Stolen AC Unit

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I just had an AC Unit stolen from one of my rental properties. We have had several vandalism acts done to the unit over the past week.



We put up a motion detector on the unit to increase the lighting, cut shrubbery back as well as up cut the tree to provide a line-of-sight view from the street.
I am just wondering if any of you other landlords have come into such a problem before and what you did to prevent it from happening to the others?



We have several other units in this location, but they are filled, so we aren't receiving any vandalism to those yet.



Items to consider are:

* installing metal cages over the units

* putting in a tracking device in the other units

* install a security system with infra-red for out side



What are your thoughts?


Comments(12)

  • joel25th September, 2013

    Sorry to hear about your issue Jack. We had issues before and found a cheap alternative was to purchase tamper proof screws.

  • joel25th September, 2013

    Here is where we purchased them before: Grainger. com

  • Turnerg11st October, 2013

    We went the GPS tracking route with a 4" x4" "GPS Tracking Device Installed" sticker on the unit. Works great.

    • JackS1st October, 2013 Reply

      Where did you get the stickers from? Are they reflective at all?

  • Turnerg11st October, 2013

    I had them made. White letters on a black background with a picture of a radar dish. Give me you e-mail and I'll send you a copy

  • apartmentsforrent17th October, 2013

    Yes, we had the same problem on a commercial property. Our solution was to lock the ladder that leads to the roof and chain down the AC units.

    • joel17th October, 2013 Reply

      Describe "chain down". How was that done?

  • vcrindc21st October, 2013

    We are installing metal cages around each AC unit, and so far, so.
    Still been having a problem with copper piping however. Anyone have a good anti theft solution for that?

    • joel21st October, 2013 Reply

      One company called simply safe have no-contract wireless security systems at 14/month. I figured I could use a unit at a vacant unit, turn the monitoring on and then turn the monitoring over to the tenant, or remove the alarm system and save it for the next unit.

  • goosifer21st October, 2013

    You could put up a hunting camera that takes pictures whenever there is movement. I would suspect that the vandals are repeat visitors.

    • JackS21st October, 2013 Reply

      I thought about doing that also, however the hunting cameras I thought would be producing a flash, perhaps? I am not sure, but I really didn't want a 200 dollar device just out there for vandals to look at and take.

      • goosifer21st October, 2013 Reply

        My understanding is that there are infrared models that do not produce a visible flash. I regret I cannot verify this firsthand. But something worth looking into.

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