Thread: Theft Deterents

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I'm curious as to how you keep people from jackin' with your stuff? I hardly ever sleep through the nights after I've put up my Halloween people because I'm always worried some ill-mannered brat will terrorize my friends in the middle of the night.......

Especially if you make something that looks like it could be real (Like the Zelda witch I saw in the props section...kudos to you on her...she's gross! and that's fantastic!!) you know peeps are gonna wanna touch her, feel her, poke her, etc.....

I also read a thread where one person's props were stolen! I would die! I feel so bad for that person....what an awful world it is when you go out of your way to make something for not only your enjoyment but others as well and then some fool comes along and snakes it!

So, how do YOU keep it safe?

The moment anything Halloween related goes onto our porch is the same moment all entrances and exits get boarded up if they aren't needed. All doors into the haunt are boarded at night and when no one is working on it. We keep everything under tight wraps until we deem it okay to let the theme leak out.

We use actors and will be using guides this year to help maintain property. We haven't had theft issues in years, and when we did the only ones bold enough to try and steal were also stupid enough to try and do it in front of us.
A bigger issue that has come up is intentional damage to the props; kicking, punching and so forth. Hopefully guides will be a deterrent for that.

Mine isn't so much of a walk thru haunt its more of decorations on the lawn the drive way and under the carport I set up early Oct. 31st and take it down before we head to bed. I tried leaving it up over night and right away the older teens come around and they think they have the "right" to do what they want they started messing with my skulls so we went outside and I can hear them say hey put it back they are standing right there and they threw it back into our yard and ran off. So for us its all done in the same day.

Hope you get some helpful advice here, man, I don't have any. Even though we live in the bible belt, we've been fortunate in that I've never really had to deal with anyone taking our things. We've been lucky-or maybe, everyone is just scared of us. I like to thing the latter.

@ Laurie - I'm surprised you havent woken up to crucifixes tied around the necks of your props!

My husband just said he's willing to dress up every night and sit amongst my friends...and if anyone tries to mess with anything he'll jump at them and scare the pee outta them...lol...just what I need a court case that reads so and so vs. frankenstein....lol

The week before Halloween can be nerve-wracking, agreed, if you've got nice stuff and/or homemade stuff out in the front yard. Yet in all the time we've been doing a yard haunt we had one incident once, that's it.
They were caught in the act so almost no damage done.

My solution after that year was to put up a few bright work lamps to light up the prop areas (they go on after we turn off the haunt lights for the night) & some signs along the border of the yard- SMILE YOU'RE ON SECURITY CAMERA.
The work lights & signs come down the morning of 10/31.
As I mentioned on another thread, we take down all the front yard stuff late Halloween night & stack it in the back yard out of sight.

We don't really have any cameras

I put too much effort into Halloween to just decorate for one day. I don't leave electronics (strobes and fog machines) and animatronics out over night, but I will have my funeral carriage and cemetery up a couple weeks in advance.

I've added my garage to the haunt the last couple years, so I leave the door open for neighbors to check things out in the evening, then I close it at night and all is secure.

Easy solutions if you're worried would be signs about security cameras or putting a few of those inexpensive motiion detector lights out in your yard.

LonnieC- what kind of security problems do you anticipate given the type of area you live in?

I live in a small town so what I'd do is talk to my local Police Department and just tell them to have whatever vehicle is on patrol to be sure to keep an eye on my property. I'm sure it won't kill them to patrol down your street a few extra times than they normally would. The frequent presence of a Police vehicle should definitely discourage criminal behavior.
If that won't do the trick, get your hands on a pit bull and tie that guy up out by your stuff. That would definitely deter anyone from stepping anywhere near your props.

I decorate outside, no fog, starting on Oct 1- Nov 1. In 12 years no one has touched anything but mother nature herself.