I know that security is a bit of a show and its really more of a deterant, but I was wondering realistically how we could prevent someone breaking and entering a small-ish American home?
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.
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
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.
Build a moat.
It’s not impenetrable, but let’s be honest, who’s crazy enough to break into the house with a moat?
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 neighbors dog. I have to resort to the cannon mounted at the top of the stairs loaded with grape shot, “Tally ho lads” the grape shot 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.
Don’t forget about your French neighbors who have been looking to get one over on those ruffians.
Pirates. You’ve just escalated things a degree.
No. They normally operated on open waters. You have to go back to medieval armies.
Vikings. Cold pirates.
All right I’ll give you a Vikings for that.
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 ;-)
If you asking how you secure your residence against ICE…good luck with that. They have legal access to an expansion of the Patriot Act for warrants, and they have toys they’d love to use against any home security. All that physical security is going to do is give them probable cause.
They’ll claim it gave them probable cause.
Yeap. They don’t care about the law…they just care about what sounds good to their people in clips.
Alligators.
This is the only answer that makes sense.
The ONLY way to stop someone who really really really wants into your house from entering your house. Is to not have a house.
Taps side of head Can’t have your house broken into if you don’t have a house.
That’s why I live in a van down by the river.
Home Alone has some solid ideas
Have you seen the film Home Alone 2?
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.Oh right. Can you get some pet geese for the outside? Nothing louder than geese
I think peacocks might be louder but vocalize less frequently. That means you’d have to live with peacocks, though. They’re awful. You can hear their loudest cries up to a couple of kilometres away.
oh hell no they don’t make good guard birds. geese are good guard birds they honk for honks sake. peacocks try to make love to the chrome on your car. there’s always the one rich dude in town who thinks he’s rich enough to tame peafowl and suddenly your town is overrun with cock.
Also having peacocks would make you look rich. (=worth being robbed)
But no one is going to steal my car if they have to fight the three peacocks that are trying to fuck it.
it’s not about protecting your car. your car’s a piece of shit smart car, stupid brother in law. no one is going to steal that anyways. it’s about protecting the single rock on your property that you decided to place there. the plastic rock. the hollow plastic rock with a little slot on the bottom for a key. with your front door key in it. If they’re distracted trying to fuck your car, who’s going to protect the rock? You either need geese or sheep. Maybe meese.
Some person has them in the wealthy neighbourhood and their peacocks/peafowl flew away.
One came to our office balcony (about 20m high) for a visit. :D
Was also in the local newspaper.
Were I in a less secure neighborhood: Deadbolt, second deadbolt, dog.
Shotgun. Single best thing you can have.
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.
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.
3" door screws and a good lock.
Also AR15, if you legally/mentally can. Last line of defense, but without it the last line is the door/windows.
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 steer 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.
