DIY home security tips/ booby traps

There are already commercial garden beams (real beams) and you get outdoor IR sensors and such too, dont need to invent you own, and they can intergrate with your alarm system or just have their own siren.

Anyway, security is best layered.

Perimeter: Wall or fence. Then something on top, razor wire perhaps, that thing cbrunsdonza posted also good, electric fence best though, offers physical deterent and perimeter alarm (it need to be on and also linked to a siren or alarm)

Garden: Beams, IR sensors or similar, dogs, motion activated lights or normal lights. You can have a mix of these as you want.

Home: proper burglar proofing, alarm with infrared and door magnet sensors. Remember smoke alarm or 2 (around R150).
 
I do like all the glass and nails suggestions... My only worry is that I have pets so I have to consider them... but I'm thinking nails/ glass on wood glued to the wall (so they slide down on it as they jump down). Add to that the trip wire I'm planning on putting up... sounds lovely...
 
The problem with the shotgun approach is too many innocent people have been killed. It was very popular in the 80's and remember reading about a cafe in Paarl where the owner got killed by setting off his own trap.
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Yip, a trading store owner got naled by his own spring gun in the stomach with bird shot.
I heard of one robber who got shot with spring gun loaded with seed, which started to grow in his leg, immense pain, then to top it off police got hold of him from a tipoff and moered the hell out of him.

Another thing is they sometimes use kids to break in, would not feel nice hurting a child.
 
Those rotating spikes look the business..

Might do those on my property.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
For the price I could not get anything that comes close to it. They can fit on pre-cast and normal brick walls.
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Yeah..

I have an electric fence already, but at least on the 45m of my front boundary wall I could do with those things as an addition.
 
Plant thorny bushes in and outside your boundary walls. Bougainvilleas, num-nums, cactus ... there are many such plants. It looks better than electric fences.
 
rubytox said:
Plant thorny bushes in and outside your boundary walls. Bougainvilleas, num-nums, cactus ... there are many such plants. It looks better than electric fences.
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they can't be hooked into an alarm, and are easy easy easy to bypass...
 
ToxicBunny said:
they can't be hooked into an alarm, and are easy easy easy to bypass...
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The discussion is about DIY home security tips. I cannot install an alarm or an electric fence or lazer beams. I do have an electric fence and an alarm, but I have also planted a lot of thorny stuff close to my boundary walls. I've never had any problems.

Let's face it, when a burglar is after something specific in your home, such as a fire arm or loads of cash, nothing will stop him from trying to enter your premises. Electric fences, alarms and thorny bushes are ways to stop petty theft. Anyone thinking otherwise, is a fool.
 
I incorporated a taut wire sensor into the barb wire running along my prefab wall at the back of my property. If the wire is cut, or pushed down like when somebody is climbing over it, it triggers the house alarm.In theory it should work, never had any intruders though to test it.

http://www.flairsecurity.com/0/1000-77
 
Goobie said:
I incorporated a taut wire sensor into the barb wire running along my prefab wall at the back of my property. If the wire is cut, or pushed down like when somebody is climbing over it, it triggers the house alarm.In theory it should work, never had any intruders though to test it.

http://www.flairsecurity.com/0/1000-77
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Test it yourself?

I appreciate all these tips as I'm tired of living in a flat and planning to buy a house sometime next year. Anyone using cctv's?
Also, do you get a handheld gadget that can pick up body heat, lets say, within 20m radius? So you carry this gadget and on the screen you can see whether there's someone/something behind a corner or in a bush or something?
 
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AstroTurf said:
I lived in a flat where they kept breaking into one single window.

I put a 1.5 meter pile of cleaned bottles, jars and other glass stuff under the window (if they try while I am home I can hear it).

Oke tried breaking in, I got home and he took nothing, just left a huge pile of blood all over the broken glass shards then fled.
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Cleaned bottles, how could you! Those ones with nice infections are the ones you are looking for!
 
Friedpet said:
Test it yourself?

I appreciate all these tips as I'm tired of living in a flat and planning to buy a house sometime next year. Anyone using cctv's?
Also, do you get a handheld gadget that can pick up body heat, lets say, within 20m radius? So you carry this gadget and on the screen you can see whether there's someone/something behind a corner or in a bush or something?
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Only in the movies (for civilians)
 
Friedpet said:
Test it yourself?

I appreciate all these tips as I'm tired of living in a flat and planning to buy a house sometime next year. Anyone using cctv's?
Also, do you get a handheld gadget that can pick up body heat, lets say, within 20m radius? So you carry this gadget and on the screen you can see whether there's someone/something behind a corner or in a bush or something?
Click to expand...

CCTVs don't seem to hold much deterrent value and unless you look at them 24/7 are of little use to prevent household criminal incidents. You can get it to sound a alarm with movement but I bet false alarms are very common. They help you after the fact to see what happened and if your perimeter alarm or garden "beams" have triggered or dogs are barking in that way (one knows ones dogs different barks) and you have been alerted that something is wrong, what's going on outside in your yard. As a anti-crime measure I would put them up last after I have covered everything else first.

As to the device, it would be exceedingly expensive I suspect to get one that will see around corners/through structures. One might get one for more than R20 000 that can see someone hiding in a bush or in a open piece of veld. Also only of any use if you have been alerted by something else and then if you are looking for someone.

Sorry to ruin your dreams :(
 
I like rubytoxs idea as it just adds an extra barrier for little cost (but to be used in conjunction with other systems).

We have this bougainvillea bush in our yard, I don't with to mess with that thing without my protective gloves on (and that's just for pruning it a bit). If I had to go through it I would need a whole suit made of the gloves leatherish material lol.
 
One of my family members bought a house some 25 odd years ago which came with it's own homemade security system installed.

All the burglar bars had wires running to them which could be electrified with the flick of a switch.

I don't think they ever used it though, too much of a risk of getting in trouble if someone gets hurt.
 
koeksGHT said:
Cleaned bottles, how could you! Those ones with nice infections are the ones you are looking for!
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lol, I already had to clean up congealed blood. the rancid rot of that would have had me simply pack my bags and move.
 
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