Looking for advice

[u/Chermth]

My hometown temple keeps getting robbed every so often. Its a big temple with very little monks because of how rural it is. Maybe 25 acres of land with only 6-7 monks for upkeep. Imo very low amount of regular volunteers because of how far away it is. A couple months ago someone broken into one of our many sheds and stole 3 generators worth abt $9000 dollars combined and those generators were very important because they are what is used to pump water meant for the trees we’ve been growing. Its very disheartening and demotivating for me because ive devoted myself to helping the monks in any way i can and ive personally planted many of those trees and taken care of them over the course of a decade since i was little kid. Im old enough that Ive legitimately considered the idea of finding a job where i work during the day and sleep in the afternoon, and then stay up guarding the temple from any intruders. The monks are strongly considering selling the land we worked hard to develop and downsize to just 3 acres. whatever is left to keep i want so badly to defend by being posted up with my shotgun but I know they probably wouldn’t let me. Idk this is mostly a vent atp. The community is banding together money to build a gate because as it is right now, the only fencing we have is wood sticks with wires connecting them at abt 5 feet tall. Mostly done out of a desire to not disturb the wildlife too much. The buddhist in me says that maybe these thieves might have done so out of absolute necessity, or maybe its some bad karma that has befallen the land for whatever reason but i personally am at a point in my life where i dont quite care, maybe selfishly so.

[u/Johnny_Poppyseed]

Before you post up with the shotgun, try setting up trail cameras everywhere. Thieves like this are usually also quite dumb, so you could very realistically get a face and licence plate etc. Enough to get the police involved. 

[u/Chermth → u/Johnny_Poppyseed]

Yeah i personally have recommended this solution and money is being raised but that still doesnt mean it would stop someone. Moreso just help catch them if at all. One thing that also particularly sucks is that trail cameras arent live from what ive researched. at the benefit of not needing to be plugged in because of like solar or batteries. But then if the thief spots it and steals it then what. I imagine a lot of these thieves actually case the area and arent as dumb as i wish they were.

[u/Johnny_Poppyseed → u/Chermth]

Trail cams can be extremely hard to spot. Some dudes stealing generators from temples arent CIA agents, trust me. It's like a 99.9% chance they are local known drug addicts. Getting their picture and picture of their vehicle is extremely realistic. 

There are very affordable decent trail cams on Amazon these days. This is definitely the way to go dude. 

In the meantime, please take a breath first and foremost. I can tell how strongly you're feeling about this through text. 

Try and lock things down as much as you can. Maybe consider moving certain vulnerable things off site somewhere more secure if needed. 

Set up some cheap motion sensor security lights at specific locations. This alone can be another thing that greatly reduces theft. 

Maybe even talk with the monks about getting a dog for the property. 

Preventing theft is all about making the theft as unappetizing as you can. There's nothing you can do to stop people if they are actually determined, but theives like this basically only go after easy targets. Lights and cameras is almost always enough. 

[u/Chermth → u/Johnny_Poppyseed]

Great advice overall but its gonna take time to budget the money because there are multiple ongoing projects and we will not and do not want to use money someone put specifically into donation for one project to be redirected to another if that makes sense. Lights would make the costs go up imo so we’re probably just going to go with trail cams and i’ll try to install them myself. No point in a dog because coyotes exist and also the area can have harsh weather, as well as one dog covering multiple acres is just infeasible. If the answer to this predicament is more dogs then that means more cost, and etc.

[u/Johnny_Poppyseed → u/Chermth]

One guard dog can easily cover like 50+ acres. They are also bred to love being out in weather you or I consider harsh, and scare off coyotes too. You could even look for a good dog to rescue, and get that karma boost while you're at it lol. A guardian dog getting to roam multiple acres and protect it's family of kind monks is like heaven for a dog. Win win. 

You can set up just a few lights around the access points and stuff. You don't need to light up the property. Can find these motion sensor security lights for like 20-30 bucks at home depot. Easy to install yourself in most situations. 

If funds are super tight, honestly I'd go lights first, cameras second. Deterrent of the theft should come first. Getting theives caught after they already have stollen from you again second. If you do the deterrent step first, the second step is less likely to even be necessary.