The size and weight are generally a good theft deterrent. But to be extra safe I use MagnaVolt

LoJack has equipment locators that use gps. If someone was to steal a machine and knew anything about the machine they would see a "add on" and probably remove it?

OR you could get a trunk monkey. Sorry

Do you live in the getto? If you get robbed they will be looking for easily carried items not 300# machines.

Put nyloch nuts on the leg bolts inside the cabinet. Much harder to manoeuvre/transport a game if you can't take the legs off. Also, write your initials in some obscure place under the playfield/inside the cabinet/in the backbox. Won't stop the game getting stolen but can help to establish that it's yours if it does.

Get a dog.

Pinball machines are nothing but material possessions. Don't be so paranoid.
They would probably be more at risk from fire or water damage than theft.
Buy some collectable insurance for them. Most every pinball machine can be easily replaced.

First off, please don't call me Shirley. Second, I've never heard of a home pinball theft - however I do know of a few stolen from sheds/storage/locations. I really don't think you have anything to worry about from a home game room. Not gonna happen. Worry about something else. I hear the universe is expanding exponentially.

I never really worry my pins will be stolen but, I do worry someone may break into the coin doors thinking there's money in them.

357

Nuff Said

Record serial numbers, take photos of cabinet, that will help identify the game. Just in case it gets stolen or destroyed.

Tile

Put pins in basement, and your dolly out of sight.

In order to get pins out of my hose you need to take the door off. And all my pins serial numbers are logged with my insurance company with an additional $100,000 policy. So I fell pretty secure.

Shady basement stairs & asbestos keeps the hooligans at bay.

357 (resized).jpeg

One thing you may try if you are worried about getting robbed is installing a secondary power switch. Running some extra wire and installing would be easy enough and keep it "hidden" in plain site next to the transformer, under the playfield somewhere or drill a secondary hole in the head like modern sterns have. Simply flip the switch while out of town or away for long periods. Obviously it wouldnt be ideal for location play. My uncle taught me the same trick on my cars if your worried about getting a classic stolen, he simply added a switch on the dash connected to the starter.
One other thing would be to install a gps unit in a cheap housing with a sticker that says "shaker motor" on the top of it. Should a pin wander off you could simply track it while some lowlife is wondering why the shaker isnt working during game play.

Alarm system, cameras, and insurance. I get a text on my cell phone from the alarm system. Motion causes the cameras to record. And insurance in case I can't respond quickly enough.

Never clean your shooter lane. If thieves are like Pinside members they will just walk on by, complaining loudly. Also, put a tiny dent in your coin door or leds on an em. Same effect.

Wrap the machines in wood grain laminate and put some tomes on it.

Thieves won't go near a bookshelf when they are robbing a place.

With today's technology you can get a decent device for under $150 that detects motion, etc. and sends you a picture instantly on your phone for anyone near your home. Some of the vendors charge a monthly fee for cloud service usually between $3-$10 a month. Nest, and Canary are decent units. In today's day and age with cheap Wi-Fi security camera's, you would have to have a huge set of balls to even think about breaking into a home. Here is an article for best 2016 home security systems...

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/

Hey it's 2017.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2498510,00.asp

I spent more than $150 but bought my Z-Wave stuff here.

http://www.homeseer.com/

$300 to $400 for the Raspberry Pi based controller and sensors.

Then I added UBNT gen 3 IP cameras and their NVR. The cameras are about $140 each and the NVR is about $300.

My garage was broken into a few years back. The garage doors faced the alley and the thieves used a coat hanger to grab the safety release pull cord. Once released, the door can br manually rolled up.

I had several pinballs in the garage. Two on legs and one folded up and shrink wrapped. They ended up taking a few screwdrivers, an R/C car chassis(left body & controller), a broken laptop, and a heavy 50" plasma.

All three pinballs were left but the coin doors were opened and cash boxes left on floor. There was no money in any of them. One of them was pryed open using a small telescoping magnet(they left it broken on the floor). Funny thing is, is that the coin door didnt even have a lock installed.

Needless to say, i doubt you will have any issues.

People only steal things with value and everyone knows pinball is dead!!!!

Lugging around a 300-400lb item the size of a casket does not make for a quick getaway.

Off-site storage or remote/isolated homes are probably higher-risk since thieves know nobody is likely to be around for long periods of time.

Lol. Oh man that was a good one.

Has anyone used GPS tracking chips in their games?

As others have said, a "common criminal" is looking for something easy they can grab quickly and get out. Most of these types of people are looking for an easy opportunity to snatch something.

As a reference, my dad and I have a few arcades and project pins in a storage unit. A few weeks ago the whole storage facility was broken into. The thieves cut the locks on most units including ours. None of our games were stolen because they weren't worth the effort for the thieves; the games are too heavy and too big and bulky. Instead they looted the other surrounding units and took tools and other things they could grab quickly.

Now, this isn't to say that a pin or arcade will never be stolen, I've read about theft of games on this site. If you're worried about your games being stolen, you can talk to your insurance agent and see what you can do as far as taking out a separate policy for them. That way if they are knicked, you at least have insurance on them.

Take off the leg levelers and molley to the floor with security bolts along with the nylon nuts on the legs. Adjust height with fender washers...... Not that I would do this but they wouldn't get stolen too easy either

A hidden secondary power switch, in addition to the primary power switch.

If the hidden switch is off, the game won't turn on no matter what you do with the primary power switch.

I suppose it might help prevent theft or resale if the game doesn't appear to turn on at all.

Also they would be impossible to level, and nudging them would damage the cab and bend the legs, but at least you slightly reduced the already negligible risk of them being stolen I guess.

Heh, I just had a funny idea....

There's a dollar store in my area that has tall metal poles attached to all the grocery carts in the store, so you can't wheel them outside (the pole bangs against the top of the door way).

Maybe install something like that on a game in a high-risk location?

Granted, it would probably be fairly trivial to remove or cut off the pole anyway.

A variable speed saw would be something that a prepared thief would have. It makes short work on removing door locks, door frames, lock bars etc.

If your games are taken, it was planned. Not just the normal smash a window, run into the building, gather stuff up, then run away.

I am no expert on the subject but a few ideas...

If you had several machines you could use the leg bolt idea from Circus Animal and then in the back use some cable (on the legs) to link them together. Maybe install a smaller door and frame to the room after you have it all setup. Or if you have an alcove use pinball skates maneuver all of your pins so they are wall to wall and the would be thief(s) would only have the front of the machine for leverage.

The Home Alone movie method...fill the cabinet with marbles so when they open the coin door they spill out and/or coat the basement steps with tar

It could be possible to add some brackets to the rear legs that mount with the leg bolts, using a longer bolt, with the added washers and nuts. The brackets could be used to connect 2 games side by side with a chain, or even a metal bar. However a good bolt cutter can remove a chain easily.

Throw a cheap tracker in your games:

https://magicgps.com/

But annual fees will apply.
Might be good for location games in less visible areas.

Maybe this:

https://thetrackr.com/sticker/checkout?gclid=CjwKEAiAkajDBRCRq8Czmdj-yFgSJADikZggqqcC2xOiQiHHuKF4M6rKqUqpOQXJ9Dz61rDNhMYKuxoCNgDw_wcB

But less secure?

yeah, in my opinion, the math just doesn't work out for anything beyond a normal security system if the games are in your home (on location or in a remote location is a different story).

in a basement, the games are already not going to be stolen by a random thief -- those guys are after stuff that is easy to carry, and easy to anonymously resell. (and they are, as a rule, NOT criminal masterminds.)

if your machines do get stolen out of your home, it'd almost have to be from a planned attack by someone who knows you have them, knows what they're worth, knows when you won't be home, and has at least one accomplice willing to help. and in that eventuality, they are going to come prepared, so any measures trying to bolt or chain the game down will be easily defeated.

In any kind of security, there is a point of diminishing returns: a minimal effort reduces risk by a large amount, and increased efforts are expensive and time consuming and tend to only reduce the remaining risk by a little bit. for example, in preventing burglary, a simple security system on the doors and windows that blares a siren and phones the police is enough to get rid of the vast majority of break-in attempts. Further measures only reduce the risk by a little bit, because any thief savvy enough to circumvent these things has a good chance of being prepared in other ways, such as being an inside job. there is an old law in security -- only way to make something 100% secure is to do without it.

how likely you are to be a target is also dependent on the quality of your neighborhood, but what puts your *pins* at risk isn't the frequency of random breakins -- it's more to do with how many junkies and scumbags you personally know. they are more likely to target your pins than random burglars.

the other half of that equation is the value of what is actually at risk -- it doesn't make sense to spend extraordinary resources to protect things of little to moderate value, or to protect assets that are insured anyway. it does make sense to take extraordinary measures, though, if the risk is to human life, or to something truly irreplaceable.