On Saturday my next door neighbor informed me he had am intruder visit his property last week Monday. On viewing the camera footage he had no idea how he had exited his property so he felt obliged to inform me.
I had a good look to see if anyone had entered my property even though it was 5 days later and I am confident the criminal left via another route. I would see some signs of disturbance and nothing was obvious and there would have been some evidence.
My neighbor mentioned he was going to trim the bush/hedge back that encompasses our joining boundary wall and install an electric fence extension and we could split the costs. This was only a short extension of roughly 10 to 12 meters which I did not think was necessary and rather he have an electric fence installed on the back side of his property which would still encompass his property fully. My thinking is this is overkill and was unnecessary and have the borders protected and not necessarily between the properties.
The other neighbor on the other side was also going in shared costs to place an electric fence between their properties so they were fully covered. I believe this was the exit point used by their intruder and why they had been discussing this before coming to myself last. These two properties do not have guard dogs and go to bed early every night so they would be considered soft targets.
Yesterday they were trimming back the bush and installing the electric fence and left a gap of roughly 20 cm between the electric fences which is the 20cm exposed gap on my side. That was never part of the deal and now the bill is all on him as my agreement is null and void. We are all good and understands where his contractor has cocked up and this has not done me any favors.
A small gap, but it is still a gap and if I zoom in a little you can see it more clearly. I do not think I was unreasonable in telling my neighbor to shove his deal as it has not benefitted us at all and actually has created a problem. The chances are a small enough gymnast could get through this, but this is the also the only escape route as well and getting in and out unscathed is what they have to think about.
I have no concerns whatsoever about the 20cm gap as the bush directly in front of this is a Bougainvillea bush which is a thorn bush. Good luck trying to get through this as it will rip you to shreds. I will be placing a metal spike barrier within the bush over the next few weeks for anyone wanting to try this out.
The chances of anything happening is very remote as the empty property that has created the security issue is undergoing work to be sold or has already been sold. Once new owners are living on the property anyone breaking in would have to go through that property before tackling ours and our security is actually very good compared to the majority of properties around us.
Crazy to even think you have to do this in a gated community and why I believe it is one of the people living within the community. If anyone is going to catch this person it is most likely myself anyway and will up my random patrols over the coming weeks.
There is a reason why our property never gets hit and it is the being vigilant and having a guard dog that will see you as a chew toy. There is always someone awake in the early hours and the intruder would know all this information so the softer targets are elsewhere.
Even when we lived on the golf course the criminals knew we knew and why the houses either side of us were hit a total of 13 times and our house not once. The week we vacated that property that house was broken into and we were there for 5 years. Security is something I take seriously and I am more vigilant than most so I am aware of what is happening around me.