Talk to me about security!

Soldato
Joined
6 Jan 2006
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Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
Moving into a new house hopefully and wondered what I should be doing to make the properly as secure as possible. I don't want to install CCTV or anything that will attract attention but a recent thread about locks suggested that a lot of the basic locks can just be drilled out within seconds so any petty thief can be in.

I know that if a professional wanted to be in there is little to nothing to stop them but I would rather do as much as possible to make it difficult for them so they would move on to somewhere else.

I know the property has an alarm but I think that's about it other than a couple of sensor lights at the rear of the property which is detached.
 
Avocet ABS locks are one of the market leaders for cylinder barrel locks.

CCTV can be discrete, it also provides screening of visitors as well as working out which cat has been sat on your car!

Sensor lights are a good shout, just make sure they are well aligned both front and rear.

Thorny bushes/planting under windows.

Decoy/Real Alarm box.

Do not announce to the world on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram that you are on Holiday ;-)
 
We used to get real issues with Scrap men coming up my drive and trying to get under my car port, stuck an old webcam in the front window and its stopped. They don't even stop anymore.

The best security is visible security, anything to make your house less appealing than the neighbours.

Replace locks with better ones, look at security lights and put up a single CCTV camera. each side.
 
Thanks for the advice, will look into the Avecot locks. Are they something that can be fitted by myself?

Interesting to hear about the CCTV,web cam. Personally I would have thought that someone would think there is perhaps more to steal in that property to warrant having cctv but I guess there is a much higher risk of any thief having their face caught on tape so would not bother.

On the CCTV front, I have a Synology NAS which I believe you can hook up cameras too? Would this do the job? If so I'll have a look into it further.

Im not on facebook but the missus is well advised to not post any personal stuff on there for that very reason! Im also very reluctant to book taxis to the airport etc as 2 people in my current street used the same taxi firm to take them to the airport and were both burgled on the first night which seems very coincidental!
 
Consider how someone might get in.
Yes, many locks can be drilled, picked or bumped, but if a brick through the window is quicker, guess what route will be taken?

Make sure the building hardware is decent, too. No point in über-expensive, fancy locks if you can just wrench the hinge.

Most thieves, professional and amateur, will bypass your security and target weak points elsewhere. There are tricks to force some windows open (which I won't detail here, of course) and in other cases, simply remove them entirely.

Also, look at where you leave tools and where you hang your keys, etc. A stick through the letterbox to lift keys off the hook defeats any lock you install.
A key left under the doormat (or other obvious place) is an open invite.
 
Check your door frames. How are they fixed to the building? You can have a wonderfully secure door, but if the screws holding the frame to the building only go in 1 cm, then anyone can bash down the door.
 
Replacing toughened units with laminated will greatly increase security. You can break in through a toughened unit in seconds and without making much noise at all. It's especially important on french doors, I replace units that have been broken through all the time.

If they see anti snap barrels the next thing they will look for is toughened kitemarks on easy access windows and doors.
 
Replacing toughened units with laminated will greatly increase security.

I was told by the police that burglars dislike breaking glass. Also, be careful with laminated glass. Remember that in an emergency you may have to break out of your house. Imagine: your child is in a room, the windows are locked, there's a fire the other side of the door, and the room is filling with smoke. (You may remember a PSA about this many years ago.) An ordinary window will break rather easily and they'll escape with cuts, but a laminated window is another matter, especially for a child.
 
The Idea is to have any scumbags look at your house and move onto the next.
If they are going to bother drilling out locks they will get in somehow.

CCTV shouldn't be discreet unless you want to watch the person who is stealing your stuff. You want them to see the cctv and maybe a red light and think stuff that next door looks easier.
 
Don't make it easy for them to get down the side of the house and out of sight, door ways are illuminated, etc.

Also keep valuable stuff out of visible sight if possible.
 
My webcam isn't even attached to anything, just sat there overlooking the front of the property, nice and visible! :D

But I also have a loud dog which also helps :)

"Protecting your home is like running away from a zombie horde... you only have to be faster than the guy next to you" :p

Don't forget to look at real/fake room sensors that can be seen through the windows, things like that really put burglars off, but if they want to get in, they will.
 
When my parent's house was broken into whilst on holiday one year it was via a kitchen window that is not overlooked. The thief did not open any doors inside the house, so did not trigger the alarm and only took a VCR (this was some time ago) from the breakfast room!

Annoyingly the window frames are Mahogany so the damage done far outweighed the cost of the VCR.

Lessons learned were:

-A padlock on the side gate to stop people easily getting round the back of the house where they can unobserved.
-Additional window locks
-Closing of blinds to block site of valuable objects that cannot be moved

On a personal level I would also recommend Pyracanthra bushes under windows looking out over the garden. They are *&%"ing sharp and spiky!
 
You might want to look at paying for a security system.

We pay a local company $30 a month but save around $25 a month on home insurance so it is super cheap. all doors have sensor so if opened an alarm will go off, a few of the obvious windows are also have sensors and an auido alarm is there to detect smashed windows. There is also a motion sensor which is generally turned off due to our cats.


If any sensor is triggered while the alarm is activated we get a call from the response sensor, if we don't answer the call with the correct password the police will be around. And of course there is a loud alarm!

The system has a battery backup and communication is over 4G so if they cut the power and internet we are still protected.
 
A bit of a bump as I now have the house so getting it secured as best I can. Alarm guy coming out next week to see what options we have with the existing system. CCTV due in next month but in the very short term Id like to get a couple of decent padlocks for the side gate and the shed.

I looked at the Abloy ones suggested above but they are way too expensive so looking for something that is decent that will stand up to a petty theif's bolt cutters and not break the bank.
 
I looked at the Abloy ones suggested above but they are way too expensive so looking for something that is decent that will stand up to a petty theif's bolt cutters and not break the bank.

It may be sufficient to be big enough to require bolt cutters as carrying bolt cutters may be sufficient to be classed as 'being equipped' - ask your local police - and therefore not done.
 
Interesting to hear about the CCTV,web cam. Personally I would have thought that someone would think there is perhaps more to steal in that property to warrant having cctv but I guess there is a much higher risk of any thief having their face caught on tape so would not bother.

These days most houses have plenty of things worth nicking (high value:bulk ratio and relatively easy to sell) e.g. consumer electronics so I doubt the attraction of a potentially big score would outweigh the associated risks for the majority of common-and-garden burglars. CCTV is also getting more common/cheaper so it doesn't necessarily mean there is a huge pot of gold inside, just that the owners are more security conscious.

I would imagine that in most cases overt security measures would result in most burglars looking for an easier score unless they are specifically targetting that property for a reason. That reasonably nice looking house down the road with a Merc on the drive and no obviousyl security probably has some laptops/tablets/phones/ipods/car keys etc inside.
 
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