I have a 97 Ranger with 200000 miles.
Don't think that would be a problem.

Thanks for the offer it would be great to meet up. See sharing information on here leads to great things sometimes.

But the thieves aren't on Pinside looking for people to rob, that's really the point isn't it. If he sees them through the window maybe that's different.

The guys that troll Pinside to rip people off aren't stealing machines they are just trying to sell us crappy machines.

Also, if they knew anything about pinball they would know we are all 'pinball rich' not money rich and we spend all of our money on machines and not other materials things that you can fence.

Pinball rich. So true that made my day thank you.

Not with most modern garage door openers. The better ones use rolling codes and can't be opened by your average thief with $50 worth of electronics.

My mistake I thought all were possible to link like if you were to add a remote. Good to know thanks.

I simply drilled a hole in the track on each side and inserted (2x) long shank padlocks. Around $10, problem solved. ( disabled the remote function in the menu, btw.

It's a roll of the dice, I guess. I'm surprised your friend seems unaware of all of the police stations nationwide that have opened up their parking lots and lobbies for Craigslist people to meet to complete their online transactions. I recall that the concern picked up steam after a 2010 murder in a home invasion:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/craigslist-diamond-ring-ad-leads-to-fathers-murder-in-home-invasion-say-wash-state-cops/

In the end, this is the fundamental issue. Anyone with an internet connection and a very easy to acquire level of knowledge is very easily able to find out an alarmingly complete and detailed set of information about virtually anyone. This includes not only where you live but past addresses, phone numbers, spouses/relatives, etc. Usually it can be done for free but if you want to pay a little bit of money you can find out even more.

If a random person of the general population wants to they are almost certainly able to find out more about you than you probably want them to know. If it's a pro that is targeting you then you have no chance, none.

I suppose you could minimize it by going full infosuicide ala Mark Pilgrim, or maybe more famously Taylor Swift just recently....

You boiz and grrlz can come visit me any time. One of the reasons we have a sort of a Pinball collective around here is because I was trolling for local pinheads. PismoArcade MGMPIN and I became friends just because we all put our location in our profile.

I came up to SLO town for a visit last weekend, should have looked you up! Still laying down the long term plan to move back and retire up there with you guys.

Hope you gotta a phat nest egg or property to sell. This town rivals Beverly Hills for property values these days. Of course, we're a lot prettier and have better weather. And we're the happiest place in North America. Or were anyway. I'm glad I got in early a long time ago

Seriously, pm me anytime you think you might be in the area. Always looking to meet fellow pinheads.

Two pinside connections made to play pinball and no report of stolen pins so far. This place is filled with some very cool nice people who just love pinball whether it's playing, helping fix things, or just talking pinball. I'm going to sleep better tonight for sure.

I think my location is shown, so yes, phat property values here, even higher than SLO. I'm up on the values up there. For now I'm looking at Atascadero/Templeton, mainly to get a bigger parcel, hopefully with a big barn. For, you know...

we had two dead bolts installed on a solid wood door at work
some druggy chisled away at the door frame to release one, the whole door framed was shifted to free the other
never underestimate a drug fucked looser

You can also just pop the outdoor keypad off the wall and touch the exposed wires together. If dude wants in, dude's comin' in.

Personally, I put my location to clear up confusion with units ("it was only -15 here last night") and connect with other people on this side of the border because shipping to Canada is a hassle and those of us near border towns gotta look out for the rest of us.

D'OH! Didn't notice the location! Lol. You are obviously doing your research. You do get more for your money in North County as we call it. I don't like to drive, so I live downtown SLO. It'll be great to have another local pinhead.

Rolling codes are ineffective against average intelligence thieves. Contrary to what may be believed, an a basic frequency switching modular garage door opener can be made to bypass this type of security using parts found on Amazon for only a few dollars and a basic understanding of electronics. The only method of avoidance of electronic frequency "picking" is unplugging the motor assembly, but that will not deter a real thief.

Sliding deadbolts on on a garage doors do not work either as they can be bent upwards using a crowbar on the sides of the garage door. Zip ties on the rails are a complete joke. Locking the garage is useless, as the lock from the lever can be cored out in 5 seconds and a set of pliers used to turn the fulcrum point, or the lever itself is removed and bypassed. Using the same crowbar with leverage, a person can lift the garage door up far enough to get a hydraulic car or scissor jack in place to allow more than enough room to crawl and roll under the door. Many times people do not dead bolt or lock their inside house access garage doors going into their home out of laziness. By far the easiest "test" access to a home (to verify alarm while still being able to steal), and not even generally alarmed for basic homes without collectible automobiles. If the thief stays inside the garage, they have a "safe zone" to do whatever they want, for as long as they want, and no one will see them.

The only way to prevent a garage door from being opened permanently is to install two very heavy boat chains with clevis and hooks through the rails at bottom and middle of the door and wedging the rollers at the top. The chains are locked with 1000 series locks with no exposable hasp. Then the only way it can be opened is by ripping the entire door off the hinges with a chain hook, truck, and tow bar hitch.

Those that believe thieves do not troll forums for targets such as guns, coins, guitars, pinball, gems, stamps, baseball cards, or whatever choice of collectibles are completely fooling themselves.

Protect your property.
Add a security system, if necessary.
Add security signs, even if you do not have a system.
Add sensor lights around your home as a minimum precaution.
Think like the thieves, that is what professionals security services do.

Or maybe get a latter and cut through your roof and enter. There really is so many ways in and probably no stopping anyone that wants in your right. Or pump gas or smoke into your home,they are not air tight anyways,and wait for you to unlock your door to run out. So many horrible scenarios. Screw it Im going to play some pinball and continue to share and meet people until the zombie apocalypse takes us all anyways.

After being a locksmith since 81' I can say screw the garage door. A pair of these and you walk right in. Even grade 1 hardware. Quicker than a key.

IMG_3332 (resized).JPG

Probably so drugged out he got the wrong address and thought it was a Pizza Hut.

95% of the threads on here you can read without even having an account including this one. It's great to have a carefree glass is half full attitude to online participation but sometimes it might be wise to err on the side of caution.

Only going on past local experiences down under. It might be a far more positive scene in your area.

I had my location listed publicly here on pinside until recently, but because the pinball scene is so small here compared to Europe/NA and because of the reasons above have changed my location settings accordingly.

There's alot easier shit to steal than a pinball! I'm sure I'm the only pinhead in my town so I'm easy to find, go ahead and try to steal my shit, you'll leave with a gunshot wound, a gold club to the head, dual german shepard bites or the WRATH of my wife! LOL

The intent of my experience is to share one simple way of how to deter thieves regarding removal of pinball machines from easily accessed locations (ie including advertising the direct physical location of your home on a public map and what you own), not prevent the entire spectrum access into a private home and stealing collectibles.

If a person has extreme amount of small valuables, lock them up in a full size safe, hide them in walls, own a guard dog and keep it indoors, or hire a security guard by living in a gated community. Better yet, use a safety deposit box at a bank, it is cheaper, unless you have a firearm collection.

If a person lives in small apartment, or decides to directly sleep under pinball machines, some of these tips may not apply to you.

The present carefree attitude towards social media prevalent today is particularly dangerous, and if person is reasonably smart, they can figure out just about anything via backtracking information and/or including use of darknet websites such as where you live, but you can still deter the theft itself, which is my point, not to attract zombie apocalypse theories. I am not referring to identity theft either, which is much more common. Many times I have heard the statement, "I did not know."
Now people know, if they choose to continue to learn.
If people choose to ignore, things do happen.

Pinball machine theft has been on the rise since 2011, again, mostly from businesses, because the sales market has been strong.
If this information is doubted, conduct the some quick research.

Knowledge is power.

It is not like people (or myself) are advocating bear traps, landmines, and shotgun tripwires for protection.
In the United States, it is illegal to install metal bars and grates in some private homes (including storage buildings and garages) due to fire codes, including businesses in some states. Abroad this is totally acceptable along with things like razor wire and electric fence along private homes, not the outer property walls. I would love to do some of the latter things in the USA, as it definitely makes a serious difference, to which I can personally attest.

Thieves don't like to maneuver pinball machines through tight hallways and certainly not through regular size windows, but have no problems busting through bay window style doors with a crowbar and blanket. This last part was a good example, because I tackled a thief who did this action to my direct neighbors house and restrained him when I lived in Texas. Firearms are not always a good idea, if you are not personally in danger and in this case it was not my property.
Thieves have no preference to carry machines up or down stairs either, and they do not often bring the right equipment.
Thieves don't carry games out onto roofs and lower them down on pulleys and ropes with a crane or gin pole.

The "boat chain method" to which I have used for nearly 30 years (since renting and owning multiple houses) prevents easy removal of machines from a garage or equivalent building. The access point is effectively blocked, time consuming to remove for a thief as it is yet another puzzle they must solve, and increasing the chance they may get caught, heard, or observed. The chain tension prevents movement through the center of the door when pinched through both chains. The chain is thick enough that even common small size bolt cutters are ineffective. Sawing takes time. A plasma torch does do the trick, but they have to unhook the whole contraption. If a thief tries to entire into the home and back into the garage, they already tripped an alarm. It is a whole lot more effective than even installing an alarm sensor in the garage, and does not cost that much to install yourself, and even can be reused as needed in the future if you decide to move.

It is not that difficult for a person to pull up with a storage truck, pop a lock on a garage (or a storage location), and load games.
It does happen, although infrequently, but why take the chance?
If a thief enters your garage and sees pinball machines there for example, they will be even more inclined to go into your home.
Operators don't advertise their warehouse locations for the same reasons and are usually gated.
Garages are by nature on first floors, separate buildings, or sub basements and called "easy access" for a reason.
Some homes even have private loading ramps on sub doors along the sides or front, especially those people that own coin operated equipment.

There was no intent ment to disregard anything you said or others. All of these points of view are very helpful and that is what this community is helpful from people with lots of experiences and knowledge. The world sucks that it is dangerous, hell just ride along with your local police force for a day. We all live in a false cense of reality in our little bubbles. I would hope being on this site would not bring me harm but it could. I do not advertise the fact I have games in real life so maybe I shouldn't on here as well. It is definitely food for thought. I personally want to share on here still and try to forget that in reality the world is not very safe. If a thief reads this just know I have made it as difficult as possible for you to take my stuff.

I have a moat around house guarded by Alligators and nasty piranha. If someone gets caught i feed them to the hogs when gators are done snacking. They really dont like humans. The hogs clean up mess nicely without any evidence.
All tactics inspired by my Addams Family machine.

That's my universal EM key. When ever I go to look at a EM I bring it with me and have used it more than once to open one up after I have bought it so I can take the head off and have used it on front door vs drilling a lock out.

As for publicly displaying where I am. Leesville LA any one in this area pinballing that I haven't already meet? Let me know...

As for someone breaking in because they know where I live. I work from home and have a few Bang, Bangs I don't recommend it plus my laws are in my favor once you breach my entrance. But for those that don't a thief is a thief if they want something bad enough they will take it. But just think to take most collections they are going to need a moving truck some time and some labor to take any of our games. I know it has happened but I don't live my life in fear of it happening.

This thread prompted me to change my settings. I thought only members could see everything, but the default is set to Everyone. I changed all of my settings to Members Only.

I really wish the pinside profile section could get an update for colleciton status on individual games.

I would more willingly list my whole collection if I had more filtering options to set.

For example the ability to set games as differently based on status in my collection would be nice.

i.e. "Bolted to the ground, please dont ask" "for trade only" "feel free to make an offer" "project or parts available" also the ability to set some as "only visible to me" would be nice.

I switched up how I list my collection mainly do to one persistent member that started actually harrasing me for a game he wanted to buy. Now my pinisde collection is more wrong than right as I dont maintain it the same.

Fe'n millennials!

I don't mind posting my location, heck I'll even post my license plate.

If somebody wants to come and give me a hard time, be careful what you wish for.

images (resized).jpg

I have no issues displaying where I am from. Work does. Pinside users started pinging my IP address and searching my real name so I had to front up the next day and explain who they all were. At the time I did not know any of these users personal details or their names. I explained that I am a pinball nerd and the forums can get quite personal as there is plenty of passion in this hobby. Nothing to worry about just words from a keyboard. For work it was a worry. Work insisted a username change and that I keep my details private.

That sucks big time. Sorry to hear something like this.

Thanks Nexyss, I changed my settings to members only. It's been years since I 1st set up.

Its ok, we are good! The learning for me is that nearly all Pinside users are honest and genuinely good people that love our hobby. I will not let the few spoil my love for this hobby (addiction) or the fun that I have on Pinside.

If enthusiasts are unsure pinball machines are stolen directly from homes including my previous points and concerns including garages and upgrading security methods.

Note: Some thieves have the intelligence of squirrels, both literally and figuratively.

Three years ago in my own city.

This is not rare, pinball machines secondary values are lucrative for some just like cars, even if thieves do not know the difference on titles and actual worth.

http://www.kptv.com/story/25314531/determi

I like how they put the pin on Craigslist shortly after stealing it....