Dummy bell box

Hi All,

At my secret headquarters, I have a couple of bell boxes similar to this

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the horizontal design.

They were looking a bit tired so I decided to take them down and paint them and make up some new signage for them with my table top publishing system and laminator, and possibly add a flashing led if I can be bothered to wire up an LV supply to them.

I have given one of them a few coats of car type (cellulose??) primer and then a top coat, but whtether due to the paint being old stock, or my ineptitude with a spray can, the result isn't brilliant.

I wondered about going out to buy a new can of top coat, but then thought by the time i'd done that and bought another can of primer for the second box, I could probably have bought a more modern looking bell box.

I had a look on ebay, but most of them seem to be going for silly money.

So, to the questions............

Firstly, is any self respecting theif going to be frightened off by the sight of an old style bell box, or do I need to re -invest in something more sexy?

If the latter, does anyone know a good source of these?

Cheers

Reply to
zikkimalambo
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Get your crime prevention officer round for free.

He will probably recommend (in order) dogs, security lighting, high fences and gates (locked), better house locks/doors - and way down the list at the worthless end - dummy bellboxes.

Remember the modern thief probably picks up your bin and hurls it through the window - grabs what he can, threatens to slice up anyone he sees - and ideally leaves with your vehicle.

Dummy bell boxes - you're havin a laugh.

Reply to
dom

Actually, when he came to call at our last house he used a piece of concrete he found lying n the garden in preference to the bin. He prsumably also had a very small child with him to go in and get the back door keys. Fortunately we were out.

However, where we live now, we have dummy bell boxes, and he's not come near. I would suspect he likes the quiet life and goes to one of the other houses in the street that doesn't have such adornments, but are otherwise similar.

Then again, perhaps he thinks (quite correctly) that anyone with such old and tatty bell boxes prolly hasn't anything worth nicking. (Tv's all steam driven 4:3 CRTs). Plus the new satellite dish probably fools him into thinking we're chavs. :=))

Also we live in the cheap seats (roomy ex local authority house), so he's probably too busy in the old part of the village where they all have a Mercedes and room for a pony.

anyways, if anyone is still listening and happens to have one or two modern but defunt bell boxes on the van and would like to exchange them for a little beer money, let me know!

Reply to
zikkimalambo

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but the horizontal design.

They seem available at a very good price - although the postage is a bit high.

Sounds like you have a lot of time on your hands, given the price of a new one.

Here's a guide:-

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So, to the questions............

Not at the price you seem to think they should be. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Only if the flashing LED is a blue one :-P

Reply to
Andy Burns

When ADT took over Thorn, thieves started targeting places with Thorn boxes, because they knew they had not renewed their contracts. As a recent survey showed, thieves know a lot more about home security than your local Crime Prevention Officer and they will know how little they have to worry about the average home alarm system, whether the box is real or a dummy.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
nightjar

Screwfix have them at £7:49

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Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Mmm. Prehaps.

When I was renting a cottage, with very dubious security, I used to leave the radio on all day.

Someone spent over half an hour ringing the bell thinking I was in, and not wanting to see him (this was in fact true, except for the first bit: I was out).

Psychology riules OK?

There are two sorts of thieves - pros and opportunists. Nothing stops a determined pro, except possibly human occupancy. As the local rozzers explained to me when they caght (elsewhere) the team that did my house over "Silly buggers did a house and the wife was in. They threatened her and the baby, and that's not breaking and entering, thasts not even burglary, thats assault" (or something), Anyway it meant up to 8 years inside rather than the odd 18 months or something.

Now I can't prove it, but some months previously there was a bloke in an old Volvo doing painting and he sat outside my hose for a day making sketches...including when I went to work etc.

That's pros.

Amateurs just wander past trying door handles and maybe chucking a brick through the window to SEE if the alarm goes off. If it does, they will either scarper or nip inside, grab whats easy to find and bugger off.

If it doesn't, they will take their time, and maybe call up a mate round the corner in a nicked car, and load up more.

Your call as to whether or not a dummy alarm will put them off or not.

It would PROBABLY put the pros off, unless they were convinced you had real value inside.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

That is widely promoted as being the best single security measure you can take.

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Only if they are determined to rob you. If they don't care who they rob, good security will ensure they rob your neighbours instead of you. However, to count as good security, the alarm box has to tell the thieves that the alarm is NACOSS installed and may be remotely monitored.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
nightjar

No, the ex-burglars always say it's dogs.

Reply to
dom

Siamese cats, or geese, are also pretty good.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

The message from "nightjar" contains these words:

I leave mine on anyway as company for the cats. Dunno if it works for them but it makes me feel better. Radio 4's probably the best deterrent to a burglar - all that gentle talk and no irritating bangy-bangy music.

Reply to
Guy King

If I wasin the house-breaking business, I'd do the R4 homes.

Burglar's taste has changed, they no longer go after the new domestic electronics stuff that tends to be more in youngsters homes, as it's got so cheap now. They like cash, credit cards, jewelery, spare car keys (because good modern cars are getting difficult to steal otherwise), phones/laptops/cameras/ipods - but not as much as they did, good small antiques, good quality tools - they're likely not to bother with hifis/dvds/desktop pcs/screens unless they're really good and they've got your car.

All in all, the R4 home is looking the more lucrative target.

Reply to
dom

I think my definition of pros, is those who have determined to rob you.

Opportunistic theft is different.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

The most frequently burgled homes are those on sink estates. If you want to see security, take a walk round one of them. You'll find solid steel doors, with grille gates in front of them. Grills on all the windows, too.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The message from " snipped-for-privacy@gglz.com" contains these words:

They're out of luck in our house for the first half of that list! And any casha dn ID documents are all locked away in a nice solid safe well bolted to both the floor and the concrete wall behind it, making it a bastard to move.

Reply to
Guy King

For Al Fresco toast perhaps :-)

Reply to
Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)

I would view a pro as someone who makes a living from theft and that means that, unless they have a particular reason to target your house, they will generally go for the easiest target.

They are probably funding a drug habit.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
nightjar

That is not always a good choice as a security measure, even if it is the better deterrent. For one thing, the radio doesn't need to be taken walkies. For another, you can leave it alone, guarding the house (with the aid of a timeswitch), when you go away on holiday for a fortnight.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
nightjar

When they make a radio that launches itself through the dog flap like a target seeking missile, throws itself against the fence and does the snarling ball of fur and teeth act whenever a stranger strays close to it's owners territory - then I might consider a radio being an adequate substitute.

Seriously though - on very rural properties, the "I might be at home" routine is weak - they will ring and knock on all the doors and peer through all the windows repeatedly - before forcing an entry.

Reply to
dom

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