Sheds and garages

Thefts from sheds & garages are big business all year round. New mowers ready for Spring; a variety of tools put away ready for gardening or DIY; valuable items such as fishing tackle & bicycles waiting for the warmer weather. The thieves know the pattern only too well, and let’s face it, we make it easy!

Tips to consider

• You are probably disciplined about locking your doors and windows when you leave your home, but what about your shed or garage?
• Research shows that thieves often take tools such as ladders and spades, from a garage or shed, to help them break into a house.
• Try to site your shed within view of the house.
• Visibly mark all removable items with your postcode and house number (see the factsheet on property marking)
• Fit a good quality padlock. Ensure the hasp is bolted through the shed and into a steel plate. Secure up-and-over garage doors with padlocks through the inside runners, or fit a padlock (with hasp and staple) to either side of the door.
• Replace ordinary screws on outbuilding doors with non-return screws or coach bolts. Glue, smeared over the heads of screws, may stop the thief from unscrewing them.
• Make a note of make/model/serial number of tools and bicycles, take photographs and secure in a safe place.
• High value items such as bicycles and lawn mowers should be shackled together, ideally to the fabric of the building or to a metal post cemented into the ground. Ladders should be secured inside your locked shed or garage.
• Consider having lockable steel boxes fitted to the floor to store your tools.
• Obscure the window of your shed/garage to prevent thieves seeing what you have inside.
• Use signage to let offenders know you have security marked your property.