Garde theft advice from Cleveland Police

• A shed, store or garage needs to be securely locked, just like your home. Use a strong padbolt, fitted using threaded bolts with washers or backing plates, not screws which can be loosened from the outside.
• Fit locks to shed windows and think about fitting steel grilles behind the windows. Cover windows to make it difficult for a thief to see what's inside.
• Most gardeners have expensive garden equipment or power tools. Whenever possible, disable them after use. Never leave a key in the ignition.
• Fit metal rings and chains to secure equipment inside the shed. Fit a battery powered alarm (available at Police HQ, Kirkleatham, Redcar).
• Check that your household insurance covers property kept in a shed or outbuilding.
• Thieves often use tools left lying in the garden to break into a house. Spades, forks and ladders are all useful to an intruder.
• Get into the habit of locking them away.
• Mark your property using a DNA marking kit or your cycle using our cycle marking service.
• Thieves are interested in attractive or antique planters or garden ornaments.
• Mark them with your postcode.
• Take photographs of anything that's particularly valuable - make it easier to trace it.
• Growing between 12" to more than 5', varieties of berberis are very prickly as are pyracantha, mahonia, hollies, hawthorn and chaenomeles japonica. Riga rugosa makes a good hedge, with a great many thorns.
• Keep fences and walls in good order and make them high enough to deter intruders - about 6' (1.8 metres).
• Fences higher than 6'6" (2 metres) with trellis may need planning permission.
• Front fences or hedges should be no more than 3' high so that your property is easily seen by passers by.
• Prickly or thorny plants are useful near walls or fences.
• Fit a padlock or bolt to all gates.
• Lay a deep gravel path rather than slab or concrete so that anyone approaching the house will be heard.

View our range of metal garden sheds, designed with garden security in mind.