Mark's security advice

Very sensible advice by someone who's job it is to deter criminals Only one thing bothers me, how many of us will read this and nod our heads sagely agreeing with everything and then do nothing about making our own gear secure? I am as guilty as the rest and I hold my hand up to that, my only saving grace is that my gear goes up the loft when it gets too cold for me to fish.

A good article, Mark I just wish we were wise enough to follow your advice.

I don't want to make light of a very serious topic, but the problem is mainly women.

They don't see fishing tackle as valuable, they see it as that bloody stuff that makes him bugger off for hours or even days on end. They see spare bedrooms as places for beds and utility rooms as places for utilities. If the gear gets nicked then it's hard luck, it's dirty and stinks and we (as in the royal 'we') don't want it anyway.

What makes it worse is that when you do make yourself a very secure garage or shed, which could be damp-proofed to keep the bait in good nick, with some nice shelves and air-tight boxes, they then want to keep gardening tools and other rubbish in it!

The ultimate tackle thief deterrent for an angler is to get divorced. Or don't get married in the first place.

Great article Mark, I'm only kidding really....

In a whisper: Just in case 'er indoors reads this.

couldn't agree more Graham and i'm not even married. I keep my stuff in a spare room and the number of times she's complained... nag nag nag nag nag. She makes out she's some kind of martyr for letting me go once a week!!! God knows what she'd be like if I was married.

Mark said of dogs - "99% of the time they are the ultimate alarm"

Not so in our case. In 1990 we were broken into and our then dog, a Springer called Basil, had, we believe tried to bite the offender. We had him examined by a vet later who said he had probably been hit hard on the head with a bat or something.

A few months later he started with epilepsy and after 12 months of that we had to have him put to sleep. It could all have been related, said the vet and the dog was just 5? years old.

No we have both side passages gated and security lights and cameras with a recorder. The shed has no tackle in it as it's full of woodworking tools. The garage nearly always has a car parked in front of it and there are devices on the inside to prevent its opening.

But despite all of this, you just aren't going to stop the determined thief.


Ebay? Perhaps so as I bought a Fox alarm a few weeks ago and recently looked at my feedbacks, the seller had removed themselves from Ebay? Was this a thief and have I bought stolen goods? I try to check people out as much as possible, but how do you guarantee the goods are genuine?

I have a garage and all my stuff is in there,i won't have a shed after losing some valuable garden furniture and lights,all my neighbours have had their sheds done over on numerous occasions,i once even went for a fag in the middle of the night and caught one going over next doors fence,trouble is in the haste to get downstairs and outside quietly i set the alarm off !!in my haste i had forgot to switch it off so he was well gone by the time i went outside.DOH!
I used to have a decent convertible so i put two slide (bolt and hasp?)bolts on the bottom of the garage door that go into the walls and then lock with padlocks,these are always on now just for my tackle and i would like to see someone get in there without making a racket.
Anyone thinking of buying a shed should consider the metal ones as these make a right racket when you open them and are less susceptible to break-ins

Come on Graham youre slipping up! The real answer is to marry a woman whos a tackle thief surely Utility room is my territory apart from a washer and a drier that we (also the royal one) own. They belong to 'herindoors' until they break or need replacing then they become 'ours' or even 'mine'. Strange how the female mind works out these little details.

To be serious it must be every anglers worse nightmare to come home and find their kits gone.Like Graham W I am as guilty of thinking it wont happen to me as the next man is. Its not the price of the kit its the sentimental value of some of the items we have; a float or a reel from an old mate or angling colleauge who may no longer be with us. A rod,we may not even use anymore but caught a memorable fish on. Those sort of items are not recoverable even if the kits insured.

Some of the toe raggs do not even know what its worth. I have as some of you know been broken into 6 times this year. The area as really gone down hill. Every time they have only took electrical equipment. Not once have they took my angling gear which is worth a lot more than the electricals.

The problem with second hand gear is how do you know which is legitimte and which is not. A lot of people can not afford the best new so buy second hand to aquire quality gear.

A great article and good advice Mark.
I look forward to the next one.

True this:

Last night the wife went out with friends for their monthly nose-bag (at that Indian we tried Graham!) I too went out fishing so both cars had left the drive.

When wife came back a neighbour said he'd seen someone leaving our property just before she came home so when she told me, we examinded the video tapes -

22:20:13 A guy seemed to walk past the front gate then turned and came back to lean on the gate. He stood there for 4 seconds

22:20:19 He opened the gate and came inside the drive walking towards next door neighbours (we share the drive).

22:20:22 He seemed to look into their new car, a MG ZS. Can't be sure if he tried the door as he is now more than 35 feet from our camera and we can only see a vague image.

22:20:28 He walks back through gate leaving it closed to, but with the bolt undone.

22:21:30 My wife comes home.



Unfortunately, he was never that close that we got a good picture of him, but it shows you what a chancer will try on.

I've cleaned the lenses on the cameras now just in case.

scary stuff! not a nice thought to know some low life was lurking around your house just before your wife or partner comes home!!

I have seen a programme somewhere, where it says that if you have got a cctv camera on your property, that the roadway outside your house must not be on the film.
Maybe Mark can clear this one up?

Baz

No its just another one of those urban myths. The only time the positioning of a camera can be questioned is when it infringes on someone?s right to privacy (as in the human rights act) Your own property and public areas are in play as long as the surveillance is not directed at one specific target (by that I mean person). The police have stricter rules than the public and we have to justify everything to the enth degree and fill in a mountain of paperwork to point a camera or watch anyone nowadays.

I will tell you that a dummy camera is just as good as the real thing though unless you install a digital system that costs over ?50,000 so the footage is good enough quality to identify an offender with no questions asked in court, most offenders are balaclava'd up these days so CCTV footage becomes unusable id wise in its use. A dummy camera offers just as much deterrent, the one thing as I stated in the article they don't like is people seeing them or the chance they will be seen or noticed, because if they are the police are called and there's a good chance they will be caught in the act.

Have to disagree to some extent Mark. Most of the youngsters committing theft and burglary these days are pure chancers, possibly with no previous and they don't even mind being caught on video. That's if they even give it a thought.

Just after my mum went into hospital some years ago, a couple of lads turned her house over. The most expensive item was the portable telly, the rest was junk and the electric kettle. That was about 6:30 in the morning according to her neighbour who heard a noise.

By 7:30 the police had arrested a guy wandering around town with a portable telly under his arm. He was a promnom and looked suspicious anyway, who would be wandering around at that time of the morning with a telly under your arm. He, apparently, didn't give a toss. no idea about what he'd done. Stoned out of his tiny mind.

This is more todays criminal.

As a supermarket Manager it amazes me that these tw*ts don't realise that when they come in with hoodies on and baseball caps that they stand out a mile
They are so easy to catch,it's when they pull a syringe on you and threaten to stab you with it that it becomes a bit difficult

bring back the stocks i say and all sorts of other capital punishment,they don't care who they steal from,they don't give a toss about authority and they would steal from their family to get a fix,and they get off with community service and a fine at 10p a week for a hundred years
it is a joke and i really feel for the police as they are wrapped up in beurocracy and red tape

As and aside, I was thinking about my tackle recently along the lines of what happens if it gets nicked. I reckoned up I have about ?3500 worth if I had to replace everything.

Once I had come to this figure I phoned my insurance provider and asked what cover I have. They said that all out buildings were covered to a value of ?2000. I relplied that I needed to up my cover because I had around ?4000 of stuff in my shed. The woman told me this was not possible and ?2000 was the maximum.

So I decided to try out one of these sepcialist tackle insurers. I rang them up and they gave me a quote to cover my tackle including theft from my car which was very reasonable, untill I started to question it. I asked what cover for car theft actually covered, and it covers my tackle for if I pop into a shop or go for a walk round a lake. I sometimes pack my car then night before a session to make an early get away as getting it out the shed and walking down the passage behind the row of terraced houses and through the passage to the front would probably wake neighbours. It also means I can be up and away within 10 minutes. I know I shouldnt leave it in me car overnight but anyway, the theft from car cover dosent cover leaving it in the car overnight so to me thats next to useless. I then asked for the details on the new for old policy, I was told that tackle will be replaced new for old on gear that is less than 3 years old. So anything you have which is over 3 years old folks, you'll get pence for.

To sum up the sepcialist tackle insurance is not worth it.

I was then talking to Julie Chapman who deals with all the insurace claims which come through Chapmans Tackle and she told me the only thing to do was to bring expensive items into the house, name them on my house insurance and leave nets etc in the shed, just like Mark has said, so its sound advice.

Only trouble is I have nowhere to put anything in my house! Guess I need a bigger padlock.

i suppose technically my garage being integral would be classed as part of the house?
i bet its not!!

Paul - if you're married and have a double bed, sling the wife out into the shed and put the tackle in the bed next to you. It's also handy if you fancy playing around with it through the night. )

There's only one thing worse than the scum that steals tackle from your property and that's the insurance companies that bleed you to death for premiums and then don't want to accept the responsibility or the claims.

I read this morning that Danny Fairbrass, MD of Korda, has had all his tackle stolen from the company's hq. It's very specialist Daiwa stuff apparently, one-offs, and isn't normal shelf bought items. It can happen to anyone, no matter where you keep it.

Danny stuff went a few weeks back. A lot of prototype stuff drom Diawa nothing like them out there. He recons its anglers who have nicked them as nothing else was touched.

Can not see it myself but you never know.

Warning about garden sheds. One of the easiest ways to get into a shed is by lifting the roof. Only nailed down in the corners. Best to change nails to screws or to coach bolts if you can.