I'm cleaning up the last of the mess from the addition of a built-in DC/Compressor closet in the shop, and I'm looking around before I shut off the lights.
There are a LOT of expensive tools in there. And a lot of stuff that's really got a lot of meaning to me - "ancestral tools", as it were. And...well...we live in a fairly rural area, but some neighbors just had their house broken in to by tweakers looking for stuff to make a quick buck. Someone with a pry bar could get through my steel shop door, and the shop's a good 50 yards from the house.
Other than "WARNING: LOOSE SNAKES!" on the door...how do you prevent theft? We don't want a security light for obvious waste/light pollution issues, but...an alarm? Motion-detecting lights? Full blown shop security system?
Granted, most of the big stuff I think is fairly safe. Trying to lug a PM2k away on your back would cause a racket, but the hand tools...a few trips through the woods, and I'm out thousands. Festool stuff - it's light and can grow legs. We have good insurance, and fairly recent "shop video" where I have gone through the shop for an hour with the HD camcorder and recorded every serial number, make, model I could find, along with long shots inside each drawer of every tool box, cabinet and cubby. That's mostly for "after-the-fact" theft, though. I'd rather prevent it.
As a theft deterrent, is etching a good idea? Is it feasible to do yourself? (Not etch yourself, do the work yourself...ouch!) Cold stamping some sort of ID number into things? Buying a cheap engraver and trying to write fuzzy ID numbers into iron doesn't sound like a great deal of fun.
So...what do YOU do?
(As an aside, it occurs to me that someone nefarious could actually use this data. I don't mean, "Which door has an alarm on it and what's the code?" I mean, in general, what do you do to feel safe, and has it worked?)