stolen tools - security

[Horace Greeley]

Hi, Fred,

At 04:09 PM 8/14/2004, you wrote:
>At 04:49 PM 8/14/2004 -0600, Fred Sturm wrote:
>>I'm thinking along the lines of some sort of
>>padlocked cabinet for tools, but would like to benefit from the
>>experience of others.
>
>
>I'm sorry to hear about your tool losses. I think my idea for
>security might run along the lines of a motion sensor tied to a
>camera inside the room, ... has anyone tried anything like that?
>You'd know where the switch to turn it off was, and you could
>turn it back on when you left for the night.

I must have missed this thread earlier...

My sincere condolences...truly a nightmare.

Having had this experience, I would suggest having your room keyed off the 
master, and/or having a separately keyed deadbolt installed.  It is easy to 
focus on maintenance folks...my experience was that I knew is was faculty, 
but could not prove it.

Something else you might try, depending on just how small your closet is, 
is the kind of tool-crib/locker setup often found in automotive garages 
and/or machine shops.  These are usually more than sufficiently large for 
most anything a piano technician might use; and can often be 
found/scrounged from places on campus and/or surplus sales outlets.  Oh, 
yes...ram set the puppy to the floor, and use really good padlocks.

Most thieves of piano tools quickly discover that their booty (well, the 
older use of the term, OK?) is pretty darned useless for things other than 
piano work.  I know that does not really help much; but I find it amusing 
to contemplate the faces of the perpetrators when they start picking 
through spoon benders and letoff tools and stuff like that...

For this malady, I would prescribe the 151 version of the Wild Turkey 
Vertigris Removal Tool.

I hope you are able to quickly recover your losses.

Best.

Horace