Where Do You Keep Hide Pens For Extended Vacation?

[Bo Bo Olson]

Why not rent a bank deposit box....but don't keep them there for more than a couple of months it's bad for them to be locked air tight for so long.

You can toss in all the other things like gold cuff links and heirloom jewelry and your silver set.

[pajaro]

Put them in your safety deposit box at the bank.

Why have them at all? Stamp and coin collections maybe, but pens are something where the use is the real pleasure, rather than the hoarding. What thieves want is something pawnshops will take. Pawnshops don't generally take silver services, for example. They take stuff they can turn over quickly. Of course I have the misfortune to have connections that will steal anything not nailed down, cameras, stereos, phones, liquor, just about anything. I don't worry about pens. Those people live with a cell phone 24 X 7. Old pens are usually thought of as a garage sale, ten cents, item.

Edited July 9, 2016 by pajaro

[sirgilbert357]

+10 on the reason to have them sent to the office.

 

Your other ideas are creative too. Makes me worry about your neighborhood though.

 

You can also buy fake cleaning product cans that are storage. Pens are small enough to be a good fit in a roll.

Lol, touché. But I actually don't live in a bad neighborhood. I haven't actually employed any of the above tactics. I do realize, however, that crime can happen anywhere. Even ultra rich and country homes get broken into (which some consider safer).

[dms525]

On most trips, I take a shameful number of pens with me. The rest of the valuable pens go into pen rolls and then into a safe deposit box. Our house is alarmed, and I do believe the risk of having pens stolen while we are away is very small. But it isn't that much trouble to take them to the bank, and we are paying for the safe deposit box anyway.

 

David

[FayeV]

I've never considered that pens would be of interest to burglars. I signed up for our city blotter which enumerates some of the crime in my city. Most burglars seem to look for an easy way in thru an unlocked door/window and grab stuff quickly and go. Usually cash, jewelry, laptop, small electronics. Although pens are small and portable, they probably see the pens sitting out in the open and don't even consider them as valuable items.

 

I keep some fountain pens sitting in the pen cup on the kitchen counter, mingling with cheap ball point pens/pencils, a letter owner & scissors. I think they'd just look at this and dismiss it as junk they can't sell.

 

I have some old pens, fountain pens and other types of pens, in a plastic pencil box (looks like the kind a child would keep their crayons and pens in). It all looks like old junk when you open the box. Only a FP enthusiast would recognize some of them.

 

I keep some nicer pens in pen rolls, currently by a bookshelf with all my ink bottles. I should probably find a place for them where they will not draw attention. Maybe inside a box of sanitary napkins sitting on a storage shelf in the garage.

[Kenlowe]

Maybe inside a box of sanitary napkins sitting on a storage shelf in the garage.

 

 

Yup, that would work.

[oneill]

The obvious answer to me is to purchase several storage Plastics put your

collection in them and then take and leave at a STORAGE Facility which are

supposedly SECURE> Trust ME. oneill

[Wahl]

A safe, large, heavy, bolted to the floor and wall, plus an alarm.

 

That should do it.

[Runnin_Ute]

I think they would be more interested in stuff like the laptop, desktop pc, tv's and stereo system than my pens. Even my watch collection.

[Inferno2Inferno]

I find the best place to store my pens so that no one will touch them is grouped together in a pen/pencil case. I find that stationary thieves tend to go for whatever is in plain sight and generally will avoid going rummaging through something since they cannot be bothered.

[praxim]

I guess stationary thieves are limited in what they can reach.

 

boom-boom

[WaskiSquirrel]

I'm lucky: I'm in a really nice neighborhood. My house is one of the original houses in the neighborhood. Most are second or third generation houses. My house stands out as the smallest (objectively true). I'm the last house anyone would hit to look for anything. And most people here wouldn't think of pens anyway.

[wspohn]

If your collection is small, but yourself a really ugly pole lamp that no one would ever steal. Pop the top off and you can slide quite a few pens down the pole!

 

Those with more pens might end up with an ugly pole lamp collection though.....

Edited July 13, 2016 by wspohn

[haruka337]

Most criminals, even experienced one, do not know the resale value of fountain pens, inks or yarn, so I don't bother hiding anything. They look for jewelry, cash, electronics and designer bags--nothing I'm interested in, nothing I own.

When my apartment was broken into a while back, to the bane of the young hooligans (landlord caught a glimpse of the two), they found nothing of value--as far as they knew. My pens, inks, and yarn were all emptied out of its storage, rustled through or strewn across the floor. They didn't even touch my leather goods, which they likely thought were no-name, worthless brands.

 

They left with nothing. The hassle I only had to deal with was reporting the incident to the cops and picking up the mess they left behind. Ah! If they knew the resale value of what they over looked, but they didn't and most never will. There was a couple of grand in yarn alone (no acrylic, thankyouverymuch!).

[Mulrich]

If a thief knows you're out of town he would have all the time in the world to look through your entire house for secret hiding spots. An experienced thief probably knows more of them than you can think of (if you can think of it so can they). Best bet is to dig a deep hole in your yard (5-6 feet should do it) and bury the pens in a bomb/water proof box. Also protects against your house burning down, tornados, and most forms of zombies.

[Mulrich]

And I totally forgot about armed sentry guns. You wouldn't even need to shut your curtains or keep valuables out of sight. Just make sure you have lots of warning signs. Maybe some fake corpses around the property for good measure.

[Recoil Rob]

By a safe and get the house alarmed. The reduction in my homeowners insurance pays for the alarm.

 

You can get a decent safe for $400 at Costco, bolt it to the floor. By the time they get it open or loosened it up the cops should be there. At least they are in my town.

[praxim]

Do cops come for alarms where you are? They do not here. No-one pays any attention (think car alarms). If you have it monitored then they ring you up, on holiday. You can ask them to send someone around, which should happen in an hour or so.

 

Even if you are away for a while a thief does not necessarily know that and also risks attention from neighbours, so they tend to be fast in and out looking for obviously tradeable value rather than searching comprehensively.

[FOUR X FOUR]

If burglary is a real and present concern, you might wrap them up and put them in the trash can, with a bunch of fou smelly stuff. You might put them in the laundry hamper with a bunch of dirty clothes.

[Parker51]

All the houses in my immediate neighborhood have alarms as they were provided by the builder. Add to that a large number of retired home owners around much of the day and the armed rednecks and tradesmen with a good dose of bored Police that patrol excessively by Sport Utility Vehicle or Bicycle and conclude with both local Police officers and a couple of State Highway Patrol officers on our street and I don't generally worry about thieves. Ohio is an open carry state, a concealed carry permit state and there are no laws against Compound Bows, Crossbows, or Spear guns, so thieves have to be very careful to make certain no one is home. Maybe because in Ohio weapons from hand guns to armored fighting vehicles are made here the government really don't make any weapons illegal. And in conclusion, one of the reason I live where I do is I feel safe walking anywhere in the town I live at any time day or night.