Baby monitor

AFTER having the entire contents of his garage stolen, including his Kawasaki ZX-7R, Kirk Walker, from Sheffield, wasn’t too happy.

He said: ” I felt like crying. The police weren’t interested, the insurance people didn’t believe me. It made me paranoid. I just went to extremes. ”

After trying a poacher’s trap, which involved a 12-bore cartridge connected to a tripwire and a really loud bang, Kirk resorted to a popular, legal and surprisingly effective security measure – the baby monitor, plugging the handset into the mains in his garage and the other end into his bedroom socket. Kirk’s new bike hasn’t been touched since.

The Phillips model used by Kirk has a 100m range and includes a useful battery backup facility.

Cost: Around £20.