*Party Popper Tripwire Alarm*
When I was a teenager, I used to go fishing in this one spot where some bums used to camp out. Being the cautious guy that I was, I wanted to setup an perimeter security system to warn me if anybody came into the area. I knew that you could buy those 12 gauge shotgun shell tripwire alarms, but these were way too expensive for my meager budget at the time. One day I was browsing the local Wishing Well and saw party poppers for $0.25 each. I though, why not use a party popper for my early warning system? They are cheap and are already designed to emit a loud popping noise when the string is pulled.
I tested them out on myself and they seemed to work really well. And they were extremely easy to setup because all you had to do was place it in between two branches like in the pictures below. The next time I went back to my fishing spot, I setup the tripwires on the main trails into the fishing area. I didn't have any real military tripwire at the time so I used a small string and coated it, and party popper, with mud from the pond. I also covered the party popper with leaves to better camouflage it. It was pretty hard to see even if you were paying attention.
No one ever did set off my tripwires while I was there, but I did leave one behind one time and it was tripped by the next day so I'm sure it scared the heck out of somebody. :)
So there you have it. The Poor Man's Perimeter Security System.
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