Pre harvest pooja.

Beefing up the security at Carpenter ranch after the theft

Unfortunately the thieves who took the two pods know that they are made of stainless steel, but maybe they are dumb enough to be tricked by the color into thinking we changed to plastic. We are adding two strands of coiled razor wire around the interior of the lockup area. We are installing an alarm that will be motion-activated and will sound a loud siren and start a bright strobe-light flashing. A patrol service will be visiting the site and inspecting the lockup at random intervals three times per night.

A couple pictures showing the missing filter pods and the replacements. I think the black plastic replacements look fine and will be uninteresting to thieves. You can see the pods and the manifold are all made of shiny stainless steel. The pipes into and out of the manifold are dull stainless steel. We plan to paint the remaining shiny pods black to match the replacement pods. 

  

A respectable thief never leaves empty handed.

One line summary: Break-in at Carpenter. Filter pods stolen.

THEFT:

Sigh.. Yesterday, we discovered that sometime after 2 pm Saturday thieves had again cut their way into the lockup area. They did not harm the property fence since they were on bicycles (a common modus operandi).

We no longer have a fuel tank in there, and the shed is nearly impenetrable. That leaves the filter station as a target. Four of the eight "pods" were unbolted and removed. 

AFTERMATH:

We found two of them nearby in the orchard. Two evidently was all they could handle on their bicycles (they are quite heavy). 

Tomorrow two replacements will be delivered. We ordered plastic (high strength polycarbonate) because the stainless steel is what the thieves are after. However, even in the plastic, each pod is kinda expensive. The sheriff came out and took a report. 

SECURITY MEASURES:

We are worried about the remaining pods so Lane spent the night out there last night. With an occupied truck there, nobody comes around. 

We are contracting with a patrol service to make three drive-bys each night. They will begin tonight. Next Monday the fence company will again repair the chain link fence and they will install two more razor wire coils at the ground level and at 4 feet on the interior of the fence.