Home Security On my mind again

[jfh28]

That is a question I was concerned about. It will be locked under the bed. My daughter is a teen and will know how to use it. She's got a good head on her shoulder and spent a couple of years in CAP so I trust her. Still you always worry.

Jack

Not sure about the SG in the house with the kids. How do you keep it accessable, but not to the kids?

 

[pennwalk]

Thought I'd pass on a little that I found out at the locksmith yesterday. He says that the entry lock, the knob with the key in it , is just for convenience it isn't very good at keeping bad guys out. To secure the door you need good quality dead bolts. Beware of cheap flimsy dead bolts. The bolt needs to extend into the frame around an inch or it is easy to use a pry bar and open the space between the door and the frame and defeat the dead bolt. The real weakness is the frame that holds the door. When someone kicks in a door the strike plates and the frame around them usually breaks out. The hinges and the strike plates are typically held in place by 3/4 inch screws and the frame is 3/4 inch pine. Way too easy to break out. It is a lot better if the strike plates and hinges are screwed through the door frame into the studs with 3 inch screws. One problem I ran into was the strike plate screws won't hit the studs even if they are long. You need an over sized strike plate but that's pretty easy. They also make a metal channel that wraps the door frame in the area of the strike plate and replaces the strike plate. The kit I saw includes channels to reinforce the areas of the hinges but the kit is kind of expensive at $124. The locksmith says alarms are fine but you really want good locks that make it so hard to break in that the bad guy goes some were else.

Chris

 

[MossRoad]

I'd knock out a rear window with some patio furniture long before I'd try to kick in a door.

 

[KYErik]

I saw a special on the local news about this tactic to get in through door locks and deadbolts:

Lock bumping - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It uses a specially cut key and when the key is tapped with a hammer, it pops the internal pins outward so that the key can be turned.

The TV reporter was wandering around a nice neighborhood asking for permission to try to get through the owner's front door lock.

It really surprised the 3 home owners and one commercial business owner when she was able to open their locks! They showed the doors being opened with the hammer tap but they refused to show the "bump cut" key that was being used.

The only sign that this has been done to your lock is possibly a tiny impression where the bump key was tapped. Otherwise, the lock and door appear normal.

 

[jfh28]

Chris, you have really described the problem. A good quality dead bolt isn't going to do any better because your weak point is the door frame. By the time you cut out the stike for the bolt throw what's left is less than 1 inch of the 3/4 inch pine door jamb. And 3 inch or 10 inch screws will not make much of a difference. You don't need to kick the door, just put your hip into it....and don't ask how I know this

To reinforce this weak spot I have used a piece of steel angle. Screw one leg into the front face of the 2 x 4 door frame studs and let the other leg sit flush against the door jamb in the space between the studs and jamb. Now if your dead bolt has a minimum throw of at least 1 inch they would be trying to kick thru the steel angle instead of the 3/4 jamb. Most likley the dead bolt would break first. This does require monkeying with the door trim as the angle sits out in front of the plane of the door frame.

This may make you feel more secure but the reality is as Moss pointed out, if someone wants in they'll just break a window. Locks keep honest people out.

Jack

 

[MossRoad]

Locks keep honest people out.

People like me!

 

[pennwalk]

I'd knock out a rear window with some patio furniture long before I'd try to kick in a door

Moss. One of the alarm guys told me that 80 percent of break ins are through a door. Too many doors including mine are easy. your smarter bad guys realize thet you can get cut messing with a broken window and blood is evidence.

Chris

 

[pennwalk]

Kyle, No news on the murders this week. I'm starting to be afraid the this will be among the 40 percent of murders that are never solved.

Chris

 

[pennwalk]

Erik, I don't know what this means, but I asked the locksmith about bumping and he said it is a lot harder than it looks. They have bump resistant locks which probably cost more. I have seen those videos too and it sure looks easy. Do they have bump keys for all the different locks? Wouldn't the bump key have to fit into the lock to start with? As I understand it you are trying to slow the bad guy down so he gets scared or nervous and moves on.

Chris

 

[pennwalk]

The police arrested a 16 year old boy who lives in the condos on the back side of the hill we live on. The boys dad had to turn his son in. Talk about tough duty. I guess if the Police arrested the boy they have good reason to believe he was the one. Very sad all around. The reports are on WGAL and Lancasteronline if you want to read about it.

Chris

 

[RoyJackson]

This should be interesting...

 

[dmccarty]

Jack,

The golden is a nice dog. We picked her up Saturday after returning from a short trip away from home. Her old owner kept our GSD so they had time to get aquainted which has help her move into our house. Both dogs had us up three times last night to go outside.... Not real happy about the lack of sleep but the GSD generally has gotten me up 2:00ish since the day I brought her home as a puppy. But three times in one night is too much.

Sorry to hear your IW only lasted 6 years. That was the number that was in my head for how long they lived. Six years is just not long enough...

I have never used a laser sight. I don't know of any local PD or SO that issues them to any officer with the exceptions of SET/SWAT members. My guess is that its too expensive to retrofit the lasers into existing holsters, its expensive to buy the lasers in the first place, it adds time/money to constrained training budgets, and its one more thing to break at the wrong time.

Even in pitch dark, at close ranges, its very easy to hit a target with just a wee amount of training with or without a flashlight. We leave task lighting on in our kitchen so we have light when we have to get up in the middle of the night. Its flouresent lighting that has been running for 30 months 24x7. Cost pennies to run. Those lights, while muted and low, provide enough illumination to make anyone in the house visible. Flashlight is not even needed.

About the murders in PA. Sure is a strange story. Lots unanswered questions.

Later,
Dan

 

[AlanB]

I am sure most thieves do not do it, but when they came out and replaced my windows, it literally took the guy about 1 minute to pull the window out and set it on the ground.

He had a 1" wood chisel and a standard hammer. It was reasonably quiet, and quite quick.

Kind of made me think back to what someone posted earlier, locks keep honest folks out.

 

[Soundguy]

Have you ever seen the locksmith drive out to a parking lot to help someone with their locked vehicle.. walk over and open the door in 10 seconds with a slim jim.. I've seen it enough to also believe the locks/honest phrase.. etc..

Soundguy

 

[MossRoad]

Have you ever seen the locksmith drive out to a parking lot to help someone with their locked vehicle.. walk over and open the door in 10 seconds with a slim jim.. I've seen it enough to also believe the locks/honest phrase.. etc..

Soundguy

Agreed. Back in High School, a friend was given a car by his grandpa. Only grandpa didn't have a trunk key. We drove to a locksmith. Old guy with gnarly hands and a hunched back. He walked out to the car, looked at it, opened a leather pouch, took out two pieces of spring steel. One was straight and one was bent like an allen wrench. He used the bent one to put some rotational pressure on the lock cylinder and took the straight one and in one motion slid it in and out. The lock went click and turned open and the trunk popped up. It took longer for him to get his tools out of his pocket than it did to pop that lock. He then showed us how locks worked by taking the lock out and disassembling it. He showed us the pins and how the key lines them up. He made us a new key and off we went.

Using that one lesson, I have successfully picked many a lock with paper clips... one bent to put pressure on the cylinder and another bent with a tooth to push the lock pins. It takes me a few minutes, but I get the job done. File cabinets, lockers, desk drawers etc... are the easiest. Good quality locks are tough, though, and I haven't been very successful on them. It would be faster and easier to bust the door frame rather than picking the lock.

Anyone remember those expensive bicycle locks with the round keys that were supposed to be the best you could buy until a couple years ago when someone took a plastic ball point pen tube, shoved it in the round lock, spun it around a couple times and popped the locks? Unbelievable, but true!
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Penjacking

 

[Soundguy]

Yep.. At work sometimes for fun I bend up a few paper clips.. one for a tension bar and hte other for a pic.. and sometimes spend my time inbetween work to pop master locks and similar padlocks open.. not very hard.. just takes a little patience.

Depending on t he lock style.. there are many ways to open them.. Shim picks work good on some shackle style locks.. some cheaper bik cyl locks that have the number dials on them can be opened by putting hte lock in tension and spinning the dials till you feel pressure... then going to the next dial.. etc..

Locks are just for honest people... as was stated..

Soundguy