Observatory door security

[kirkster501]

Hi All, I have recently beefed up my observatory door entrance  security significantly.  I am the first to acknowledge that if someone is determined enough then they will get in.  Nothing is not going to stop a "professional" thief.  And, let's face it, someone could just chainsaw the whole front of the observatory off if they were that determined.  Accepted we are not going to stop that and there is nothing we could do to stop that.   However, the idea is to deter and offer security against some hoodlum nicking stuff from garden "sheds" for their next fix.  I wanted to make this secure enough to resist attack for 5-10 minutes with a theif's pocketable tools so that the thief moves on elsewhere.  As the saying goes, don't try to outrun the brown bear, just be sure to outrun someone else so the bear eats them instead.

I rebuilt the door and attached high security, concealed hinges to resist attack from a portable angle grinder.  At one stage I had a simple hasp and staple that was screwed into the woodwork as per the first picture.  This would have been quite easy to rip out with a jemmy or a large screwdriver, typical thieves tools.

 

I installed a high security, heavy duty hasp and staple from security for bikes website together with a high security close shackled padlock.  This lot cost the best part of £100.

https://securityforbikes.com/HS1HeavyDutyHaspAndStaple.php

I installed this with coach bolts that go through the 4x4 inch timbers and into the interior of the observatory

 

Then I installed a bar that runs across the front of the door, again secured by a high security padlock and using coach bolts through to the interior and large washers and a backing plate so the whole thing cannot be jemmy'd or crowbarred off.  The wooden baton screwed in behind the steel bar is tight against the bar to make it difficult to get a crowbar down between the door and the metal bar itself.  I even used large coachbolts and a backing plate to secure this baton.

Note the use of coachbolts up the sides of the door.  No simple screws that can be unscrewed....

All in, with the door reinforcing, the hasp and staple and two padlocks, plus the security and coachbolts, washers etc off of ebay I spent the thick end of £220 on this.  There is a lot of expensive gear in an observatory as we all know.

I also have a CCTV camera pointed down at the observatory as well.  Additionally,  I have installed a very loud shed alarm should the door be opened.

There is a balance between security and usability and I wanted to make this so that it was not so onerous to use that opening the door was a pain.  I can be in within 20 seconds and likewise to lock up again. 

Thought i'd share.

Steve

 

[Phil Fargaze]

Looks like you got the door more or less thief proof. However, a bandit armed with a crow bar might well consider the walls and have a try at removing the planks. Although if the shed has double skinned walls, that should help to deter any progress and they might well find it too much effort.

[sloz1664]

The added security will certainly deter the opportunist thieving scumbags, which probably amounts to 90%+ of shed break-ins and as Steve has already stated if a professional thief wants to target your valuables then your in the lap of the Gods.

Steve 

[sloz1664]

24 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

I also have a CCTV camera pointed down at the observatory as well.

 

Steve, is this a HD CCTV camera. The police are getting very wary on using CCTV footage and unless it's HD quality they will likely reject it.

Steve

[Floater]

Steve, you have done everything a reasonable person could be expected to do to safeguard your property, with pics to prove it. Add in a decent ‘home and contents’ insurance policy and you must be good to go. ?

[Craney]

2 hours ago, Phil Fargaze said:

Looks like you got the door more or less thief proof. However, a bandit armed with a crow bar might well consider the walls and have a try at removing the planks. Although if the shed has double skinned walls, that should help to deter any progress

There was an incident reported on FB not so long ago where the crims had sawn into the wall of a society's observatory and removed a panel to gain access.  ie. circumvented the door.   This got me thinking about deterents and I thought some interior wire mesh would suffice, maybe needed only at any blinds spots to the CCTV, that is where they will probably try to strike.  

Something like this....

You could use it internally to hang things off.

 

Sean.

 

[bottletopburly]

i would cut any bolts down and put a dome nut on the ends looks better and stops it catching any clothing ,also stops any small children catching their head .

[kirkster501]

Thanks guys.

Yes, going to put dome nuts on.

Yes, HD CCTV at 1920 resolution.

The Observatory is also double walled.

I cannot prevent someone determined enough breaking in, any more than I can with my cars or house either.  But we can make them take a look and say "nah" and try their luck elsewhere.

[RayD]

Good job, Steve.

As you rightly say, you will never stop a career thief (still refuse to call them "professional") but you've done as much as you can to stop the 'erberts who are the most likely to be the ones trying to break in.

Alarm is a great deterrent and has the shock factor when it goes off.

Fingers crossed you will never have to put it all to the test, but good tidy work 

[jacksdad]

I know this isn't exactly a new thread, but security is always relevant...

 

You mentioned a large screwdriver or a crowbar as being "typical thieve's tools" - unfortunately that's a bit out of date. Typical now is a cordless angle grinder.

 

I read elsewhere (and saw the video clip) of a shed break-in where a motorbike got stolen - the owner had a superficially similar setup to this one (heavy duty hasp and staple, also two door bars) and they were through in about a minute.

 

The bike also had a fairly large chain into a ground anchor - total time from arriving to being gone was under 3 minutes.

 

Cordless angle grinders might be loud, but looking at that sort of timescale would you register it happening, get out of bed and go to investigate before they're gone?

 

What you've got isn't bad, except the bar stands out a bit (advertising there might be something valuable inside) maybe paint it brown or put a wooden channel over it to hide it somewhat?

 

An addition that's pretty effective and fairly cheap is something like a garage door lock thingy like:

 

 

Put one top and another bottom but don't fit the handles, just have a small hole and use the handle like a key.