Why?

But the incidents were few, and their impact small.

It would seem, from the mailing list postings, that 2001 has been the worst year ever, in terms of vandalism and theft from home haunts.

When you are running a home haunt with perhaps a couple of hundred dollars to spend, the theft of a $80 Bucky is a big hit.

And worse yet is the demoralizing aspect: you spend money, time, and energy to give something to the local kids - and they steal from you. There's a feeling of violation there. And confusion, because you still want to give a good show to the many good kids, but you have no idea what to do about the bad ones.

And, if you are wondering, yes - our haunt did get hit in minor ways in 2001 ... despite never before having any sort of problem.

• Two of the skull finials were pried off the top of our graveyard fence. There was no way they could come off by accident. One was found under a car in the driveway. I found this particularly disturbing, because it's not a case of "I broke your prop because I liked it so much that I wanted a piece to take home." It was a case of "I broke off a piece just to break it, and then threw away the piece."

• During the haunt, a boy tried to squeeze between the rails of the fence and get into the graveyard. I saw him trying, pulled him back, and yelled at him. He left, but he never stopped grinning.

• Our smallest vandals were a pair of little girls. A few days after Halloween, but before everything was taken down, I noticed that two little girls had ridden their bikes up the walk towards the door. They parked, and one of them opened the gate to the graveyard fence, went in, and was bent down in front of a tombstone when I showed up and confronted them. The girl in the graveyard said that the had gone in there to say hello to a neighborhood cat. The cat was nowhere to be seen (he wouldn't run from me; he likes me; I feed him), but the tombstone she was looking at had been pulled up six inches on its mounting stakes.

Some general ideas

We are glad to share general info, though.

• fencing

  If you make it harder to get to your stuff, you encourage them to leave it alone. Even a fake PVC fence provides a psychological barrier that may give them second thoughts about going in there. It also slows them down and improves their chances of getting caught.

• fake cameras

  I'm not a big fan of fake cameras, but some people feel more secure with them as a "scarecrow" for thieves and vandals. The good thing about fake cameras is that they are cheap.

• real cameras

  I'd much rather put up some real cameras, feeding into a VCR. In 2001, a Halloween list poster reported that such a setup caught a pair of thieves, and justice was done. Score one for the good guys!

  In addition to providing evidence, the obvious display of cameras can provide a scarecrow effect. Since cheap cameras don't tend to be good, and good cameras aren't cheap, I would be a little worried about having the cameras stolen. I suggest disguising or hiding the real cameras, and putting out fake cameras.

• alarms

  If the haunt area is enclosed within a fence, and you have no live actors in there, you can flood the area with PIR sensors, attached to alarms.

  Make the audio alarms loud, and include visual alarms, like flashing lights.

  Alarms won't protect you and your stuff from someone determined to do something bad, but it lets you know that something is going on (so you can intervene) and lets the bad guy know that others are aware of his activities.

• silent alarms

  Silent alarms apply better to holdups, where you want to summon the police without having the robber panic and hurt your clerk.

  If all you have to protect it mere property, the silent alarm only gives the bad guys time to do more damage. If you let them do that, I should hope that the aid summoned by the alarm comes down on them hard. And what are the chances of that?

• ick factor

  Some posters have suggested covering vulnerable props with vaseline, slime, or other icky material. One touch would suggest to a vandal that this is an unapetizing target. It might also make the object slippery and harder to lift, carry, and steal.

  Taking this a bit further, one poster suggested protecting pumpkins from thieves and smashers by slathering them with vaseline that had orange RIT dye mixed in.

Related Pages