtle (unless you've annoyed George Smiley).

If "lots of people" are picking them on YouTube, that's because they're hard to do and it's impressive if you can pick them. You're hardly going to brag about picking a Chinese three circle or a MasterLock combination.

Abus make a range of padlocks. The little ones are no better than they ought to be (still strong though). The mid-range stuff with 6 pins and mushrooms (the longer cylinder is a bulge in the case) is quite good, but they're easy picking if you know the way to do it (it's not the normal technique, and I can't do it unless I can get my hands easily onto the lock). The Diskus Plus is beyond me.

"Disk" padlocks are NOT all alike. Some are utter rubbish. There are Chinese ones around that aren't fully welded and you can pop the cases faster than picking. For another thing, don't trust a disk lock that doesn't retain its key when open. I've not had my hands on a Master Excel, their disk range (not particularly planning to), but I have removed many of their other locks. Usually by breaking them, not by picking.

I've got an interest in an expensive piece of kit that lives in isolation. It's locked by a bar through its frame. I could steal it in half an hour with just a hacksaw, but I'd have to seriously damage the machine (not usable, manufacturer-only fix) in doing so. The "bar" is scaffold pipe, with a good alloy chain in it, also filled with hard aggregate concrete. You need both angle grinder and gas axe to remove it that way.

[Derek G.]

The scrotes round here would chew off the stumps of their own legs to escape and thieve again.

Derek G

[dennis]

It frequently is, most shop lifting is the staff too. Some companies are slowly beginning to realise this and are using hidden cameras in staff areas.

[Matty F]

I've tried pretty much every technique at several sites. What has worked when there are no near neighbours is a "screamer" alarm on the roof that carries for 2 km. Otherwise sensor lights do scare most thieves away. People are worried by fake CCTV cameras. I've had two of them stolen, while the hidden real cameras video the thief. However the police are seldom interested in photos and video footage, even if I get car rego numbers. It's better to scare the crims off.

When we had padlocks, they were regularly cut with bolt cutters. When I put steel sheet over the door and had flush locks nobody got in again.

[dennis]

Disc padlocks suffer from having curved shackles. This makes it hard to put a freely rotating hardened pin through them to make cutting more difficult like they do on good mortise locks. Not that it matters if you use an angle grinder to cut through the body anyway.

Or some thermite. It should only take 60 seconds or so to remove such a pole if you can mould clay.

[nicknoxx]

Almax, who make the undisputed king of chains:-

the Squire SS65CS Stronghold Lock

[Mike Barnes]

It's not clear to me from the documentation whether it's possible to have it operating in the mode I'd want:

• light off in daylight and under PIR control in darkness

• light override 'on' by separate live mains input (many PIR floodlights have a connection for this even if it's not a 'feature')

• camera under PIR control 24 hours

• audio always off

And what's the picture quality like?

[Adam Aglionby]

s far too easy to cut. Chains are

Squire SS65, Ingersoll 10 disc or Abloy 362 or above , Abus(!?) watch the Almax videos...

Cheers Adam

[Andy Dingley]

But wouldn't that be _Dangerous_ Dennis?

What would Nanny say?

(Apart from Thermite being rubbish at cutting anything more than an inch wide)

[Huge]

I know. A position I disapprove of.

[Steve Firth]

However, an inspection pit with a flimsy cover cannot be regarded as a "man trap" can it? Shame that I use mine for storing sharpened bamboo stakes that accidentally became smeared with dog excrement.

[Andy Dingley]

Probably not, but it's still regarded as an unguarded hazard and the landowner or tenant will be regarded as legally liable for injurires due to it. This is still the case even if you have to trespass to get to it (there is case law on this) and thus such a pit on the perimeter is a problem. Fortunately warning signs are seen as a defence against such claims, in the peanut-sized minds of the Dennises who control such things.

I have such a pit on the corner of my land (sans stakes as yet, but still an adequate drop for an oubliette). As I've already had council dealings in relation to it (they're adjacent to its edge), I do have to make sure it's suitably signed.

[Andy Dingley]

Their chains don't hold up, but then they didn't use a Diskus lock in the tests, let alone attack it. I'm unimpressed by the Abus Granite series (although I've not attacked the close shackle padlock), but I still like the Diskus.

For typical "vaguely good" padlock and chain the chain is weaker, because there's so much more of it. Typical people will pay money to get a padlock shackle made of decent alloy, but unless you're a biker, few will pay to have a whole chain made of it.

My pushbikes are locked with old Squire U locks, not Abus (and certainly not Kryptonite).

[nicknoxx]

My bicycle is worth twice as much as my motorbike.

[Corporal Jones]

Doesn't a generator produce 240v, 3 wire cable to the house, change to 4 wire, switch in the house to feed 240v down the fourth wire back to generator connected to chassis, when the scroat gets electrocuted you will have ample time to isolate the fourth wire and plead an earth fault at the generator (that was running at the time) before you report it..

Strangely I used to be a pacifist until I got older and wiser.

[Huge]

I have read that one has a duty of care towards burglars. I hope that this is not true, but fear that is.