How To Prevent Garden Hose Theft

You have a garden and one day, you decided that it was necessary to buy a garden hose. Maybe you were tired of using a watering can to water your large garden which, to be honest can be really exhausting and time consuming. After strenuous searches about reviews on the best garden hose to buy, you finally arrived at a conclusion. You purchase this 100 ft. hose for your garden and other purposes. If you are still the type that use a garden hose to wash a car, then your purchased hose would help a bit.

MUST READ: How to Store Expandable Hose

MUST READ: How to Bury a Garden Hose for Easy Watering Transport

MUST READ: Why Does My Garden Hose Keep Bursting?

Then one day, you arrive home from work or something and noticed that your garden hose is missing. At first, you think you had somewhat misplaced it. I mean, who steals a garden hose anyway? You search everywhere, and that's where the reality dawned on you that your hose has been stolen.

You Are Not the First to Report a Stolen Hose…

Well, you are not the first person to have his hose stolen. A lot of people have complained about people stealing their garden hoses in their absence. This is not something new and has been happening since like forever, but how do you prevent this from happening again? How do you prevent your hose from being stolen? In this guide, you will learn about how to prevent hose thefts and how you can implement these methods effectively.

How to Keep a Garden Hose From Being Stolen

There are several ways you can prevent your garden hose from being stolen. One thing you must know is that there is no one excellent method you can use to prevent your hose from being stolen. A method can work for one, but might not work for another.

The choice of method depends on several factors – your neighborhood is one of them. For example, if you live in a bad neighborhood or in a place where cases of theft are rampant, you are likely going to be inventive in your methods of concealing of items such as your garden hose since it is mostly used outdoors.

Quick Release Device

One of the ways you can prevent your garden hose from being stolen is by using a quick release device. You probably might have heard of a quick release device, but may be unaware of how it works. A quick release device is fastened to the ends of the faucet and the hose. In other words, when you install this device, one part of it fastens to the faucet, while the other part fastens to one end of the hose. This enables the hose to easily get detached from the device in case you want to use it.

Once you are done using the hose, you can roll it up and store the other end of the hose in a rack. You can either install behind the gate or in your backyard or in any other place that's convenient for you to access.

Put the Hose Away After Use

Another simple and effective method is to put the hose away after use. Since most hoses are kept outside, thieves would always find a way to take it. However, if you pack up the hose and keep it inside, they would find it difficult knowing the exact location of the hose. They would have to literally search the entire house to find and who knows, you could catch them surprisingly.

You can get a hose reel for your garden hose as well. It's one of the best tools for storing a garden hose, and you can easily move it around. That's if you are getting the moveable hose reels. Once you are done using the hose, coil it on the hose reel and store it inside your house.

You can put away the hose in the basement if you have one or keep it in the roof of your house. Just make sure that wherever you are keeping it is not so obvious to the common eye. Some thieves are callous enough to break into a house and search the entire house, just to find it. If you put the hose away in an obvious location, they would easily see it and it would be yet another loss again.

Camouflage Technique

But if you really want to leave your hose outside, you can also decide to cover the hose in mulches or grasses. This is called the camouflage technique. Once you are done using the hose, find a spot where you can keep the hose and cover it with enough mulches and grasses. If you have a garden, this method would work best because no one would suspect that something of such is kept there. Since the grasses are green, it would imitate the color of the garden; some sort of a camouflage.

Bury the Hose In a Wooden Box

If you don't want to go through the stress of covering and uncovering your garden hose in mulches and grasses, you can simply dig about three to four feet underground enough to contain a wooden box. After use, you can open the wooden box, store your garden hose inside and bury it. The use some grasses to cover the top so that no one would be suspicious of anything buried there.

Dogs

Another alternative is to have one or two dogs around your home and garden. If you love animals, particularly dogs, you can train them to be around your garden or around where your garden hose is mostly situated. That way, they would be able prevent thieves from stealing your garden hose. But if you don't have a thing for animals, I suggest that you stick to other methods in this guide.

Installation of Surveillance Cameras

Better still, you can just have some CCTV surveillance security system installed around your house and garden. Once you are away, you can activate the surveillance system. Any intruder would easily be caught, and such a person would be apprehended. The downside of this method is the cost. It's quite more expensive than other methods. If you are not really bothered by the cost, you can go ahead and install them in your home. Besides, it would also be helpful in providing adequate security in the house and doing other things apart from catching and apprehending garden hose thieves.

Build a High Fence

Some house owners use build high fence around their house, with some trigger alarm that sounds once an intruder is about to break in. Once the alarm triggers, the thief will have no choice than to run for his life. Else, he would get caught. However, this is not a guarantee because there are some intelligent thieves out there that will try to disengage the alarms, so that they can go in. For the time being, this method will keep your garden hose from being stolen to a great extent.

Spray Garden Hose With Some Bright Colors

There's every possibility that the thief that regularly steals your hose is male. So what do you do? Before you uncoil the hose after use, spray some bright colors, preferably pink or purple on the hose. We bet that the thief will never come around to steal your hose because they know that the hose can be easily identifiable. Plus, the color pink do not go down well with the male counterparts. So your hose is protected.

Wrap It With Some Duct Tape

Thieves don't like something that is old and worn out. This method will definitely do the magic. Wrap the hose at intervals with duct tape and the thief will see no reason to steak an old, overused hose. Unless the thief doesn't have a choice. He will look for another to steal. This method will prevent the thief from coming back to your yard or garden.

How to Prevent Water Theft

In addition to stealing a garden hose, some people are also fond of stealing water. If you have ever come home and found out that your water bill is high, there is every possibility that it was used without any authorization in your absence.

Turning your water off might be the simplest way to prevent people from stealing water in your absence, but that wouldn't stop the thief from switching the water on. A water faucet that has easy access will result in people using the water without your knowledge. So here is a way of preventing people from stealing your water totally.

There are two ways you can prevent people from stealing your water. It's either you install a hose bib lock or turn the main valve that supplies water off. The former is better than the latter because thieves might find a way to unlock the main valve, especially if it's situated outside the house like most valves. To eliminate the possibility of anyone stealing your water, contact a professional plumber to move the valve to the inside of the house.

Using a Hose Bib Lock

A hose bib lock is a simple device that locks a hose thread. It's inexpensive and simple to install. A hose bib come in several configurations, such as the magnetic ones, the ones that use a padlock, etc.

What You Need

Padlock

Hose bib lock.

Steps

Turn the handle of the faucet clockwise to turn the water off entirely.
If you are using the hose bib with a key, slide the key into the hole on the bib lock.
Place the hose bib lock onto your water faucet. Line it up with the threads on the faucet, turn clockwise, and tighten it. Make sure it's not so tight to avoid the threads on the lock breaking.
Once you are done with locking it, pull the key out from the lock.
Store the key in a secure location.

You can use the padlock method as an alternative. This method is simple, fits most garden hose thread faucets, and is perfect at preventing water theft. To use the padlock method;

Turn the handle of the faucet clockwise to turn the water off entirely.
Place the inner lock piece – a semi-round inner metal piece that's smaller than the outer one on the faucet. Line up the threads with metal piece and make sure that it is secured to the faucet. Always avoid over-tightening.
Place the outer, round lock piece onto the inner lock piece. Make sure you secure and correctly place the outer piece directly on the inner lock piece so that the hole or slot matches.
Hook a padlock over the hole on the metal piece and lock it. Keep the key in a secure place.

Conclusion

Garden hose thefts have been in existence and would likely continue to exist till the ends of time. Many gardeners and home owners have asked how to keep a garden hose from being stolen. It's left for you to employ methods that would keep this constant theft at bay. It's crucial that you choose a method that would suit you. People are different, and one method that works perfectly for one might definitely not suit the other.

It's also important to protect your water from being stolen. Garden hose theft and water theft are two common thefts that homeowners report about. Implementing the steps described here will protect your garden hose and Stop unauthorized use of water.