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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is a really important point.

Thanks, quoted PP here. That's what MCPD told us after we had a break-in at our last house while we (and the dogs) were on vacation many years ago. I've always had dogs because I love them, and no one should have dogs just for protection IMO, but they are a deterrent. The best deterrent is NRA membership stickers on your front door, but we're not going to go that far.

RE: the PP who asked about guns, this was a decade-long debate between my husband and me that I eventually lost. Our solution was to have a licensed, registered gun, stored loaded but locked in a combination safe bolted to a heavy piece of furniture with a combination only he knows, after he took a multiple days-long gun safety course.

Ok, so you're home alone with the kids and someone breaks in. How is that gun going to protect you? This is my problem with guns - either they are dangerously accessible to the kids in the house, or they are safely stored, but inaccessible when you need them!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is a really important point.

Thanks, quoted PP here. That's what MCPD told us after we had a break-in at our last house while we (and the dogs) were on vacation many years ago. I've always had dogs because I love them, and no one should have dogs just for protection IMO, but they are a deterrent. The best deterrent is NRA membership stickers on your front door, but we're not going to go that far.

RE: the PP who asked about guns, this was a decade-long debate between my husband and me that I eventually lost. Our solution was to have a licensed, registered gun, stored loaded but locked in a combination safe bolted to a heavy piece of furniture with a combination only he knows, after he took a multiple days-long gun safety course.

Ok, so you're home alone with the kids and someone breaks in. How is that gun going to protect you? This is my problem with guns - either they are dangerously accessible to the kids in the house, or they are safely stored, but inaccessible when you need them!

I didn't and still don't feel that a gun was necessary to protect our home and my husband disagreed. He won the argument, so we have a gun in the house, but I do not plan to use or even touch it. The only time I have ever touched a gun is while I was a juror on an attempted murder trial. If someone breaks in when I'm home alone with the kids, I will do my best to grab them, exit the house and call 911. But I think both of us know that that scenario is highly unlikely (though it does happen) and not the topic of this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ha sometimes I miss living in Argentina. Houses in our safe neighborhood were designed like fortresses and were basically robber proof. Unless someone followed you in, there was no way they could get in. Unfortunately we learned that the hard way when we left our keys inside and shut the front door which locks automatically. Not even the landlord has copies of keys. Just the way many houses are designed in that city.

I've never felt so safe and at times we had up to 15,000 pesos in the house!

What's that, like, $15.00US?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in Bethesda, Bradley Hills area. Last week cops were all over my neighbors house who had been robbed. Turns out transients from another state had been stalking the neighborhood for weeks to observe routines. They got about 15 homes. Who did they not hit? Myself and any neighbor with a dog, according to police.

+1 That is awesome to know...trying to convince my husband we need a dog!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Live in a safe neighborhood

Aren't the safe (i.e low street crime, higher SES) neighborhoods those are most often targeted by burglars. We live in one of those and I hear about burglaries quite often.

Those places are targeted by more sophisticated, experienced thieves, not the ones who see a target of opportunity. Very little is going to stop a professional thief once he has decided your house is a good target. That's where mitigation efforts (cameras, registries of your stuff, insurance, etc.) comes into play.

That being said, neighborhoods that have security patrols, limited access (ie only a couple of ways in and out of the neighborhood by car and limited foot options), lots of well-lit streets, houses that are relatively close (ie <1/2 acre-ish lots so you can actually see your neighbors' house), living on a cul de sac so the chance of being observed going in/out is higher, picking a house deep in the neighborhood rather than on the edge, and things like that all make a neighborhood and particular streets/houses in that neighborhood less likely to be targeted.

My friends that live on close together lots say that the only things the nosy neighbors notice is irrelevant; when their houses were hit by burglars, no on noticed a thing, unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Live in a safe neighborhood

Aren't the safe (i.e low street crime, higher SES) neighborhoods those are most often targeted by burglars. We live in one of those and I hear about burglaries quite often.

Those places are targeted by more sophisticated, experienced thieves, not the ones who see a target of opportunity. Very little is going to stop a professional thief once he has decided your house is a good target. That's where mitigation efforts (cameras, registries of your stuff, insurance, etc.) comes into play.

That being said, neighborhoods that have security patrols, limited access (ie only a couple of ways in and out of the neighborhood by car and limited foot options), lots of well-lit streets, houses that are relatively close (ie <1/2 acre-ish lots so you can actually see your neighbors' house), living on a cul de sac so the chance of being observed going in/out is higher, picking a house deep in the neighborhood rather than on the edge, and things like that all make a neighborhood and particular streets/houses in that neighborhood less likely to be targeted.

My friends that live on close together lots say that the only things the nosy neighbors notice is irrelevant; when their houses were hit by burglars, no on noticed a thing, unfortunately.

That's unfortunate for your friends, however, it's still true that the possibility of neighbors seeing something makes a house a less attractive target.

[Anonymous]

We live in an old house and if the burglars can get a window to actually open, I would be so impressed that I would have a hard time being upset.

We also have dogs.

The reality is that a "professional" will get in an out of the house within less than three minutes, much faster than most police responses as a result of an alarm.

[Anonymous]

I hire the local black kids to keep an eye out and keep shit off my street. No joke. $300 a month and that shit stays the fuck away.

[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.

This is a really important point.

+1 we had the police speak at our neighborhood association meeting and they said dogs are the best "security system". We have two big, loud dogs now but were dog-less for a few years and I definitely feel more comfortable home alone with the dogs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ha sometimes I miss living in Argentina. Houses in our safe neighborhood were designed like fortresses and were basically robber proof. Unless someone followed you in, there was no way they could get in. Unfortunately we learned that the hard way when we left our keys inside and shut the front door which locks automatically. Not even the landlord has copies of keys. Just the way many houses are designed in that city.

I've never felt so safe and at times we had up to 15,000 pesos in the house!

What's that, like, $15.00US?

Less than 2k US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Live in a safe neighborhood

Aren't the safe (i.e low street crime, higher SES) neighborhoods those are most often targeted by burglars. We live in one of those and I hear about burglaries quite often.

Those places are targeted by more sophisticated, experienced thieves, not the ones who see a target of opportunity. Very little is going to stop a professional thief once he has decided your house is a good target. That's where mitigation efforts (cameras, registries of your stuff, insurance, etc.) comes into play.

That being said, neighborhoods that have security patrols, limited access (ie only a couple of ways in and out of the neighborhood by car and limited foot options), lots of well-lit streets, houses that are relatively close (ie <1/2 acre-ish lots so you can actually see your neighbors' house), living on a cul de sac so the chance of being observed going in/out is higher, picking a house deep in the neighborhood rather than on the edge, and things like that all make a neighborhood and particular streets/houses in that neighborhood less likely to be targeted.

My friends that live on close together lots say that the only things the nosy neighbors notice is irrelevant; when their houses were hit by burglars, no on noticed a thing, unfortunately.

That's unfortunate for your friends, however, it's still true that the possibility of neighbors seeing something makes a house a less attractive target.

Unfortunately for you, this is not always the case, based on a real life case samples, in a close in suburb, which gets hit often. The rest of what you cite is true, however. Avoiding cut through neighborhoods is key to avoiding break ins, as a resident.

[Anonymous]

Cripes, I live on Capitol Hill and I'm nowhere near as paranoid about burglaries as apparently a lot of you suburban folks are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is a really important point.

Thanks, quoted PP here. That's what MCPD told us after we had a break-in at our last house while we (and the dogs) were on vacation many years ago. I've always had dogs because I love them, and no one should have dogs just for protection IMO, but they are a deterrent. The best deterrent is NRA membership stickers on your front door, but we're not going to go that far.

RE: the PP who asked about guns, this was a decade-long debate between my husband and me that I eventually lost. Our solution was to have a licensed, registered gun, stored loaded but locked in a combination safe bolted to a heavy piece of furniture with a combination only he knows, after he took a multiple days-long gun safety course.

Do not stick an NRA sticker on your house. That tells a thief "I have stuff worth stealing inside."

+1

Yeah, like guns!

Yes. That was my point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This is a really important point.

+1 we had the police speak at our neighborhood association meeting and they said dogs are the best "security system". We have two big, loud dogs now but were dog-less for a few years and I definitely feel more comfortable home alone with the dogs.

Does it count if the dog halfheartedly barks and stays on the couch lying down?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Live in a safe neighborhood

Aren't the safe (i.e low street crime, higher SES) neighborhoods those are most often targeted by burglars. We live in one of those and I hear about burglaries quite often.

Those places are targeted by more sophisticated, experienced thieves, not the ones who see a target of opportunity. Very little is going to stop a professional thief once he has decided your house is a good target. That's where mitigation efforts (cameras, registries of your stuff, insurance, etc.) comes into play.

That being said, neighborhoods that have security patrols, limited access (ie only a couple of ways in and out of the neighborhood by car and limited foot options), lots of well-lit streets, houses that are relatively close (ie <1/2 acre-ish lots so you can actually see your neighbors' house), living on a cul de sac so the chance of being observed going in/out is higher, picking a house deep in the neighborhood rather than on the edge, and things like that all make a neighborhood and particular streets/houses in that neighborhood less likely to be targeted.

I am hoping that being one of the smallest houses in the neighborhood will make those professional burglars choose a more lucrative target, while our alarm system and security lights will deter the amateurs. Seriously, I pity the burglar who breaks into our house. There is literally nothing to steal (beyond 2 $300 TVs).