need ideas to lock cargo container

[jsoukup]

Haven't posted in a while, got hurt on a federal job two years ago and haven't done much welding since. I went to work for my family business and I have a cargo container off site that keeps getting broken into. About 5 years ago they got into it and got a generator and a pos air compressor. We haven't kept much of anything of value in there since, but we keep it locked.

This week they cut the locking tab off with something like bolt cutters (they didn't cut the lock). They didn't get anything, but I've got another one someplace else and I'd like to reinforce the lock. Any ideas? What have you guys done to secure your box?

I was hoping to put a little shed on that site for my staff to work out of in the wintertime, but it's going to need to be pretty secure. The simple answer involves firearms, but I don't have that kind of time to wait on these guys.

[partagas]

Have you tried a jail type lock. They will never get out... I am in.

[Sberry]

Yes, a lock cover isnt that difficult, dont have a pic of one though.

[84ZMike]

Go to Home Depot / Lowes and look at a jobsite or similar box and copy the way they recess / hide a pad lock.

[mudbug]

The most secure one I ever saw was a pipe larger than one of those "round" type locks welded into the main box...with a hasp welded to the inside of the lid/door so it goes into the pipe side and the "round" lock then locks the two together.

It takes a torch to cut them apart.

[Roger]

Only real security is someone living there with dog, geese and/or electronic alarm.
or
Move box to secure location when no one is around.

[usmcpop]

How about one of those shrouded hockey-puck type locks? (Plus some type of audible alarm.)

http://www.paclock.com/XIC_Pucks.htm

[Hotfoot]

This is like Mudbug describes. This is an image off the web, not mine...

[calweld]

Dog the main doors from the inside, put a secure man-door with two or more locks or deadbolts on it, plus a locking bar going across. Also, don't forget, lock the main doors from the outside. Nothing is ever truly theft-proof, all you can do is make them do one thing after enother, hopefully taking more time than it's worth, or giving YOU the opportunity to take counter-measures (read: Smith and Wesson).

[usmcpop]

Smith and Wesson
Glock
Colt
H & K
Ruger
CZ
Walther

Lots of security systems out there...

[JTMcCracken]

I've built a couple of "secure" conex's for locking up the million dollar laser grade equipment that runs finish graders and we did it this way.
We lined the entire conex interior with 1/4" plate, built a wall (just inside the original doors) of 1/4" plate on a 2X2" square tube frame, with a steel door w/deadbolt. Welded gangboxes to the floor inside. And ran a pipe or tube across both doors with a simple box for the lock. All you have to do is make the lock innaccessable to boltcutters.

That's three good layers of protection.

This was after a couple of conex's were broken ionto on a job. Of course our finished conex could still be breached, but it would take a lot of time, a lot of effort and several specialty tools. Three things most thiefs don't have.

Any good bar (pipe or tube or whatever you have on hand) across the doors with a hard to access lock cover will do the trick. Make your box/ect out of stainless steel if you want to make it harder for a guy with a torch. If you cover the welds with hardfacing you'll make it harder for the guy with a grinder.

A friend of mine in the dirt moving business has a conex with all of his tools/parts/lube/filters/ect and he's been broke into by the tweakers several times. He put motion sensing lights on a pole above the conex, and a siren activated by the lights, run off a 12 volt deep cycle battery inside the box. Treakers hate illumination when they are stealing your stuff.

A claymore inside the door would work wonders, but you'de spend the rest of your life in prison so it's probably not worth it.

JTMcC.

[JTMcCracken]

It's a lot more trouble, but you can run your bar(s) on the inside of the doors thru eyes welded to the inside of the doors. It leaves a lot less to be attacked on the exterior because you only have the flat end plate on the bar, and the well guarded lock exposed.

A smart guy with a cordless grinder, a couple of batteries and some wafer discs will get in eventually, or a guy with a torch. But the harder it looks, the more likely they'll look for easier pickings.

JTMcC.

on edit, prison doesn't appeal to me so I'm going to check the legality of this, but I'm thinking about booby trapping my conex's with a large (like 10 big cans) of the anti bear pepper spray. Just fog the interior.

[Sberry]

Yup, anything can be broken in to, they consider a safe to be burgler proof if it takes 8 hours to open it.

[Zrexxer]

That's three good layers of protection.

JT and Calweld both said the same thing that's worked for me for years - security is achieved through multiple layers of difficulty. Recognizing that most of the theft around here is lazy potheads and tweakers, the more difficult things become for them the more likely their short attention spans get the better of them and they go steal somebody else's stuff.

So approach this thinking not of some kind of super-lock that no one can defeat, but as layers of security that make it just too much trouble to screw with.

One example - We've had dozens of home burglaries in this slimehole that my neighborhood has become; they usually go into the back yard and pry the sliding glass patio doors open with a screwdriver. Of all the people that have been hit though, just about none of them had the gate to their back yard locked. That's a little thing - but when the lazy little twits have to climb a 6 foot fence, they usually just go to the next house. Layers.

[mudbug]

This is like Mudbug describes. This is an image off the web, not mine...

Thanks Hotfoot---That's it exactly.... I see no way to get into anything locked in that fashion without a torch....and if they are that prepaired nothing will stop them.

I suppose they could use a small porta-torch,but thieves usually blow that $300 on worthless stuff not tools(unless they stole one--LOL)