What do you do to make your house burglar-proof?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dogs, dogs, dogs.

Dogs are trivially easy to disable.

You don't need the dogs to attack the burglars or otherwise prevent the burglary. You need the dogs to make the burglars decide to go to the next house, which doesn't have dogs, instead.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Very extensive Alarm system
2) Fence around the house
3) Motion detector flood lights on the sides and back of the house. Very well lit front of the house.
4) No huge bush or trees close to the house where people can hide
5) Know neighbors very well and watch out for each other
6) Cameras inside the house that you can watch remotely. One camera monitoring the driveway and the front of the house.
7) Automatic programmable switches that turn lights on and off when we are not here.
8) Big safes that are bolted to the floor.
9) Pics and info (Id # etc) - about all our valuables - for insurance purposes, and in case we lose them.
10) Alarm company signs around the house.
11) No guns or dogs though. You could add that if you think you needed that.

Get a flock of geese and you don't need any of the above.

+1 for Capitoline Geese reference

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dogs, dogs, dogs.

Dogs are trivially easy to disable.

You don't need the dogs to attack the burglars or otherwise prevent the burglary. You need the dogs to make the burglars decide to go to the next house, which doesn't have dogs, instead.

You want to make it noisy and troublesome to try to get in.

[Anonymous]

Know your neighbors! We live in a less fancy part of town, but the elderly lady who lives across the street is the neighborhood watchdog. She knows everything that happens on our street. She has her grandchildren pick up our packages, and she lets us know about any visitors who stopped by our house. We feel like we're in good hands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Very extensive Alarm system
2) Fence around the house
3) Motion detector flood lights on the sides and back of the house. Very well lit front of the house.
4) No huge bush or trees close to the house where people can hide
5) Know neighbors very well and watch out for each other
6) Cameras inside the house that you can watch remotely. One camera monitoring the driveway and the front of the house.
7) Automatic programmable switches that turn lights on and off when we are not here.
8) Big safes that are bolted to the floor.
9) Pics and info (Id # etc) - about all our valuables - for insurance purposes, and in case we lose them.
10) Alarm company signs around the house.
11) No guns or dogs though. You could add that if you think you needed that.

Whoa! That seems like a lot. Is that the norm?

Actually it is not, at least not in our neck of the woods. Most people only have an alarm system. We do not have reinforced doors and windows etc. However, my DH travels a lot. And our SFH (and entire neighborhood) backs into a state forest. So, I felt very vulnerable with small kids. I am ok with people taking things when I am not at home, because stuff can be replaced (thus the careful cataloging for insurance purposes), but the thought of someone coming in when we are at home -just scares me.

We are very security conscious. We have CO monitoring devices on all levels, we change the batteries in our smoke alarms, we do not park our cars outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Know your neighbors! We live in a less fancy part of town, but the elderly lady who lives across the street is the neighborhood watchdog. She knows everything that happens on our street. She has her grandchildren pick up our packages, and she lets us know about any visitors who stopped by our house. We feel like we're in good hands.

So she never goes out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dogs, dogs, dogs.

Dogs are trivially easy to disable.

You don't need the dogs to attack the burglars or otherwise prevent the burglary. You need the dogs to make the burglars decide to go to the next house, which doesn't have dogs, instead.

You want to make it noisy and troublesome to try to get in.

Yep. Just keep going. No one needs to know my yappy dog is worthless. But anyone staking out our street would likely choose another house.

[Anonymous]

Yep - the dogs are loud and make it clear that the burglar should move on to the next house. German Shepherd that would take someone down.

[Anonymous]

There are some smart things that you can do to deter thieves -

1) Pay your bills online. Thieves often target your postbox and remove the checks and cash it in their names.

2) Park car inside the garage. Your garage door opener is in your car, it is an open invitation to thieves.

3) Make sure that your porch light is switched on at night. A well lit exterior discourages thieves.

4) Use yard signs of security monitoring companies to deter thieves. If you switch providers, distribute the old yard signs to your neighbors so that they can use it as a deterrent,

5) Same for having a "Beware of Dog" sign.

[Anonymous]

Laser sharks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dogs, dogs, dogs.

Dogs are trivially easy to disable.

You don't need the dogs to attack the burglars or otherwise prevent the burglary. You need the dogs to make the burglars decide to go to the next house, which doesn't have dogs, instead.

You want to make it noisy and troublesome to try to get in.

+1 yep

[Anonymous]

No house is burglar proof. An expert burglar will find a way in. As other posters have indicated, you want to:

A) Make your house less attractive: lights, dogs, alarm system signs, fences with closed gates, closed garage doors, etc. that all make a potential thief consider an easier target;

B) Make your house a more difficult target: good locks, pins on lower level windows, locked interior doors into the garage, no garage door openers in cars parked outside, hide valuables in non-obvious places to increase the time a burglary takes, etc.

C) Mitigate the consequences of a break-in: alarm system, cameras, video record of all valuables, etch identifying info on portable valuables (NOT your DL# or SSN the way they used to advise, otherwise you can just be a victim of identity theft, too), recognize that after a break-in you may well be a victim of ID theft and take precautions.

And there are other steps for each one of these, but you get the idea.

[Anonymous]

I must be living under a rock. What robbery video?

[Anonymous]

You could just try making your house stink like cat litter like in the "how do people live like this" post. Then no burglarer will want to come near it. :-p

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Very extensive Alarm system
2) Fence around the house
3) Motion detector flood lights on the sides and back of the house. Very well lit front of the house.
4) No huge bush or trees close to the house where people can hide
5) Know neighbors very well and watch out for each other
6) Cameras inside the house that you can watch remotely. One camera monitoring the driveway and the front of the house.
7) Automatic programmable switches that turn lights on and off when we are not here.
8) Big safes that are bolted to the floor.
9) Pics and info (Id # etc) - about all our valuables - for insurance purposes, and in case we lose them.
10) Alarm company signs around the house.
11) No guns or dogs though. You could add that if you think you needed that.

Goodness. Item 8 seems like it's someone with far more valuables than me. Besides, I know a man whose house was burglarized while he and the housekeeper were home. They were tied up and he was forced to open the safe. All his guns were stolen. In this case, the safe didn't help.

Riggs Street?