I know that security is a bit of a show and its really more of a deterant, but I was wondering realistically how I could prevent someone breaking and entering a small-ish American home? What is actually effective?
Not really much, tbh.
Decent quality door locks
Clear line of sight from the street to likely entry points
Loud alarms so if they do break in they’re not likely to stay longIf someone wants to get into a house, there isn’t much you can do to stop them unless you’re rich and can afford exotic shit like bullet proof glass windows and thick metal reinforced doors.
All to can really do is discourage crimes of opportunity by making them seem like bad opportunities.The critical question is “who?”.
Most break-ins are targets of opportunity. Given that you can’t change to a less risky neighborhood, you could have no outward signs of profitability, no easy/quiet entrance, signs of people around, lights, cameras. And remember, they’re not coming in the front door: they’re looking for an Inconspicuous, weak point. You just need to be less of a target of opportunity than your neighbors.
Someone specifically targetting you will be much harder. Someone with skills will be much harder. At the extreme, no consumer lock is safe against lock picking and no consumer door is safe against police battering ram.
I have a side door with a broken jamb, and speculate that someone kicked it in at some point (before I moved here). One of the first things I did upon moving in, was add long screws to the latch and hinges so it’s anchored in the nearest joist rather than simply the jamb. Supposedly that makes it much more difficult to kick in - someone might give up when it is taking too much time and they are creating noise that could attract attention. I also have a light and a doorbell cam, so they would be visible and on camera doing it. And a dog
At one point I came across an article recommending steel supports behind the jamb, and would really like to do that when I replace the door. It looks like a normal door but the jam is no longer a weak point. Unfortunately no one seems to know what I’m talking about though
I have solid wood doors to enter my home, the front door doesn’t even have a peephole on it. If somebody wants in their coming through a window. U could put bars on ur windows, then the door returns as the weak point. If ur really worried u could step up and put a steel fire door in (like shops are required to have for fire safety) and one of those properly installed will make ur walls the weak point. At that point you probably should question if ur better off in an underground fort lol.
Lights, cameras, door armor kit, decent locks, and detergents near windows (bars work, but so does planting a rose bush under the windows. Lastly dogs that bark when one near your doors.
This will.help a lot. Statistically the best impact is a dog or two.
You can go hardest by adding electronic security shutters and a serious storm door over every exterior door…
Very general feedback. I’ve been slowly doing all of the above for years. Have it all except shutters (no need, windows too high) and storm doors.
But if they get through the door armor, security camera alarms and pitbulls ill have plenty of time to grab my shotgun.
God help them if they hurt my pitbulls.
It depends on whether your adversary is motivated and equipped, your resources, and what visibility you would like to permit.
Let’s suppose you have a poorly equipped adversary, a couple thousand to spend, and you want it to be invisible.
When a door is bashed, the wooden jamb breaks at the lock. So you could go bash resistant device, I believe there are inserts that make bashing significantly harder. Or you can go with a steel door and steel jamb.
For windows, a sheet of polycarbonate glued to the outside should make them resistant to rocks and small arms fire. You should be able to break the glass and kick out the polycarbonate in the event of a house fire.
Check your slider door that it can’t be levereged upward and removed while shut.
Shotgun. Single best thing you can have.
Shotgun. Single best thing you can have.
Just make sure to stand guard at the front of your home all night every night with your shotgun so that anyone considering breaking and entering knows that you have a shotgun.
That doesn’t prevent breaking and entering. It deals with someone who has already done so.
Which is clearly the context of the post.
No, then the post would be “how do I deal with someone who has forcibly entered my home?”
The answer to this post would be strong fencing, doors, and windows and any other entry points to the home.
We don’t have to argue about the intent of the title my friend, OP provided a link in the body that makes it very clear the context of their question.
You’re suggesting that OP shotgun ICE agents? You think that is going to go well for them when a lady was just shot in the face for tapping one with her car?
I’m suggesting that when a fascist kill squad breaks into your home that you are both legally and morally justified to defend yourself.
I agree with you, but if it gets to that point OP is dead. He might get one or two of them but they definitely are not going to de-escalate if he shoots at them. Which is why a better suggestion would be to reinforce your home so that it is difficult enough for them to enter that they move on to a softer target.
Given unlimited time for whoever to break in undisturbed, nothing is secure.
The relevant measure is how quickly someone could break in, without preparation and then with. That’s kind of how they rate safes.
If you’re not Maduro and the goal is just to get away before they’re in, people have mentioned some good options to slow whoever down (alongside the silly suggestions). I’d also add trying to look unprepared, so they don’t come prepared for more than a door or window themselves, and having a non-obvious escape route to use in those critical seconds.
Of course, if it’s an authority, after you’ve run away you’re down a small-ish house.
Having a house with windows already 4 - 6 feet off the ground, security bushes around the whole house, metal shutters for first floor windows, and as many bars or a brace for the doors.
Being a less attractive target than your neighbours, either by being a bigger hassle or by looking like there’s nothing worth stealing.
That unfortunately doesn’t help if someone is targeting you/your house specifically.
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If someone is targeting you and your house specifically, maybe not even hiring private security will help.
Any street-facing windows should always be shrouded by curtains or shutters. Don’t let anyone passing by just see into your home.
Learned that at apartments. Just having everything locked up tight and shutters meant our neighbor got broken into and not us one day.
Used to be a locksmith in Miami, this is exactly it!
Desperate people want money, not a fight.
Not wrong, however you gotta be really skilled to make it look like you got nothing worth the effort and at the same time not looking too easy to break in. Some people like to break in and just rummage through shit, even if stuff truly isn’t worth taking.
My grandmother lived in a rough neighborhood and got broken into several times. The stuff she got taken were old worn clothes and just old junk. There were never any valuables, they took her jewelry but it wasn’t expensive stuff. You get the idea. Yet it happened. And her house never looked like it would have valuables anyway. Still a nuisance for her and a very unpleasant experience.
Yeah I got broken into and I woke up from a nap mid-robbery. I literally just talked to the dude, he was some drifter who said he “wanted to get out of the rain and the door was unlocked”. A few of the houses in my little cut of town are vacants so he probably was telling the truth. I’m tucked away in the woods but still in the city.
Anyway I did ask him to leave and he went “I reorganized some of your stuff into that bag”, which was my bookbag lol. After he left I looked and he was def gonna steal some things but it was like a bunch of mail, some old movies, a couple video games, a set of drill bits I had just gotten and hadn’t opened yet. Just random shit.
Provide universal health care, low cost.of living to income ratio, free higher education, strong community building, and walkable cities.
I don’t really think OP can do that single-handedly.
It would be nice. But not something I can provide right now :D. Let you know if I become a billionaire.
No, no. We want solutions to problems we don’t really have! Not something that would make life for 99.9% of Americans better…
Thank you. Now what can I do with the money left in my bank account after that
Buy a yacht
Those aren’t very secure from the modern super breakandentereptile, the buck toothed electric límpido snake eel dragon lizard.
Buy 2 in case one gets destroyed
As long as it’s over 150 feet it’s safe from orcas!
Reinforce your doorframes and window frames, preferably with steel. The dinky pine wood frames of residential doors and windows are hilariously easy to kick in, and the thickest steel door and the meanest window bars in the world won’t mean much when an attacker can simply kick them out of the frame with a minimum of effort.
You will probably find that doing this is in fact deemed illegal by at least one entity in your local hierarchy of state/county/municipality. I’ll give everyone three guesses as to why.
Because it keeps law enforcement out?
And, we have a winner.
Any properly framed door or window won’t be the failure point. It’s usually the fasteners. Deadbolts usually only come with dinky little half inch screws for the strike plate. Replace those with some 2.5" deck screws and it’ll be much harder to kick open.
Why do people say this? When I moved into my current house and replaced all the deadbolts, every choice came with at least one long screw to anchor into the joist. And that was 20 years ago
When I replaced my deadbolts about 5 years ago, none of them had it. Maybe we got different brands?
Is it because it’d make us less safe?
I believe in some areas fire is a valid concern. But I also imagine if you do it right, it doesnt matter as much.
Is it because it might be harmful to the environment?
No its just harder to get out in case of a fire. But thats just spitballing. I know that’s why you cant put bars on all windows or totally obstruct exits. Fire is much MUCH more likely to happen than a break and entering. At least where I am at. People need to get out in case of a fire. But im pretty sure there are still ways of protecting yourself instead of just bars.
There are bars designed to let people out and not in.
See Quick release security bars:
I think for firefighters you’d have to install some “fire key” system and they’ll ok it.
LEO would be able to get the key themselves with a warrant though, but at that point they’re checking your cavities whether you want to or not.
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I’ll split my guesses into characters:
L
E
O
Lesson from South Africa: by the time they are at your door it’s too late. Perimeter fencing, preferably a 2m high wall with razor wire AND electric fence on top (including on gate). Garden: floodlights, motion sensing alarms, beams, AI cameras. All doors and windows: bars and security gates. Inside: separate living and sleeping area with lockable gate in the hall between. Panic buttons…
None of that is going to stop a legal intrusion, each just buys you time before the paid security company arrive with guns to chase away intruders. Given time, any determined attacker will get in eventually…
My cousin had a beagle ridgeback mix (accidental breeding incident).
His neighbours from two doors down showed him security footage of burglars jumping back over the wall when they heard it barking! 😂
How big does that perimeter have to be for the lesson to apply? In ZA I know they do whole gated communities, but we’re talking about a single house.
Top 3 tools that will get you most of the way there.
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Steel door frame reinforcement + steel or solid core wood door. The door jamb is the weakest link here. Cheap steel reinforcement with long screws are an easy win. A quality lock is a good idea.
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Security window film. Best done when the windows are manufactured, but they will deter most people who were counting on a quick smash and grab.
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Dog. No one wants to mess with a dog. Lots of dual purpose family friendly breeds who instinctively guard the home from intruders and can smell the adrenaline of people who don’t belong.
These three things will get you 80% of the way there for 20% of the cost. Cameras just give you memorabilia of that time you got robbed and rarely help prosecution and even less in recovery of stolen goods.
Interesting point about cameras. Why doesn’t the footage usually help?
Think about what the camera even can show.
- you’re not going to see a readable license plate, even assuming they took their own car and parked in front of your house
- so what if you capture a face? There is no universal facial recognition too, and database, nor any way to trace back to where they may be now. If the police capture them by normal means, it’s solid additional evidence, but not useful in itself
- doesn’t matter for insurance. If you make a police report of a breakin, they accept that, and it won’t show what’s been stolen or destroyed
Cameras are good for “the appearance of” security and may deter some. They can trigger lights and attention, which may drive some away. They can also be part of an alarm system which will deter more
Thank you! Interesting and helpful.
Masks, poor lighting, angles, quality and police that don’t give a shit etc…
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Who is your enemy?
If it is just some random burglar, create some fear with triple locks and cameras and you are good.
If it is a government operation, you better leave the country before they even start looking for you.
Ageeed. If random burglar, dud cameras and the “secured by” lawn signs are plenty effective. The appearance of security is a sufficient deterrent for all but determined robbers, or those targeting you specifically (where a camera will not do anything for prevention anyway).
Ah, good old aposematism!
Fake cameras exist ;-)
American home
2nd amendment has entered the chat
Edit: Jesus christ what the fuck? They’re going door to door?
We’re so cooked
Use a cannon pointed directly at the door as our forefathers wanted us to.
Own a musket for home defense, since that’s what the founding fathers intended. Four ruffians break into my house. “What the devil?” As I grab my powdered wig and Kentucky rifle. Blow a golf ball-sized hole through the first man, he’s dead on the spot. Draw my pistol on the second man, miss him entirely because it’s smoothbore and nails the neighbor’s dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stairs loaded with grapeshot, “Tally ho lads” the grapeshot shreds two men in the blast, the sound and extra shrapnel set off car alarms. Fix bayonet and charge the last terrified rapscallion. He Bleeds out waiting on the police to arrive since triangular bayonet wounds are impossible to stitch up. Just as the founding fathers intended.
Tally-ho!
Best I can do is 9 .33 caliber balls, five times in a row.
Careful, not all states have a castle doctrine, and really you don’t want the legal shitshow even in a Castle Doctrine state.
Better to deter than have to deal with that.
I missed the link and didn’t know they were talking about government agents… 💀
Can you specify which state? I thought that was fairly ubiquitous. I legit would never live in a state that didn’t have castle doctrine. I don’t personally agree with states that don’t have stand your ground laws, but I can at least stomach that.
Nebraska, Vermont, and New Mexico don’t have it, but the exact details of what’s covered also vary state to state
A quick search said all states have some version either in the books or through case law.
I don’t know if it’s ever been tested but I’m sure Castle Doctrine is completely nullified when law enforcement is involved.
As a locksmith, I can tell you what I tell my paranoid customers. Buying the greatest lock in the world doesn’t do shit if you still have first floor windows.
I always thought that was funny. Same with cheap, stick-built apartments with only the wood studs and two layers of drywall between them, the hallway, and other units, but tenants massively fortifying only the door.
I always wondered why we don’t read about more robberies like that. In a stick built home, the wall is a weak point. With a modern battery powered reciprocating saw, it would take less than a minute even on a standard external wall
I’ve heard of that happening in context of thieves breaking into stores. Never heard of it used for home robbery
I had my windows replaced … Last year, I think? That detail doesn’t really matter.
I always knew that normal windows negate any attempt at security, but it was still unnerving to visually confirm that they are easily removed, fragile barriers filling what are just holes in my wall.
