3 Things To Help Prevent Home Burglary
February 3, 2011, Submitted by: Ken Tweet
The following three actions will frustrate a home burglary attempt, quite possibly denying break-in altogether.
Install longer screws in door strike-plate
A strike plate is the metal plate screwed to your door jamb with a hole for the bolt of the door-lock. When the door is closed, the bolt extends into the hole in the strike plate, and holds the door closed. Since the door jam is usually soft wood, the strike plate ensures a more secure latch.
The problem is, the majority of door-lock strike-plate’s are installed and screwed into the door jam with short screws. That is, shorter than ideal. A door can be fairly easily kicked in with strike-plate screws of around 1 inch (some are less).
It is an easy task to replace the existing strike-plate screws with longer screws, say, 2 or 3 inches. All you need are the screws and a proper sized drill-bit to pre-drill deeper holes.
#8×2-1/2 DeckMate screws worked for me. A 7/64 (softwood) or 1/8 (hardwood) drill bit is perfect for #8 screws.
Just be sure that the screw you choose will fit flat to the surface of the strike-plate, and not protrude out (which will probably snag with the door when closing it).
A barking dog
Having a dog goes a long way toward home burglary prevention, assuming that the dog barks. The deep bark of a big dog will deter burglars more than the yip of a small dog, however even the yipper-yapper dog will bring adequate attention to the situation and likely stop a burglar break-in because the typical amateur burglar will move on to easier opportunities.
Even if you do not have a dog, there are electronic dog barking alarms
An alarm system
No burglar wants to hear the sound of an alarm. Not only will the burglar alarm alert anyone within earshot, but the burglar will not know whether or not you have a contract with an alarm monitoring service who would send over the police upon receiving an alarm alert. The point is, you don’t have to pay for monitoring to have an effective alarm.
Another very effective trick, something that I did prior to actually installing an alarm system sometime later, is to get yourself some alarm stickers or decals
You could also get yourself a security yard stake sign, similar to the typical ADT alarm signs that you see on lawns of some homes.
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just want to comment on doors it is amazing what some screws and sheetmetal can do we had to repair a door in a apt complex we were told they were “robbed” so i replaced the jamb leg put long screws in the deadbolt plate and a metal wraparound plate for the dead bolt. 2 weeks later we were back to repair the door once again. this time we were greeted by 6 police officers in gear.they asked about the door which was now bent almost in half. they told us 2 weeks ago the door just popped open on 1 hit but this time they needed to beat the door into submission they even switched cops to finish the entry. i told them we beefed it up a little. they responded “please don’t do that again”. turns out tenant was a big time heroin dealer. then i asked “why they didn’t you ask us for the key” all we got was a blank stare i swear i heard crickets chirping lol. my thank you from the drug dealer bastard burned down a building we were framing. so i can vouch for minor improvements making a huge difference it took 2 or 3 minutes to batter down the door to me that is plenty of advance notice to prepare. thanx ralley
Dogs can always be dependable. It will always be an effective deterrent to your home because there are burglars who are afraid of dogs or those who just don’t want to risk their lives to be bitten by a dog. And of course, the three-inch screw will make a door really difficult to break down. There should also be some innovations for windows though. Something that does not only refer to installing alarms around the house but on the window itself.
@Anti-Theft Guy, good point regarding windows. Here is one simple locking mechanism that will work for most home windows. High-Security Sliding Window Lock – 3-Second Installation
Be careful because you can be sued if a burglar hurts themself on broken glass, barbed wire and stuff like that. Ridiculous as it may seem, we are all responsible for the safety of whoever ‘visits’ our home.
We had similar problem: back wall and easy access to the rear of our home. I looked on the internet and found what turned out to be an excellent product (but it has not been mentioned here??).
We decided not to install broken glass or barbed wire so, if nothing else we could say to the low-life that entered our house “You didn’t change the way we live”.
We had a specialist system installed. It is called the Wall Top Alarm (walltopalarm.com) and I can honestly say that we both sleep better at night since we bought it. It even lets us know by mobile phone messaging if somebody tries to climb over our rear wall and before they get close to our back door. Thankfully, nothing has happened since….
It is the true stupidity of the one of the worst law systems in the world to even think of allowing a burglar to sue someone that is trying to protect their home and their personal safety from someone that absolutely does not belong in your home. The difference between someone that visits your home and someone that breaks into your home is that the criminal knows that they do not belong there and are invading your home. The lawyers that sue the innocent on behave of these criminals are the most worthless pieces of human excrement that there is. In theme with the Modern Survival site a lawyer after some apocalypse has no valuable skills and will be of no use at all to anyone. It upsets me so much to see how innocent people try to protect themselves against individuals that are mostly evil, and there are so many of these idiotic laws that protect the criminal and allow the victims of heinous crimes to suffer even more so.
Common sense in the United States is gone, and it started with the law system and has continued throughout the government and the entire monetary system. Imagine how we try to protect our homes and actually have to think about how will might suffer because of some obscure law that protects some maniac from breaking in. What is next, the alarm was too loud and the criminal suffered hearing damage from it? Bye-bye USA your total ignorance led to your demise.
@Be informed, Occasionally, while watching an old Western Movie, I’ll comment to my wife, “now that’s the way you take care of justice, like back in the old days…”, referring to how good men knew what was right and how justice was generally swift – a pretty effective deterrent with little cost to anyone. Today, most people are such pansies – if someone looks at them wrong they’ll ‘sue’. (a little exaggerated, but I think you know what I mean)
Too many lawyers, ‘ambulance chasers’, too many laws. Common sense solutions seem mostly gone. Today, everyone is cradled and coddled, even the criminals.