Your Ring doorbell is a great asset to your home. It screens who is at the door, and even includes a security camera activated when the motion sensors are triggered. While these devices can add some extra security to your home, do you need to be worried about someone stealing the device itself? How can you prevent your Ring doorbell from being stolen?
There are many methods to keep your Ring doorbell safe, such as installing a protective case. These are fairly cheap and add a ton of protection. You can also use additional security cameras to monitor the Ring and deter criminals. It’s good to closely monitor notifications coming from your Ring, just in case.
Your Ring device might not seem like something that would get stolen, but the reality is that almost anything you have is at risk of theft. While the Ring doorbell might not get a ton on the stolen market, that number still isn’t zero. So you’ll want to make sure you protect your investment. Let’s take a look at how you can accomplish that, just read on!
How Easy is it to Steal a Ring Doorbell Really?
The Ring Doorbell (on Amazon) isn’t a small purchase, by most definitions. And even if you might not consider the device a high-end item, that might not be what a thief thinks when they see your fancy new doorbell sitting unattended. But, how easy of a task would it be to steal the smart doorbell from your porch?
Here’s the thing, the Ring doorbell is fairly secure. It’s secured with a backplate and security screws into the actual door frame of your home. But if a thief is that determined to steal your ring, with the right tools and a lot of force they could have it off in a few minutes.
The first method they might use is screwing the device right off the wall. All Ring doorbells have some security features in place, mainly in the form of the aforementioned security screws and robust backplate. If a thief comes to your door specifically targeting your doorbell, they could easily prepare these tools beforehand without much issue.
The next method is quite brutish but certainly effective. Your Ring doorbell is not indestructible, and neither is your home. A thief with a crowbar/prybar could easily pop the device off the wall with a few tries. This could ruin the device in the process, but it’s one of the easiest ways to get it off of the house itself.
The 5 Best Ways to Prevent Theft of Your Ring Doorbell
Alright, so, below we’ll look more at what to do if your Ring doorbell is stolen, but first let’s try and put you in a position to prevent it!. While they may not be significant, they still exist. So if you’re trying to ensure your Ring never leaves your front porch, what should you be doing? Here’s a quick-reference table of some tactics you can use, and we’ll talk about each of them in more detail in this section.
| Prevention Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Secure the Ring Doorbell | Attach the doorbell to a sturdy wall instead of a door frame. |
| Use a Protective Cover | Add a protective cover to decrease the chances of theft, consider tamper-proof screws. |
| Install Another Camera | Add an additional security camera to complement the doorbell, or at least a fake camera so it seems like it’s monitored. |
| Watch for Notifications | Pay attention to motion notifications from the Ring App, even though they can get a bit annoying. |
| Use a Sign as a Deterrent | Display a sign indicating your home is protected with more video surveillance to make crooks think twice about picking your house. |
Secure the Ring Doorbell to a Sturdy Wall
One reason that a smart doorbell can get stolen easily is because of how most people mount it simply to a door frame. Usually, it’s only a few screws that keep the entire mount secured. While this is enough to keep it firmly in its place, if you’re looking for a safer alternative then there is one you should know about.
Attaching the doorbell to a wall can improve the safety of the device. Door frames are typically less than sturdy, meaning a thief can easily just pry the entire thing off. If you attach it to the wall, it could mean the difference between a stubborn device that just won’t come off and a missing video doorbell the next time you come home.
At the end of the day, there is no perfect solution to 100% protect your device. Much like other prevention techniques, the idea here is to make the job as hard as possible for the thief. They’re looking for an easy payday; don’t give it to them.
Using a Protective Cover
In the spirit of making it harder on the thief, adding an extra layer of protection is never going to hurt. While you might be thinking of bolting the whole thing down, there may be some easier options out there for you to explore. The first of which is a protective cover.
Adding a protective cover to your Ring is a great way to decrease the chances of theft. Some covers, like this Tamper-Proof Cover (on Amazon), are built for this exact purpose. It even features a locking mechanism — another added layer of security.
You get another benefit of using a cover as well. In most cases, these covers will help keep out dust, water, and other things that might get into your Ring doorbell. While the device itself is pretty durable and reliable, you can never go wrong adding more protection.
You can also use tamper-proof screws like these (on Amazon).
Install Another Camera
Now, this might sound redundant, but it really can help. The idea is that the Ring doorbell should be an addition to an overall security system. There are other security cameras available to catch crooks in the act if they choose to make a play on your doorbell or even your home. It’s that simple.
You can easily add a camera like the Ring Stick Up Camera (on Amazon) to the front of your home. Pointing it toward the porch means you’ll always have an eagle eye view of who is coming to your home, even if the doorbell somehow doesn’t pick up the action.
An additional camera can also add some extra protection in the form of appearance alone. If a thief sees another camera that they can’t get to, they’ll know there’s more risk involved and may even be deterred from seeing your house as an easy target.
Watch for Notifications & Listen to Them!
The Ring App is great at giving you notifications when one of the cameras detect motion. When the mailman comes, the kids arrive home from school, the neighbors walk by, it’s all on camera! We know this can get annoying, especially as you probably already deal with tons of notifications on your phone from other things.
But if you want to protect your home, you’ll want to pay attention to every notification. You never know which one could alert you of a thief. But you can use some of your judgment here. If you know someone is already home or you’re at home yourself, you may not need to open your phone up every time.
Make sure you’ve got the appropriate push notifications set up in your app. These are easy to access and customize on all smartphones.
Use a Sign as a Deterrent
You know those signs that say “beware of dogs?” Well, how often do you see a dog in the yard? While you will every once in a while see a rover walk by, most of the time, these signs are used as preventative measures. It works with those security company signs too. Often, that’s enough to keep paranoid criminals at bay.
Getting a sign like this one (on Amazon) informing people that your home is protected can be a big deterrent for thieves. Remember, they want an easy job where the risk of getting caught is relatively low. Letting them know upfront that they’ll have their work cut out for them means they may even skip your home altogether.
Why Would Someone Steal a Ring Doorbell?
You may have gotten this far into the article and had the thought: “why would someone even want my smart doorbell in the first place?” Seriously, what kind of value could a thief get from a used video doorbell. It’s true, there isn’t much value in a stolen Ring doorbell, but that doesn’t mean there’s zero.
The main reason someone might steal your Ring video doorbell is for the small resell value. Let’s talk about the value of a used Ring. You might see a Ring doorbell in retail stores go for around $200. A thief would get nowhere near that, however, for a used one. Maybe, if they found a buyer, they could get around a quarter of the price.
But if you had a few Rings to sell, it might be worth your time. That makes Ring thefts not super common, but not impossible.
The next reason could be to destroy any video evidence of another theft. If a thief comes to your door, starts picking away at the lock, and then takes a good look at your video doorbell, it’s going to cause a reaction. More often than not, their gut instinct will be to remove (or maybe destroy) the camera.
Fortunately, Ring video doorbells don’t store video just in the device; most of it is stored in the cloud, meaning you’ll have access to the footage even if the device is taken. But that won’t stop a more savvy thief from thinking to cover the doorbell with some tape, which is another issue altogether.
What to Do if Your Ring Doorbell is Stolen
So what should you do if your Ring goes missing? First, note that Ring has a specific page with steps to take here. Look, even if you’ve followed all the tips we’ve provided, that doesn’t mean a determined thief won’t come through and take a pass at stealing your doorbell camera. So if you’re a victim of such a crime, what should you do?
Keep in mind; this is theft. Stealing property, small or large, should always be a police matter. Contact them as soon as possible if you suspect you’ve been victim to a theft.
After that, you’ll want to move through some steps. First, take as many pictures as you can. Hopefully, you’ll have a few of the doorbell itself in its original position, for the police to refer to. Next, you’ll want to get a copy of the police report. This isn’t just good record-keeping, but it also plays another very important purpose.
You see, Ring has a policy where they will replace your device if it gets stolen. Ring will gladly replace your device with a new similar model for free! But, this is only possible if you have the documentation to prove it — so make sure to keep your police report. Also, make sure you get your claim in before the 15-day claim window expires.
Another thing about Ring devices that makes them so great is that it keeps recording once motion is detected. Even if the thief is able to get the doorbell off the frame, there will likely still be video evidence stored on the cloud somewhere.
Can a Stolen Ring Doorbell Still Be Used?
Here’s the thing, even if the thief gets the doorbell, they won’t be able to do much with it any way except sell it. The Ring doorbell is an internet device, so you won’t be able to use it without connecting it to the internet. But if the thief does this, it could mean giving away their location; the last thing a thief wants to do.
This doesn’t mean your Ring is not at risk of being stolen. If you didn’t know how the Ring worked, you’d probably also think it’s a great item to take. This keeps the risk of having any of your Ring devices being stolen still somewhat likely. But the point is that once a thief gets a hold of your device, there might not be much they can do with it other than use it as an expensive paperweight.
Securing Your Home Once And For All
The Ring Video Doorbell makes for a great addition to any home. Not only does it add an extra layer of security to your front door, but is also great to see who comes knocking. While these devices certainly aren’t the hottest items to steal, that doesn’t mean there’s a 0% chance it won’t be stolen.