Is your garden shed vulnerable to thieves?
Although you may have made a point of ensuring your garden shed and its contents are covered under your California home insurance policy, losing your possessions to theft is probably the last thing you need. Many garden sheds are filled with expensive items protected with little or no security, other than a less than robust padlock. Garden sheds are usually positioned in a quiet back corner of your garden, away from the main house and out of sight from your neighbors. All of which may make them a very tempting challenge to a potential thief.
Your shed doors and windows are the potential access points for thieves and they should be fitted with quality security locks. Should your shed be particularly vulnerable, consider installing security bars on the windows. The heads of screws attaching the hinge to the door frame can be smeared with glue to help prevent them from being easily removed.
Many garden sheds contain bicycles; ideally they should be chained together and then locked to something fixed or extremely heavy. Some bicycle dealerships offer postcode branding, which may be an excellent thief deterrent. It’s a smart idea to paint your postcode on lawn mowers and leaf blowers too.
Some garden sheds are full of odd bit and pieces of little value and you may think securing them is pointless. Their value isn’t the issue, it’s the way they can be used as functional house breaking tools that may potentially cause you to file a claim against your California home insurance policy.
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