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How thievable are oscilloscopes?

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NiHaoMike:

--- Quote from: Zenith on July 10, 2022, 02:57:47 pm ---If anyone breaks in, they are likely to steal the scope as a technical looking thing, in the absence of any more likely looking portable valuables, and then probably throw it away, when they find it's not so easy to sell. The disruption to you could be huge and well over the value of the scope. Carting it home every night would be a pain.

--- End quote ---
I wonder how much effort it would take to build a smoke bomb disguised as something valuable with a mechanism to make it go off a few minutes after being stolen.

Cerebus:

--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on July 10, 2022, 04:16:47 pm ---I wonder how much effort it would take to build a smoke bomb disguised as something valuable with a mechanism to make it go off a few minutes after being stolen.

--- End quote ---

Little effort, but you might fall foul of anti-mantrap legislation. It doesn't require much imagination to realise that such a device could have lethal consequences if activated in a confined space where someone, possibly an innocent bystander, would have breathing problems, or a closed vehicle where it could easily cause a fatal crash, again possibly involving innocent bystanders. Such smoke devices used to be used for "cash in transit" containers but have been replaced by dye packs, probably for exactly such reasons.

pcprogrammer:

--- Quote from: NiHaoMike on July 10, 2022, 04:16:47 pm ---
--- Quote from: Zenith on July 10, 2022, 02:57:47 pm ---If anyone breaks in, they are likely to steal the scope as a technical looking thing, in the absence of any more likely looking portable valuables, and then probably throw it away, when they find it's not so easy to sell. The disruption to you could be huge and well over the value of the scope. Carting it home every night would be a pain.

--- End quote ---
I wonder how much effort it would take to build a smoke bomb disguised as something valuable with a mechanism to make it go off a few minutes after being stolen.

--- End quote ---

All you need is a battery, and old computer case, a smoke bomb, a bit of electronics with a tilt switch. Or a bit more fancy use a system shops are using for anti theft, where the alarm goes off when you walk out of the door through those special gates.

Edit: Cerebus beat me to the punch and took a bit of the fun out of it :(

Better yet use a dye pack like the banks use and make it go off when the perpetrator walks out the door :-DD

Alex Eisenhut:

--- Quote from: Zenith on July 10, 2022, 02:57:47 pm ---If anyone breaks in, they are likely to steal the scope as a technical looking thing, in the absence of any more likely looking portable valuables

--- End quote ---

Yeah, one day in the 90s I came back to my shitty apartment just as someone had broken in, in broad daylight. He was in the process of grabbing my Commodore 1581 disk drive in its box but got distracted trying on all my pants and I guess once he heard the door he bolted out of there, forgetting the large-ish box.

But a 1581 in the '90s was probably worth 25$. But it was in its box in great condition.

On the minus side he did take off with my high-end Sony Walkman. On the plus side, he left his old pants in my bedroom.

Cerebus:
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Kensington style locks. A lot of more modern test gear has the slot designed for one of these to be fitted to. Fairly effective against casual opportunistic theft, but like most theft deterrence not effective against a determined, prepared, professional thief.

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