How to Prevent Your Tiny Home on Wheels from Theft

Many people have been inspired by the tiny house movement. It's a less expensive lifestyle and it's a whole lot less house to clean and maintain. If you've got a tiny house on wheels, you're unencumbered, footloose, fancy-free. But you're also a target for thieves. So how can you protect your tiny house on wheels from being stolen along with all your possessions?

Protect Your Tiny House

Even a tiny house is a big initial expense. The time and work you put into your tiny home, not to mention all the stuff you have inside of it, really makes it invaluable. So if the entire thing is stolen, the cost of what you'll lose is truly incalculable. It is possible to protect your tiny house and keep all of your possessions safe with some good security measures.

• Lock the wheels. When your tiny house is parked, make sure you lock the hitch. You should also lock the wheels to prevent them from rolling. This will make it more difficult for thieves to take your home, and in many cases, this will deter them completely. Remember, thieves are looking for the easy score. Make your home more difficult to steal, and they're likely to just give up altogether. If your tiny house is going to be in one spot for more than a few days, take the wheels off completely.
• Park smarter. If your tiny home is sitting in the middle of an empty parking lot or field, it's an easy and attractive target for thieves. Instead, park near natural obstacles that are going to deter thieves. Whenever possible, park your tiny home near trees, rock outcroppings, bodies of water, and other obstacles.
• Use timers. People in homes of all sizes use timers to make their houses less attractive to thieves. When you're leaving your home, set timers so that lights and television sets turn on at certain times of the evening and night. This will make it look as though someone is home. Stealing a house is one thing, but stealing a house with a person inside of it is a whole different animal.
• Get a security system. Want to keep your home safer? Why not do what lots of other homeowners do? Install a security system. Small-scale security systems like the one you'll need are very affordable, and they can give you another layer of protection. Along with the security system, be sure to hide a GPS tracker in your home and sync it to your smartphone. If someone steals your home, you can locate it immediately with this technology.
• Mark your territory. If you own the land where your tiny house is parked, make it clear that it is private property. Put up signs against trespassing, which in many cases is enough to keep the curious ne'er-do-wells away. If possible, you may also want to put up a fence and a gate to make your property more inaccessible. After all, you probably aren't doing a lot of entertaining at home, so your place doesn't need to be at all inviting to strangers.
• Anchor it. You can take the security up a level with anchors. Bury steel auger anchors into the ground, leaving a few inches of anchor above the soil. Wrap steel straps around the frame of your house and around the auger anchors. The straps can be concealed with adjustable bolts. Anchoring your home in this way makes it virtually impossible to move until the steel straps are removed.

Keeping Your Tiny Home Safe

Always be aware of safety and think about security when it comes to your tiny house. Thieves may initially look at your house and think it’s a target, but they’ll think again once they start looking a little closer. Protect your home and all your belongings so you can just enjoy living in your tiny home, which is what being a tiny house owner is all about.