How to Protect Garden Furniture from Theft

Want to protect your garden from burglary so your garden furniture, plants, bikes, and tools won’t get stolen? Learn how CCTV can help you prevent garden theft.

CCTV Scenario – Our customer Pat B. shared the following experience with us: 

“They Stole My Garden Furniture!”

Thursday evening, July Heatwave 2019. After an absolute scorcher of a day, I was finally on my way home to start my long weekend, already merrily singing “Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot”, with the sweet relief of some cool lounging ahead of me. You see, I recently bought my very first proper garden furniture set. I got the comfy, stylish, sturdy, and above all chocolatey gorgeous sofa set from Alexander Francis, should you be interested. 

I’d wanted one for so long. I spotted a sale and just had to go for it (after quickly convincing my other half). And boy, was I glad I did. It’s not just good for making your neighbours green with envy (just kidding, they love coming over for visits, especially when the BBQ’s on). It also made the perfect spot to hang out, just to blissfully take it easy in the garden. Summer was going to be fabulous, no doubt. 

My (..our, but I liked pretending it was all mine) fancy new sofa set was placed by a shady tree, near the bird box and feeder where we can still watch little fledglings flap about this time of year. And close enough to the kitchen of course, where we’d swiftly make our piña coladas to take back to our sweet spot of paradise. Oh, I was pretty much dancing the Lambada when walking the final steps to the house that day, looking forward to an entire weekend of lazing out with the hubby in our own bit of outdoor heaven. 

But then, to my great astonishment, there was no sofa to be found in our garden!! The shock! I thought it was a joke at first, but no. 

Can you imagine how I completely lost my cool when I found our lovely garden corner had been ROBBED of our beloved lounge set? All hell broke loose. As if it wasn’t hot enough already. I could not believe it. Had someone actually had the nerve and nastiness to steal our garden furniture? Yes, it really happened. There went my sunny mood. 

Never in a million years would I have expected anything like that. How do you even sneak such big objects out of there? Could we have prevented a garden burglary? How could one find out who did it or where it could have gone? What should we do? 

Feeling mad, mad, mad..

Garden Crime Is No Joke 

Unfortunately, garden theft happens more and more. There’s no door to break into, making gardens an easy target. There are plenty of interesting items to take. From cute little gnomes and hanging baskets to larger statues, tools, bicycles, trees and shrubs, freshly rolled grass turf (they just roll it back up again), koi carpers from ponds, and yes, even entire garden furniture sets. 

Theft And Shrubbery 

There are several ways of preventing your garden from being burgled and identifying your property after potential theft.    

Some examples: 

• Let Nature provide some prickly defence: use thick shrubbery and foliage, plant climbing roses such as Compassion, New Dawn and Maigold, or thorny bushes like holly, hawthorn, and blackthorn
• Write your house number and postcode with permanent marker underneath your sofa and other valuable items
• Keep pictures and descriptions of unique features of the items such as minor marks etc. 
• Place valuable garden items in clear view of your house and/or main road so it’s not easy for the burglar to hide its attempts
• Do not plant high bushes or trees in front of your fences
• Chain your furniture, larger plants and sculptures down if possible
• Install motion detection lights
• Lay gravel paths so you can hear footsteps even when they’re tip-toed 
• Set up a neighbourhood watch system
• Just don’t get expensive fish breeds, consider spending the £500 per koi carper on animal welfare charities instead 
• Lock your tool shed; garden thieves tend to not just steal, but also use them to make the rest of the robbery easier for them! 
• Place a CCTV system – one of the most effective ways of preventing theft or otherwise tracing the culprits
  
  

Best CCTV Products To Prevent Garden Theft

CCTV, you say? We can help you out, there..

Nothing will put off a burglar more than some big fat cameras pointed at all directions of the garden. And in case they hadn’t noticed and went ahead anyway, it can also be a great way of finding out who took your gnomes or fancy fish. And how about protecting your family from intruders as an extra security bonus? Systems can come with all sorts of smart features such as motion detection, heat detection, alarm triggers, remote control, etc. You could go on holiday and still prevent garden theft by letting the cameras do the work for you. 

Securing your garden with CCTV cameras really doesn’t have to cost much at all. There’s a huge range available, suited to all needs and budgets. Installation is generally straightforward as well. To make it even easier, you can also book a remote setup service such as our ‘Silver Setup’ by our handy helpdesk team, available in the drop-down menu on the product pages. 

Have a look at some of these suggestions: 

Our Digital Wireless CCTV System with Mobile Access and Touch DVR is a great basis for protecting your garden at a very affordable price. 

Can’t run cables from your garden to your house? No worries there. We offer a wireless camera kit that can run fully battery-operated: our Wireless Battery-Powered CCTV System with 1080p Camera and 1TB NVR. You could even hang it up high in a tree, for example. 

If you have quite a big garden full of valuable items, consider investing in one of our top-of-the-range 4K CCTV systems for the sharpest details and tons of extra functions, such as remote access, 50m night vision and smart analytics.  

Lots to choose from. For the best advice on which camera or CCTV system matches your exact requirements and budget, just get in touch with our sales team. They’re quite nice, truly know what they’re talking about, and are always up for a chat. You can reach them during office hours via telephone and email.  

Happy gardening & lounging, stay safe, and have a piña colada on us.