Vandals stealing landscape light fixtures

Hi, all!

We are a small development of about 36 homes. It is quite upscale except for five homes which aren't quite on a par with the others although because of the locale they tend to sell for quite a bit of money and, thus, we have always had wonderful neighbors. And by 'wonderful' I mean that we have very little trouble, especially vandalism.

Well, that just changed with the arrival of a new family in our HOA. The mother seems very nice and, in truth, I'm not even sure it is her kids causing the problem; just that the problems began when she and her family moved in.

Most vexing of all -- to the board -- is the stealing of our outdoor light fixtures. I mean, they aren't just stealing the bulbs; they are cutting the electric wires off at the ground and stealing the whole darned fixture, light and all. My husband, who worked for an electrical utility and knows what he's doing, is the one who is continually buying and reinstalling these fixtures and it is becoming annoying. We have security cameras close to some of the fixtures but none where others are located, plus it would be difficult to install any nearby these other fixtures.

I've been thinking of buying a game camera and setting it out by the one fixture that is most often targeted. I'm only worried that it will be too far away to really identify the perps.

Another idea is, perhaps, installing some type of barrier around the light fixture but try as I might to find such a thing, I cannot do so.

Does anyone else have an idea? We've already asked the police and highway patrol to amp up their presences on our streets but that doesn't seem to be working at all. I really think the culprits are these woman's kids but I cannot prove it. I think that because we had no trouble until they moved in and now, all the time. I have already spoken to her about another matter, which has since stopped occurring, and she denied her kids were involved but it stopped so there you have it. These kids aren't young -- 18 and 19 -- and they have vehicles so in my mind why would they be stooping to stealing landscape lighting? Sounds more like what a younger kid would be doing, but what do I know? In short, I am flummoxed and am seeking advice. ANY advice will do.

Cameras can certainly help. You would need more then one.
They also need to be well secured so they aren't stolen.

Make sure you have serial numbers of the lights.
Also you might try painting them an odd color to help identify them (pink might work).

The serial numbers are needed to prove that the fixtures are the Associations (if the lights are found with the thiefs). It just makes things easier. You can also stencil ownership onto them.

Purchase a product called Tile and place it in the fixture, when the thief steals it they can be tracked down via the GPS tag inside the Tile.

Inexpensive light fixtures are unlikely to have serial numbers. I don't think even expensive light fixtures normally have serial numbers. Tile may work but it works on bluetooth with your smart phone. It has a relatively short range but if it is out of range of your phone, another Tile user gets a signal if they are close. The idea is if you leave an item somewhere, another Tile user will find it and return it to you.

If someone keeps stealing the same inexpensive light fixtures I would guess it is someone who does not want the lights at that location or they don't like the lights for another reason. It's just so unusual I would not be surprised if the motive is not financial gain but to get rid of the lights.

I would not approach the mother and suggest that her kids are criminals based on the fact that the crimes started after she moved in. That is very likely just a coincidence. The fact that they live in a cheaper house also does not make them more likely to be a thief.

Ben raises a good point. We have two bollard fixtures on the sidewalk exterior of our urban high rise. They're in a raised planter about 5 feet above the sidewalk. Their lights are constantly not working. Our building engineer insists the owner of the TH that has bedroom windows above these lights disables them,

This is at a dark urban corner of two streets and they really are needed. Our engineer says he's going to put something on the fixtures so no one can get in the except himself. We'll see. So....if you get cheap ones and they still disappear, maybe it's an annoyed neighbor!

Our HOA installed game cameras because our light fixtures were also being tampered with. I will tell you that the footage from the game camera is not detailed enough. We could not read license plates and when the image appeared, it isn't clear enough to see for sure who it was. But just having the camera was enough to deter any repeat attacks. So in the long run, it may work and in the short run, you might have another incident. If you have an online presence, publish that you have now bought cameras to protect the HOA investment and tell parents to tell their kids. That may be enough to ward off future attacks.