To brand the thief's ****, of course.

Brilliant!

 

I understand this, I'm not entirely unfamiliar with LE.

Do you have any idea how much voltage an old fashioned Neon lamp transformer puts out?
It can make it very unpleasant for anyone messing with your JobBox if there is one wired inside.
MSD and a battery works well too.

 

trail cameras stratigicly placed to get faces and desriptions would help . and you can get 2 or 3 for the price of one good power tool that it saves!! mine are

etched
pictured
documented
painted
insured
and i have 5 cameras that i can deploy around any on site storage

i usualy place all 5 around my enclosed trailer that has a cheap car alarm rigged up w a few lights and a siren that can run on 12v or 120v

 

I have thought about using one of those for a different type of deterrent, but it would work here too. The hard part is it doesn't take a whole lot of current to drop someone dead. If there is a way you can build in a charge limiting device to "pulse" that might be better. That way if someone touches the box they get whacked with a sledgehammer instead of dropping a brick wall on them.

Another idea is a fence charger used to hold in livestock.

I am not sure how you would "light up" the box though. You need to have some kind of circuit for the perpetrator to "complete" = two conductors. Maybe a wire wrapped around the perimeter of the lid and insulated from it - positioned in a way that isn't close enough to arc to the box and close enough someone can hit both the wire and the box? If the box is on dirt you could pound a ground rod in and insulate the box from ground, then directly light up the whole box.....

That would be some good entertainment - rig up a camera to watch over the "hot box". That would surely teach thieves a lesson.

Then theres OSHA.... Exposed electricity is a no no. They even go after lights that aren't properly installed because if they fall over in water they can "light up" an area, among other things. If there was a clause to exclude theft-deterrents that would be nice.

 

The human body has enough capacitance that it doesn't really need to be grounded.
Just pull the sparkplug boot from a running engine and see what I mean.

 

Just hire Rosie O' to sit on the job trailer porch at night and tell her the bad guys are coming after dark, just to steal her food.

 

When I worked in Memphis, years ago, I had engraved my DL# and initials into most of my tools. We had a break-in and pretty much wiped out the entire shop, I probably lost around $12K myself. About six months later a guy stops by trying to sell some tools, cheap. I was looking through what he had and came across a 1/2'' Snap-On breaker bar that had my ID on it If my uncle hadn't stopped me I'm sure I would have beat him to death. As it was he left with several rather large knots on his head and minus all of the tools he was trying to sell. I was like "what's he gonna do, call the cops?"

 

Here in my area its the very very rare occasion where organized and motivated thieves get caught holding stolen stuff. I've noticed if something isn't recovered within a very short time its pretty much gone regardless what's been done to brand, make ugly or mark in any way to identify your property.

Add to that the explosion of pawn shops who have absolutely no real obligation or motivation to turn away some crack head with something of value to sell for cheap and you have highly motivated thieves, their numbers growing almost daily it seems. While there are laws supposedly governing pawn shops enforcement is quite lax, at least in my area. Even when you can properly identify your stuff in a pawn shop they're legally allowed to charge you at least what they paid for it PLUS "additional costs" that are sometimes just plain ridiculous. Were one of us to "take issue" with one of the pawn shop owner/crooks we'd be liable to prosecution regardless how unfair or illegal their extortion attempts might be. Adding our pawn shop detail is also the bomb squad guess which one gets the priority attention?

As we see in this thread they're not easily deterred by the elaborate measures we take keeping them out or away. Have a friend who had a guitar shop in Detroit that had been hit twice. First time he had perimeter alarms (for the glass windows/doors) and motion detectors---they were done inside of 30 seconds.

Upgrading to heavy bars, grates and screens on everything plus enhanced alarms---he was fully confident this would keep them out---it seemed to work quite well, at least at street level. They noticed a vulnerability so took chain saws (no doubt also stolen elsewhere) and chopped holes in the roof, doing their best Tom Cruise/Mission: Impossible act and wiping him out once again.

These goofs we call dumb, stupid and lazy SOB's really aren't----they're just more motivated to part us from our gear. After all its pure profit and little risk of capture or dire consequences if/when they are caught.

I will advise those considering booby traps that its a dangerous thing because its well documented victims have successfully sued for injuries suffered during their act. One well document case some years ago where a shop owner used a shot gun wired to a window, when it was pushed open it fired point blank. That shop owner prosecuted for man slaughter and sentenced to prison. Its quite fun thinking of ways to deter or thwart thieves but actually doing it comes with an unexpected "cost" most never consider.

Tread carefully friends----and just hide your stuff better too!