This darling little iron bench was stolen off my front porch last night. It was chained with a heavy-duty (so I thought) bicycle chain. Bench and chain both gone. My neighbor across the street saw the episode at 4:00 am. She said the back of the guy’s pickup was full of loot. I guess he was Christmas shopping off of people’s porches. Yes, I did file a police report just FTR. (The police sergeant said thieves follow the amazon trucks down the street!) The bench was $100 ten years ago, so no great monetary loss. But it was cute and I liked it. So did my cat. [There are two pictures, so click on it.]
I’d like to replace the bench and use a sturdier chain. This one looks promising. Apparently hexagonal links thwart bolt cutters. It’s ~$60, but I’ve got oodles of amazon rewards points. What say y’all?
It doesn’t need to be long. I’m only going to use it to chain the bench to the porch railing. The three-foot one would be plenty.
Kittycat is fine. I bring both kitties in the house at bedtime. I’m a fixture in the neighborhood, out with my flashlight just after dark, summerfallwinterspring, rounding up felines.
In fact, the shorter it is, the better. If it’s long, it’s a lot easier to get a giant bolt cutter though it vs if they have to be reaching behind or under the bench because there’s no slack in the chain.
Having said that, if it were me, unless this had become a big problem, I’d probably just grab a new chain (or what’s left of the original chain) and go with that. The fact that someone brought bolt cutters makes me think that a heavier chain will only mean they have to run back out to their truck to grab an angle grinder. Either that, or they’ll just cut the lock instead of the chain.
You could check out LockPickingLawyer’s youtube channel. It’s mainly focused on picking locks, as you’d expect, but he’s also shown how easy or difficult certain chains are to break with various methods.
Since it looks like you have a concrete porch another option is to get a bench that can be bolted down and secure it directly to the concrete with anchor bolts. Even without tamper-resistant bolts a thief will be reluctant to spend the time wrenching on anchors when they’re looking for stuff they can remove quickly with cutters.
The problem is ultimately anything you do can be defeated by a persistent enough thief, all you can do is present them with a target that’s more trouble than it’s worth.
Edit: An additional thought, buying a fancy chain may well further entice a thief, who might think overcoming someone’s expensive defenses to be glamorous. Tediously unscrewing four anchor bolts is comparatively less glamorous.
I’d like to increase the deterrence factor a little bit. IF I even decide to replace the bench. I don’t often sit on the front porch because of mosquitoes. And I have three of those plastic Adirondack chairs there, too. Not worth stealing.
That is my thinking.
BTW also in the neighborhood last night a guy (probably the same guy) stole a mailbox that was BOLTED into concrete. Probably just regular bolts. The person who posted that on Nextdoor said the bolts were just unscrewed.
The question is, if you toughen the chain, what’s the next weakest part of the set up? You could come home to a missing bench and destroyed porch railing. I think the idea of bolting it down is good. If not that, then consider bolting down something (with tamper resistant bolts) to chain it to. The porch railing looks much weaker than that chain.
aircraft control cable (for cutting resistance)? Leaving it as an exercise how to cut it to the right length yourself and form the proper eyes on the ends. Possibly more trouble than it’s worth?
Note, if you are ever not home and therefore cannot hear the noise, the thief can always grind through a heavy chain or other metal.
I’d float the idea of electrifying the chain and bench at night, but then we’re back to the hardened mailbox dilemma still scrolling out elsewhere on the board.
If I wanted to be able to have a functional bench that I would be comfortable knowing was all but theft proof, I would be tempted to cut out a couple of trenches in the sidewalk and then imbed a stainless steel Z channel or hat channel such that one of flat edges is flush with the concrete.
Then, have a bench custom fabricated out of steel – a high school student taking an into welding class could do it for a pittance. Make sure the feet are wide and thick and use something thick and heavy like ¼ inch angle iron or tube stock. Then weld the bench to the imbedded steel in the concrete. Don’t tack it, instead make sure to run the bead all around each foot.
If someone wants to take off with my bench, I’d make them work for it.
My guess is he took the bench so he could get a couple of dollars from a metal recycling place. If that’s the case, a wooden bench wouldn’t be as attractive.
Yes, I did file a police report just FTR. (The police sergeant said thieves follow the amazon trucks down the street!) The bench was $100 ten years ago, so no great monetary loss. But it was cute and I liked it. So did my cat. [There are two pictures, so click on it.]
I can never keep cash in my purse because I wind up giving it to homeless people and panhandlers.