This post has something for everybody: guns, a truck, game cameras, and dirty rotten scoundrels. Only thing it's missing is Mil vs MOA but the thread is still young.
Short story first - got in my truck Saturday morning about 10:30 and drove 20 or so miles to my son's house. Mostly highway. Spent about an hour trying to set up my chronometer before abandoning the project for the day (mostly due to the heat of the day!) and heading home. About 4 miles down the road, at about 70 mph, I feel what I thought was a flat. I took my foot off the gas, pulled over to the side of the road, and actually made an easy right turn onto a side street. As I turned, the back end dropped and my passenger-side rear wheel rolled past my truck, across the street, and into the weeds.
My regular mechanic who worked on it says there is NO damage to the wheel or tire. All the lugs were sheared off and there was some damage done to the brake drum and components mostly due to dragging it on the road and up onto the deck of the tow truck. Mechanic says it's all consistent with someone having removed the lug nuts, because there's no evidence of wheel shimmy or wobble. Nobody - that I know of - has touched the lug nuts in about 6 months. I confess I don't (well, haven't until now!) walk around the truck checking the lug nuts on a regular basis - and haven't noticed any missing when I occasionally glance at the tires looking for low tire pressure. It's a 2001 truck - and doesn't itself (yet?) have an alarm. I can't imagine anybody trying to steal a wheel, let alone just the lug nuts. But, here we are.
I'm in a pretty low-key subdivision but there's a fair amount of traffic on my street. The truck has been parked at the end of my driveway, near the street. The neighbor across the street has a motion activated flood-light that goes off if I step outside my front door, but where the truck has been parked the passenger side is hidden from the floodlight and generally from view. His light goes on any time a car passes between our houses. But I can see how it would be possible for someone to approach the passenger side of my truck without setting off the neighbor's light. I don't think he has cameras or records anything, but I'm going to check anyway.
I'm thinking about putting some sort of camera(s) up to keep an eye on the driveway. Problem is if I mount one on the house and aim it at the street it will take pics any time a car goes by. I'm also concerned that the neighbor's light will mess with any night vision/IR camera or sensor. I can mount a camera perpendicular to the truck, but it will still likely pick up passing traffic, and again will have the neighbor's light. Only other possibility is on the mailbox post, aiming it back towards my house, but that puts the camera itself in an ideal spot to be noticed - and stolen.
About the only other thing I can think of would be some sort of "jiggle" alarm in/on the truck itself so if someone moves it significantly an alarm will sound. I suppose that's what a car alarm does . . .
All in all - relevant to this forum because, among other things, my response to any active alarm is likely to include carrying - if not brandishing - some sort of firearm. And my wife accuses me of acting like a mama bear when it comes protecting my truck.
Thoughts??
Short story first - got in my truck Saturday morning about 10:30 and drove 20 or so miles to my son's house. Mostly highway. Spent about an hour trying to set up my chronometer before abandoning the project for the day (mostly due to the heat of the day!) and heading home. About 4 miles down the road, at about 70 mph, I feel what I thought was a flat. I took my foot off the gas, pulled over to the side of the road, and actually made an easy right turn onto a side street. As I turned, the back end dropped and my passenger-side rear wheel rolled past my truck, across the street, and into the weeds.
My regular mechanic who worked on it says there is NO damage to the wheel or tire. All the lugs were sheared off and there was some damage done to the brake drum and components mostly due to dragging it on the road and up onto the deck of the tow truck. Mechanic says it's all consistent with someone having removed the lug nuts, because there's no evidence of wheel shimmy or wobble. Nobody - that I know of - has touched the lug nuts in about 6 months. I confess I don't (well, haven't until now!) walk around the truck checking the lug nuts on a regular basis - and haven't noticed any missing when I occasionally glance at the tires looking for low tire pressure. It's a 2001 truck - and doesn't itself (yet?) have an alarm. I can't imagine anybody trying to steal a wheel, let alone just the lug nuts. But, here we are.
I'm in a pretty low-key subdivision but there's a fair amount of traffic on my street. The truck has been parked at the end of my driveway, near the street. The neighbor across the street has a motion activated flood-light that goes off if I step outside my front door, but where the truck has been parked the passenger side is hidden from the floodlight and generally from view. His light goes on any time a car passes between our houses. But I can see how it would be possible for someone to approach the passenger side of my truck without setting off the neighbor's light. I don't think he has cameras or records anything, but I'm going to check anyway.
I'm thinking about putting some sort of camera(s) up to keep an eye on the driveway. Problem is if I mount one on the house and aim it at the street it will take pics any time a car goes by. I'm also concerned that the neighbor's light will mess with any night vision/IR camera or sensor. I can mount a camera perpendicular to the truck, but it will still likely pick up passing traffic, and again will have the neighbor's light. Only other possibility is on the mailbox post, aiming it back towards my house, but that puts the camera itself in an ideal spot to be noticed - and stolen.
About the only other thing I can think of would be some sort of "jiggle" alarm in/on the truck itself so if someone moves it significantly an alarm will sound. I suppose that's what a car alarm does . . .
All in all - relevant to this forum because, among other things, my response to any active alarm is likely to include carrying - if not brandishing - some sort of firearm. And my wife accuses me of acting like a mama bear when it comes protecting my truck.
Thoughts??
