05-10-2016, 12:49 PM
"Second, I want a house that can be locked down when we are on the mainland. I could be wrong, but it seems like an all metal structure might allow for this."
We had a (much) heavier duty version of one of these and it took the thieves only a few seconds to breach it:
http://www.amazon.com/Equipment-Lock-HDC...B005CIGVWQ
All they had to do was use a standard set of bolt cutters to snip about an inch off each of the 4 back corners of the steel and then they used forward force (I'm guessing a chain hooked up to a vehicle guessing by the ruts left in the mud they created). Once the corners were snipped the steel bent with ease and gave up its prize. Thieves don't have to understand physics, they only have to be dumb enough to watch youtube.
There is no further question like, "what kind of lock WOULD keep them out"? It doesn't matter: if our locks were any better they would have taken only a few minutes longer to cut through the relatively thin side of the container with a cheap Ryobi cordless grinder.
In the end the joke was on them. The container was just full of junk. The most expensive thing we lost that day was the lock.
In shipping yards where theft is a problem, they stack the containers with the doors of one container against the doors of another. The only way to get in is to either operate a crane to move them, or cut through the side of the container with a grinder. Of course to get that far you have to climb fences with razor wire and avoid security staff. And it still happens.
Like somebody already said, a lock only keeps an honest man out. (My dad said the same thing).
We had a (much) heavier duty version of one of these and it took the thieves only a few seconds to breach it:
http://www.amazon.com/Equipment-Lock-HDC...B005CIGVWQ
All they had to do was use a standard set of bolt cutters to snip about an inch off each of the 4 back corners of the steel and then they used forward force (I'm guessing a chain hooked up to a vehicle guessing by the ruts left in the mud they created). Once the corners were snipped the steel bent with ease and gave up its prize. Thieves don't have to understand physics, they only have to be dumb enough to watch youtube.
There is no further question like, "what kind of lock WOULD keep them out"? It doesn't matter: if our locks were any better they would have taken only a few minutes longer to cut through the relatively thin side of the container with a cheap Ryobi cordless grinder.
In the end the joke was on them. The container was just full of junk. The most expensive thing we lost that day was the lock.
In shipping yards where theft is a problem, they stack the containers with the doors of one container against the doors of another. The only way to get in is to either operate a crane to move them, or cut through the side of the container with a grinder. Of course to get that far you have to climb fences with razor wire and avoid security staff. And it still happens.
Like somebody already said, a lock only keeps an honest man out. (My dad said the same thing).