Protecting against backyard thieves?

[OlSpazzy]

Currently I've got a motion spotlight and a thermally-triggered alarm aimed at the garden and I've been sleeping in a tent right next to my ladies with radio communication to the rest of the collective members and live security cam running 24/7 on monitors in the house. I've also got a machete in the tent with me just in case I actually have to defend my life. I will be camping non-stop until final harvest. Need to invest in an air mattress!

A friend of a friend recently lost 13 plants, pots and all, from his backyard in a nearby city at 3am. Got it all on camera. They hopped his fence and passed the plants back over the fence to someone else running them out to the getaway truck. Too bad he wasn't camping like I am or he may have scared them off. Tells me I'm definitely not being overly paranoid. Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!

 

[MJBadger]

Fingers x`d you have a safe harvest . When you sit down at xmas for that well earned J it will all seem worth it .

 

[minds_I]

Fingers x`d you have a safe harvest . When you sit down at xmas for that well earned J it will all seem worth it .

Hello all,

Fingers crossed for use all.

minds_I

 

[MajLeeStoned]

You can get these at Brushy Mountain Bee Farm.

Can you get some chemical warning signs?....

 

[Terlihat]

I had an outdoor grow once and there was a fallen log with a beehive in it next to the grow, always made me nervous when I was watering the plants, but they never bothered me though.

 

[PhatPhreddy420]

Bees?

Really?

You might as well hang a rainbow flag and hire this guy to guard your plants.......

.

 

[supermanlives]

ya good luck man. glad i dont have to do that. my yard is patrolled\guarded 24,7 by dogs. Except bees sleep at night lol and they are even pussies in the daytime. might work if you can spray down the intruder with honey an shake the hive remotely. lol now that would be worth recording

 

[greenmatter]

Bees?

Really?

You might as well hang a rainbow flag and hire this guy to guard your plants.......

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i would rather get stung by bees

 

[OrganicBuds]

I got lots of answers, but feel reluctant to PM them to a guy with three posts......... You sure your not a cop. You seem to know a lot about the laws.

 

[Stank J.P.]

Quick question on this matter. Would a pellet gun be allowed under Ca. law?

 

[whadeezlrg]

bees.....fuck bees! I'll punch every bee in the FACE!

really though, camping would be the best option, along with dogs(I know you said landlord isnt cool with dogs....but is he okay with growing?)

my logic is if I'm already speeding I might as well make an un-signaled lane change into the carpool over the double solid yellow while I'm at it...plus I'm sure losing your deposit is much cheaper than losing your crop...

 

[supermanlives]

Quick question on this matter. Would a pellet gun be allowed under Ca. law?

pellet guns dont count . no bullets. i got several. useless against an intruder tho. might make em scream a bit tho.lol i will shoot your eyes out man .altho there are some serious pellet guns if ya got the cash. able to kill a person easilly.

 

[toughmudderdave]

What are the safest, legal property defense options for California backyard medical growers?

I'm in Northern California running a medical co-op grow with 4 others in my backyard. A lot of our plants are in full flower with some of them very close to harvest and I'm now extra worried about thieves after a recent event: the neighbor right next to our garden decided to replace their roof, which resulted in a lot of day-laborers standing high up with full sight of our 25 plants. I even spoke with one of them and he complimented me on the garden.

As nice as that guy may have seemed, how many guys will be eyeing my grow while this roof is replaced? And who else will they tell? I have to assume my address is on someone's map or soon will be.

So with that reality in mind, what can I reasonably do to protect my grow? So far we've:

-Padlocked the gates and put up "beware of dog" signs (but we're not actually allowed to have a dog because we're renting)
-Installed a wireless night-vision security camera w/ motion recording
-Stashed a 3-cell Maglite and a sword (roommate's lol) near the back door in case we actually have to scare someone off
-Ordered a wireless motion sensor+alarm combo to alert us at night

Any other ideas? Our fences around this neighborhood suck and can easily be jumped so the padlocks are mostly useless deterrents that will only stop the laziest of thieves. The security footage won't be of much use since the cops will likely laugh it off plus it doesn't do anything to PREVENT theft (unless one of us is constantly watching the live feed for intruders).

I'm thinking the motion alarm + Maglite is my best defense currently. Guns are out of the question as California laws suck in that regard, even pepper spray over 2.5oz is illegal here and could only be used for defense of life, not property, or you'd be tried for assault.

So once again, what are the safest, legal property defense options for California backyard medical growers?

If those cams are supported, you can "link" them to a ZoneAlarm server that will notify you when/if something passes in the field of view (configurable).

I've setup cams, fencing, trip wires to a motorcycle horn powered by a car battery....very effective and what's even better...proven to be effective as we've had the system "tested" by an attempt.

I've also got a nice heavy steel pipe that I can wield quite effectively right outside the door...**grin**

 

[toughmudderdave]

Oh...ZoneAlarm can also send messages to your cell phone and you can monitor remotely from another computer.

 

[Stank J.P.]

Yeah, check out an evanix ar 6 pellet pistol. It's a .22 cal pellet gun that shoots hard (800-1000 fps) and is loud enough to be mistaken for a real gun. Seems like a good option if you're noided off of this shit. The sound of it would most likely scare off anyone. It's expensive but is by no means a toy at all.

 

[SeaMaiden]

People are seriously recommending anything resembling a firearm in this situation? The guy said he's a medical grower, for Christ's sakes! You want to protect the plants, sure, but you can't cause bodily harm for plants and expect to get away with it. Good Lord, it's shit like that which has caused Fresno to drop the big hammer on all growers, and it's what caused our county to pretty much zone medical cultivators out of existence.

Rig your plants with some fishing line, fishhooks/razor blades and/or bells.

Not in California. If you rig up something with fishhooks or razors that qualifies as a booby trap, and if the po-de-po find it, you're fucked. We have a Castle Doctrine law, but we're not allowed to set booby traps. Considering how precious many of the old 49rs were about their claims, I can understand how the folks in the cities got to feeling that way.

I can't buy "bear spray" in California since it's just pepper spray that shoots far. Wish I could; I was about to order some before I found out the legal max is a 2.5oz personal pepper sprayer. Useless.

Bells on the plants themselves would just be blowing in the wind non-stop.

Motion lights, alarms, and sleeping outside all sound good. How's this for a cheap motion light? Enough to scare anyone off? http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Beams-Wireless-Spotlight-Photocell/dp/B002P6EQPW

A physical trip-wire hooked up to an alarm of some sort (I like the motorcycle horn my husband used, it was more reliable in rainy conditions than the piezo electric alarm he replaced it with) is, hands down, your best bet as far as good deterrents, outside of a proper, sturdy fence.

Motion lights, if too sensitive, can end up going on all night long. If the genetics you're running aren't rock solid and the lights are bright enough and stay on long enough, you'll force them back into re-vegetative growth. Or, just as bad if not worse, force hermaphroditism.

Quick question on this matter. Would a pellet gun be allowed under Ca. law?

Be allowed for what? Certainly not to shoot people it isn't. We use ours to drive off recalcitrant wildlife. It's also been used (singe or double pumps only) to 'retrain' a neighbor's bad dogs.

 

[Stank J.P.]

Seamaiden: Believe me, I would never want to hurt anyone. I was saying the sound of a loud pellet shot would probably scare off anyone. I feel like anyone crazy enough to go trespassing on another's land to steal big money's worth of crop might also be crazy enough to harm you or your family in the process. In which case (feeling me or my family are threatened), I would do more than pop in the air.

 

[SeaMaiden]

We found the motorcycle horn trip-wire alarm thingy to be *quite* effective at scaring off the would-be thrice-time ripper. Yes, that was his third try, he'd been successful twice before, beginning that previous March. Idiots were smoking the leaves. The first fence wasn't enough, then Dave set up the tripwire and BAMMO.

This is for outdoor, there is little reason for a ripper to move from what's easily available to invading the home. I have a lot more fear of someone thinking I have an indoor grow going and trying to get into that, than of being ripped of my OD crop.