Home heating oil gone?....lock on tank??

Western Pomise

Got 500 litres of heating oil around a month ago...get same firm and driver to deliver for years,with the short evenings it slipped my mind ever to check it after fill....but heat went off yday and I checked tank this am and its almost empty...I hadnt a lock on the wee plastic rod that goes through top of tank lid.....and heating system is efficient in hse and wasnt on too much so I cant be sure but feel we may have been visited by men in white vans...think this as noticed the plastic rod wasnt in top of tank which driver would always replace after putting in fuel.Its a 1400 litre tank.
.What do others do??....my thinking is if you lock the tank the fxxxers will bore the tank to get at fuel,and leave you shy of oil and needing to buy a new tank?
Will need to reorder today and will ask driver when he comes if he replaced the rod the last time.

yellow50HX

feckers........

we have a lock on the top of the tank, I put a steel rod throgh it with a loop on one end then put a chain through the other side and lock to the loop. Wont stop the feckers drillign the tank but makes it aquward for them. Stick a camera on the wall over the tank and put up a sign saying so. Most of these bastards are oppertuinists so it may make them think twice. Also do it before you get your refill as they may be following the lorry

Rovi

The oil thief is a cunning and resourceful beast.

Realistically, all you can really do is make your oil tank less attractive than your neighbours'.
Even CCTV, sensor lights, steel cages/boxes, concrete walls, savage dogs, etc, etc, aren't insurmountable obstacles to the truly determined thief, but, if there's somewhere handier just down the road...

lakill Farm

I put my kero thank in the shed when i moved here 3 years ago. Out of sight out of mind.

I have put off buying a tank for MGo (tractor Diesel) until i get a safe place to store it. ie its cheaper to give an extra 6c/10c a litre that have 500 litres of mgo worth €500 robbed

dzer2

Camera and sensored light plus big vicous dog sorts out the problem

Western Pomise

Already have a sensor light over it,and it is not in view from road.

pakalasa

I've heard of cases where the tank was locked and they just drilled a hole underneath. They took their fill and let the whole tank drain away. :mad:

OldNotWIse

Kn*bheads.

My brother works with a guy whose oil was stolen twice. He filled the tank with water to p1ss them off

...house got bricked

grazeaway

lakill Farm wrote: »

I put my kero thank in the shed when i moved here 3 years ago. Out of sight out of mind.

I have put off buying a tank for MGo (tractor Diesel) until i get a safe place to store it. ie its cheaper to give an extra 6c/10c a litre that have 500 litres of mgo worth €500 robbed

i know a lad that thought the same, they broke down the door to get in, knew excatly where the tank was.

my father in-law had a similar problem, bet bought an old shipping conatiner and uses that to store his tools and sectioned off one side for the diesel tank. he put in up of the ground and insulated it then put the electric fence on it.

Liek the lads above said try to make it as hard as you can. CCTV is a great deterent unless they are complete and utter bastards.

drive it

500 euro is not much with the price of oil now it was just over 500 ltrs you proberly got and thats only a third of your tank so most boilers burn 2 ltrs an hour so at 5 hours a day you have approx 50 days of oil

Jack C

Heard of a gang in a midlands town who got their hands on an oil lorry and called around to unoccupied houses during the day. Of course any passer by didn't suspect anything not knowing they were emptying tanks instead of filling them.

bob charles

I have a cross dog and full tanks of diesel left unlocked and insight of the road about 50m back. never had a theft yet

Dont be daft

bob charles wrote: »

I have a cross dog and full tanks of diesel left unlocked and insight of the road about 50m back. never had a theft yet

Guard dogs here aswell. One's a pure head de ball.
Short of shooting him there's no way anyone is getting past him.

Pain in the arse keeping innocent people out of his way, but he's free run of the yard at night and god help the lad that makes the mistake of taking him on.

Always said guard dogs are worth their weight in gold.

Cran

lakill Farm wrote: »

I have put off buying a tank for MGo (tractor Diesel) until i get a safe place to store it. ie its cheaper to give an extra 6c/10c a litre that have 500 litres of mgo worth €500 robbed

We had the green diesal tank cleaned out last year 1000 litres. Same now until safe place will be extra 5/6 c at the pump being a sheep farm means its not much hassle.......

towzer2010

My brother-in-law was telling me the Guards had a delivery man in for questioning after a good number of places that had a fill were robbed shortly afterwards around Kildare town.

A guy in our area that delivers oil has a reputation for taking anything not nailed down so you wouldnt need much imagination to think he could be at the same. If the driver is passing on info no matter where you put your tank it will be found.

bbam

Dont be daft wrote: »

Guard dogs here aswell. One's a pure head de ball.
Short of shooting him there's no way anyone is getting past him.

Pain in the arse keeping innocent people out of his way, but he's free run of the yard at night and god help the lad that makes the mistake of taking him on.

Always said guard dogs are worth their weight in gold.

He wouldn't be the first dog to be poisened to get to something..
Soak a bit of steak in antifreeze, dogs go mad for it, very easily dealt with afterwards..

But your right.. its probably easier to go down the road to the neighbours tank who mightn't have a dog..

Dont be daft

bbam wrote: »

He wouldn't be the first dog to be poisened to get to something..
Soak a bit of steak in antifreeze, dogs go mad for it, very easily dealt with afterwards..

But your right.. its probably easier to go down the road to the neighbours tank who mightn't have a dog..

Unfortunately happens a lot.

If your serious about training your dogs a little trick is to hook up the electric fence to a piece of meat and leave it lying around the yard.
Then only feed the dog indoors, in the same spot.
Eventually the dog will learn to leave anything fired in over the fence alone.

Then use shock collars and people the dog doesnt know to discourage the dog from taking treats from strangers.

Sounds a bit cruel but better than coming out some morning and seeing your dog flat on the ground and your shed empty.

Thats why I said it'd take a shotgun;)
Sometimes I'm not even sure if that'd be enough:D

haybob

A beware of dog sign might be enough

I've had turf and logs robbed so its not just oil people take, I'm fully convinced it was local knowledge as the dog is all bark and no bite, funny part of it is if the person that took it said I'm broke and cold I would have given them more than they took

boiler break downs

haybob wrote: »

A beware of dog sign might be enough

I've had turf and logs robbed so its not just oil people take, I'm fully convinced it was local knowledge as the dog is all bark and no bite, funny part of it is if the person that took it said I'm broke and cold I would have given them more than they took

in my mothers house in a town we were haveing our coal taken.so i waited up for a few nights sleeping in the kitchen and one night i heard some one.i went out and seen some one and was just about to bust them a box and suddenly there was a scream.it was the woman next door getting her dog.she got some fright but needless to say she now keeps her dog under control .it was the other neighbor taken our fuel.i have had turf taken from me in the bog but someone told me to put up a sign saying bullets in turf.haha

enricoh

my neighbour has a 20ft container n the tank in it, i reckon its the way to go.
on a side note my coal man told me to look out 4 a toyota dyna with coal, gas etc on the back of it, calling into houses n lining them up 4 breakins - crafty thinking by them, u wouldnt suspect them compared to a transit outside the neighbours!

Wicklowrider

I thought if you have 2 tanks, one in plain sight with a small amount of fuel and 2nd tank hidden with your supply. Won't help if the delivery guy is in on it.

Sam Kade

I heard a garda on the radio saying that some people bury their tanks and use a pump for filling diesel.

Western Pomise

bob charles wrote: »

I have a cross dog and full tanks of diesel left unlocked and insight of the road about 50m back. never had a theft yet

We have young kids so wouldnt be practical to have a cross dog,people mentioning cctv but surely they will just stick on masks and leave vehicle out of sight.

marknjb

i put a small shed over the oil tank and then connected a pir to the house alarm any goes into the shed sets off the house alarm

manjou

Father had oil taken last year and the thieves carried it in drums over a hill at back of house to laneway up to yard.Seen where the parked and where they walked over hill. Workrd on building site where the people complained that the oil boilers where using alot of oil and no one could find out why until one frosty morning there where footprints around several oil tanks on estate.They were only takeing a small amount at a time out of all the tanks every week.

Jamesleacy501

Iv heard rumours of delivery men coming and pumping oil in and taking it straight back out again! We think it happened to a neigbhour of mine too!

Grecco

Are you sure you haven't got a leak ? I know a lad at work it happened to, he lost a full tank of oil over the space of 6 months from a leaky pipe

Vandy West

Grecco wrote: »

Are you sure you haven't got a leak ? I know a lad at work it happened to, he lost a full tank of oil over the space of 6 months from a leaky pipe

happened to us last year. e500 into the ground overnight. check the joint where the oil leaves the tank. on our tank WAS handy to step on to check level.

elius

Would it worth propping the tank up to make it appear empty? Might just fool one or two into thinking your shkint lol and cant afford more oil thus using every last drop out of the tank.. :-)

whelan1

elius wrote: »

Would it worth propping the tank up to make it appear empty? Might just fool one or two into thinking your shkint lol and cant afford more oil thus using every last drop out of the tank.. :-)

think that damages the tank when there is actually fuel in it

bbam

whelan1 wrote: »

think that damages the tank when there is actually fuel in it

Indeed a tank full would split if its not supported properly..
Also it should be angled back to hold any sludge there is in the tank back from the outlet..Tip it up and you could be in for a world of hurt from crap being brought into the line!!

elius

bbam wrote: »

Indeed a tank full would split if its not supported properly..
Also it should be angled back to hold any sludge there is in the tank back from the outlet..Tip it up and you could be in for a world of hurt from crap being brought into the line!!

Half the country have there tanks propped up at the moment.. Lock it is so...

Bleating Lamb

Personally I dont lock tank as a neighbour had theres locked and it was bored when they had oil taken last Spring...if they know they have time to work they will use any means to get into tank.Govt are talking about reducing Gardai nos again so we will all be living in fear of waking up in a cold house.