I don't know if I should get all worked up about this, but someone sneaks into my pool a few times each summer. Usually no significant damage done, however it's somewhat alarming to me to wake in the morning and find my floatation devices floating in the pool and the gate open.
I have no idea who it may be although I suspect teenagers.
I live in a quiet area and it's dark. I have some motion sensor driveway type alarms but they go off all hours on the night when nocturnal animals are out and I get no sleep, so I've had them off.
Anyone's opinion, should I really be alarmed about this. Does this happen to most pool owners? Anyone ever caught the person?
I'm not a pool person, but yes, you should be alarmed. This is a criminal act of trespassing. Regardless of that, though, if something happens to one of the trespassers you will probably be held liable because your gate wasn't locked. Not to mention if teenagers can get in, little kids probably can too.
Floating alarms are available that beep when agitated. They are for alerting people if a child should fall in the pool. If you hear the beep, call the police and report a prowler. They will respond and take it from there. One time should do it. Once the word is out you call the police, it should solve the problem.
I'm not proud of it but as a teenager we would sometimes go pool hopping on a hot summer night. Sometimes through the grapevine we would learn of a vacationing family with a built-in and we would help ourselves. I personally did it about a dozen times. Cops never came. I don't condone it.
Don't they sell those pool alarms in case a child falls in?
I once had a problem with a prowler in my yard out in the country. Mostly, he just disturbed things as if he was looking for valuables. I decided to settle the matter, and took a thermos of coffee and my 12 gauge onto the patio and waited. Around 11 pm he showed up, walking in from the woods. As soon as he got to the back gate, I fired two shells into the sky. He was last seen running through Westville, 14 miles from my town. Never saw him again. Joe Arnold
I did this once as a teenager. The 'fun quotient' is limited by the fact that you have to be absolutely silent. Perhaps a motion detector floodlight could be aimed at the gate or the pool.
Well, considering that drowning is a major liability to your finances, not to mention the possible deaths of the neighbors, I'd be very concerned.
I'd suggest to take the bulbs out of the motion detector. Put a socket in the bulb socket, and run a zipcord extension into the house. Wire it to a radio. When the radio goes off, very quietly call the police and explain the situation.
At laest that way you're on record as "doing something about it".
I did it as a kid as well, but the country wasn't so sue-happy then. If I fell and cracked my head on the concrete it would have been considered my own stupidity and my friends would have laughed at me for it.
I'm pretty sure they make pool motion sensors that detect a change in waviness. You should have to worry about animals setting it off unless they actually get in the pool.
Nope, I worked with the prowler years later, and he was still telling the story. He was just a kid at the time. It scared him so bad he never did anything like that again in his life.
"Trespassers will be violated, survivors will be prosecuted." Drip some red and or brown(the color of dried blood) paint around. That's do the trick, except for TP. He'd enjoy being violated.
Get one of those alarms that float IN the pool to alert when a small child has fallen in.(from a pool supply store) Then if teens make a skinnydip excursion,they'll set off the alarm,and you can paintball them (so police can ID them).Or whatever other methods of dissuasion you prefer.After a short while,the problem will go away after the teens know the place is alarmed,and you can cease using the pool alarm.
When I was a kid on the farm it was not unusual to catch someone snooping around the farm yard. My pop would grab the shoot gun a fire a shot in their direction. They would peal out of in a hurry. Later on, when I was a teen, someone was tearing down the road and spinning circles with their car in our driveway. After the second time they made a pass I decided to grab the shoot gun and waited in the shadows for them to come back. It wasn't long before they came back for one more pass. At the appropriate time I stepped out into their headlights holding the shoot gun across my chest. It was pretty funny to see them hit the brakes and slowly drive away instead of the spin they were planning. Of course they never came back!
There was a gent in our city that was sitting in his house on winter evening. Someone tried to get into the front door, and he heard them. Seconds later he heard someone trying to get into the patio door. He had grabbed his .44 magnum when he heard the first attempt, so he walked out the front door and fired twice into the sky. Needless to say who ever it was made tracks, through the snow, right to his own house where later the cops found him. The cops wanted to charge the gent for firing a gun in the city limits, but decided not to.
So yes, I believe the about story, to a point. The 14 miles MAY be an exaggeration! Greg
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