# $1 Prop Security



## redg8r

I've been reading alot from fellow yard haunters who are experiencing theft and vandalism lately, and as such in this day and age its not very surprising.

What I'm reading is that many of you are delaying setting up in fear, I've setup late in late oct. before and it was a huge pain within the scope of only a couple days.

Personally I REFUSE to let a few vagrants ruin the work I spend 6 months preparing for and I will be setup for the entire halloween season!!

I, as likely many of you were once a stupid kid with little regard to property of others, so I'm looking at security of my haunt much like I would if I was the thief or vandal myself, always thinking "how quick could I make off w/ that?" etc.

This is one of _3 layers_ of yard security I'm trying this year, so here's a quick how to on arming your props for a little over a dollar ea. and making it to where if a thief wants your piece, he/she will have to earn it.

What I'm using is a dollar tree door/window alarm. You could use a personal alarm keychain, whatever. The important part is to place the alarm IN the prop so if they want it, they have to put up with the ear splitting sound going with it.
Any mischief makers will likely drop it on the spot and run like hell!

Heres the parts:









Dollar store window/door alarm (this brand is called "Intrud Alert")
Galvanized wire
Couple rubber bands
Spider Wire or similar high tensile string
Black paint - heat source [lighter] (Not pictured)

1st. step would be to paint the unit to match or hide in your prop, I'm skipping the step for clarity.








Heat up the end of galv wire to push thru the styrene housing to form a way to attach the unit to the prop. If you trust the double sided adhesive strip on the unit you can skip this step.









Form the wire around the bottom and secure. This prevents anyone from removing the batteries.









Add the magnet back in place and loosely secure with a couple rubber bands.









Attach the spider wire to a mounting tab. The other end will be tied off to any other secured object, eg; your fence, a shrub, tree, or a hidden stake secured in the ground.

When the magnet is pulled from the housing the alarm triggers and travels with the prop.
An added bonus is that if the unit is lightly or temporarily separated, the rubber bands pull the magnet back into place. only an intentional removal of your prop will set it off.


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## Frighteners Entertainment

that is ok to do as an extra, but it doesn't really prevent it from happening.
Your best defense is lighting, simple as it is...lighting.


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## redg8r

This is the unit painted flat black, notice how the on/off switch kinda disappears?
If you worry about tech savvy or brazen thief's with the patience to look for a switch you could possibly open it up and remove or hardwire the switch. I'm not too concerned.









Heres the unit mounted in a prop. weather is gonna be a concern so keep it out of direct path of rain.









Heres the prop armed.... can you see it in daylight?









Heres the tether tied off to the shrub below.

Hope it helps someone.
redg8r


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## redg8r

Frighteners Entertainment said:


> that is ok to do as an extra, but it doesn't really prevent it from happening.
> Your best defense is lighting, simple as it is...lighting.


I 100% totally agree....... this is one of 3 steps I'm taking to secure my setup.


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## grismcdonald

That is an killer idea. Yes light might be a deterrent but people these days really don't seem to care. I think the addition of one extra tether attached to the prop and slightly longer than the trigger might slow them down some more. Great idea. Need to go to the dollar tree today for some more LED tea lights for my PVC candles and I will pick some of these alarms up today.


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## Haunthunter

I was thinking about putting an alarm on mine and kept wishing, but this had never ocurred to me. I even saw them at tbe dollar store last night. I am doing this. Thank you


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## Allen H

this is actually a great idea and at a great price point.


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## Haunthunter

I just went to the dollar store and got some. While I was there, I saw those metal twirly metal stakes with a triangle shape on the top, they sell at Home depot I guess some people use them to stake their dog leash. These are heavy duty and stake all the way down. These are really hard to get out as they are basically deeply screwed to the ground. One would have to wet the floor. A vandal would have to spent quite sometime getting these out. I figure a small piece of chain and lock though the triangle would 
prevent and discourage theft any day. These are very easy to hide since the only thing out of the ground is the triangle which is the handle to screw these. These only cost a dollar. I had seen these at home depot for about $8. So these are a great deal


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## beelce

Outstanding idea........


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## Zurgh

Not a bad idea as an additional layer of security, in fact, I think its great. A few things I would add is: test them repeatedly, test them daily, get all the same brand & type, buy extras for the batteries. If you are paranoid, put 2 on a prop as a fail-safe... but if you are that paranoid, your other security will have probably already have alerted you anyway.


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## pagan

Great idea..


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## Lunatic

Lights and noise should scare away anyone. Especially the noise since it will wake up everyone in the neighborhood. 

Also it will tip you off if someone walks through your haunt during trick or treating. I have had this happen to me too many times. No one realizes all the trip hazards inside a display like electrical and audio cables. Many times I have seen someone trip over a plug and disconnect part of the display. GET THE HELL OUT OF MY GRAVEYARD! ARE YOU STUPID?! is what I want to say.


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## TheOneAndOnlyKelly

Haunthunter said:


> One would have to wet the floor.


?? I seriously don't want to know...


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## dubbax3

I did this two years ago. It saved one of my headstones, unfortunately it was a pretty rainy season and one of the alarms shorted out. So they took one and dropped the other. Very helpful as a deterrent.


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## HalloweenZombie

Fantastic idea! I'll have to swing by the dollar store!


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## Bobbywan

Great Idea! Might add some of these!


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## tcass01

Another deterent which will also help as a first line of defense is the spider wire itself, in Dk green or transparent. You can't see it at night and much like mission impossible, string it from tree to shrub to stake, etc in a criss cross fashion. Anyone trying to get through will get a WTF. I do it through the mums in the garden and around the perimeter. I haven't had any thing stolen yet. You can even put and alarm on one end as a trip wire. Or attach explosives (could be entertaining).


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## hpropman

tcass01 said:


> I haven't had any thing stolen yet. You can even put and alarm on one end as a trip wire. Or attach explosives (could be entertaining).


I love the explosive idea LOL! But somehow I do not think the police would be amused by it. The alarm is a great idea though and so is the spider wire loom obstacle.


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## kenkozpgh

Great idea. We've had so many things stolen in the past, we decided to put up and take down our entire display in one day........This was too much work and took the fun out of the whole thing, so we put up security cameras. They worked, but then we ended up spending time trying to prosecute the theives. We're going to continue to use the cameras and have added lights. Lights do a great job, but now we will add these alarms too.

Thanks for sharing.


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## N. Fantom

tcass01 said:


> You can even put and alarm on one end as a trip wire. Or attach explosives (could be entertaining).


I have done something similar to this using a minor black powder and potassium nitrate mix. It stopped some idiotic classmates of mine armed with spray paint and paintball guns. They dropped to the ground with their hands behind their heads and nearly peed themselves screeming like little girls. I think that they were louder than my pyro. Hahahaha, man it was fun showing the video to everyone at school the next day:devil:. But i thik i'm going to go with the alarms next year so that the cops wont be called, but after that little display of my "abilities", i dont think i'm going to have any more problems


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## kprimm

Great idea. Now I just have to figure out how to hook to tether to the trigger of my 9MM.


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## dead hawk

*awsome*

That is true I have never had someone steal my props i dont have that many (yet) but i won't have them anymore


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## scarrycher

Tooo funny kprimm


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## Copchick

kprimm said:


> Great idea. Now I just have to figure out how to hook to tether to the trigger of my 9MM.


LMAO! My kinda guy!


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## spankyr1

Killer idea


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## Copchick

I have made 30 of these alarms. Painted, wired and ready for attachment. This extra level is such a great idea. No one has messed with any of my props in all these years, but I still get thoughts of "it might happen this year". Thanks redg8r!


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## onemomspov

Doing this before anything goes out this year. Thanks!


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## silentskream

very clever - has anyone attempted any sort of waterproofing?
I would imagine you could put the electonic portion in a plastic sandwich bag or something and the magnet would still function.. certainly not waterPROOF, but less likely to be damaged by rain.


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## ron_jon87

Looks like a great idea. I'll be using this on my haunt items (especially my cauldron creep) this year.


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## Bob

Cheap and simple!


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## DreadfulNoise

This is going on all my props. And I might use the spider wire to set up a water gun booby trap... *evil grin*


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## Nutz

tcass01 said:


> Or attach explosives (could be entertaining).


Ok, I'm done wiping coffee off my screen now.


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## ArtistReflect

DreadfulNoise said:


> This is going on all my props. And I might use the spider wire to set up a water gun booby trap... *evil grin*


Fill the water gun with thinned fake blood.

I like the alarm idea. I also like the dog stake idea. We had a few thieves around town last year, and I think our fence deterred some this year. Hmmm, perhaps a hidden trip wire above our 5 foot fence and an alarm on the gate would be enough to deter future invasions.


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## DrHannibalLecter

Thank you for this. I keep searching for this post and really need it when I make my props. Im tired of the kids in the area messing with my stuff and I want my house to look its best. Thank you so much!


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## azscoob

I thought about doing this for my Halloween props, then I had a Christmas display theft that winter, I had a river run I built out of 25 strands of overlayed blue twinkle net lights, there was an animated drinking deer next to it, middle of the night some bastard stole the whole run and the deer, then they ripped my properly illuminated American flag with the metal mount bracket and a 4 foot section of the fascia board off my garage eve, I found the flag ripped to shreds half a block away, the pole was broken in half, and my fascia board was smashed through a car window. 

I was enraged not in the theft of my lights and deer, but the theft of my flag and destruction of it really set me off.... I now have cameras that monitor my yard, all equipped with IR illumination, want to steal my stuff? see that sign in the yard? smile cause you are on camera!

I have since moved from phoenix back to Chicago, and have installed my cameras at the new house... but I doubt I will need them, the whole area decorates with gusto, and neighbors told me they have never had issues... city hall is at the entry to our neighborhood and as a result there are lots of patrols heading in and out... that may help!


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## The-Hog-Flu

An interesting read. I've always been dreading waking up to find my yard haunt trashed.


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## Kennyw76

This is a good idea


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## BillyVanpire

this is a great low-cost idea, worth it if you spend alot of effort / money on a prop.


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## thebrainyscientist1

Here at home the security for the props i setup are covered by cctv cameras all over the propterty but obvously the cameras are there all year not just halloween any trouble and its monitored from the cotnrol centre where the computerised lighting systems linked to in the study. but these ideas with the small alarms are something i might use in case someone does something to a prop and i dont realise this would be a early audible warning to it plus i could link the cctv pan tils units to the signal from the alarm module and make the camera look at the prop. thanks for the ideas.


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## SpookyPookie

Personally we are paranoid anyway and have IR capable cameras up year round and several motion lights and a "dinger" that makes that convience store ding-dong noise inside the house when motion is detected outside the house so we know when to check the monitors (one hardwired monitor and the desktop allows monitoring in form of streaming, as well as from any logged in cell phones). 
However, the explosive rig on tripwire is actually legal here and maybe in other areas too? A lot of farmers around here use them in the fields to prevent people with lifted trucks or 4-wheelers from trashing their crops. Also used to keep coyotes and weasels from the chicken coop. I think the rig is made using a trip line and a shell with just powder, no ball, so you just get a loud bang but no shrapnel to cause actual injury. One farmer told me he kept losing a few acres of corn over the course of a season so he set one up and the boys ran through it on their 4-wheelers and set it off then took off. Cop showed up next day with the boys and their mom, the boys said he shot at them and he explained and showed the set up to the officer, then explained he would be pressing charges for all the damage they had done since the destroyed property was his livelihood. 
This is a great set-up for some extra help if you have near-by neighbors though. I'm sure if they heard the noise in the middle of the night they'd throw the lights on and peek out the window.


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## RoxyBlue

^I expect setting up an explosive rig for a Halloween display would not be popular with either the neighbors or with the cops who get called out because someone hears what sounds like gunfire:jol:


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## Skull

I realize this is an old post, but still a great idea. Wonder what the other 2 security measures were.


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