Anonymous wrote:we live abroad right now and our house is basically a fortress. For whatever reason, it is just the way houses are designed here even though we live in an incredibly safe neighborhood. DH shut the front door the other day and didn't have his keys with him. Door wasn't locked (you have to do it from the outside with the keys) but he couldn't get back inside. Mechanism slides into place when you shut the door that prevents it from being opened unless you have the keys.
Back door had 4 different doors you have to go through to get inside or out, each requiring a different type of key. All windows are incredibly thick and have horizontal wooden pieces that are too narrow for someone to fit through.
We have an alarm but don't use it
Have a smoke detector and CO detector and bought a small home safe to store jewelry and passports in.
NOT the PP, but I was an exchange student in Venezuela in th 80s. My middle-class host family had a modest house. It was surounded by a tall cinderblock wall topped by both pieces of broken bottle and barbed wire. Behind that were 2 large dogs - one of which was hostile towards me the entire time I lived there. This was one of the safer neighborhoods - again, in the 1980s (crime exploded in Venezuala thereafter).
Personally, I think a large dog inside the home is the BEST property protection (its there 24/7) and dogs have been known to wake families if there is a fire or attempted brake in. We are between dogs at the moment (plus we travel a lot). We keep a safely-secured (read: locked in a safe) quick-access Colt for times we may be at home.