OT - locksets.

[Robatoy]

Them's rednecks for ya.. always mooching and stealing.

[Robatoy]

all kinds of personal items... like that swedish blonde tied up in the fruit cellar....

[Robatoy]

6 normal dead bolts. In a row. Lock 3. If they are pickers, they'll be unlocking the locked 3 and locking the unlocked ones....that could take a while.

[Swingman]

ROTFLMAO ...

[Nonny]

Where we live, most home burglaries are done as targets of opportunity. In even a residential neighborhood, a home gets rented out and soon fills with "economically deprived" souls. Soon, it's time to make a rent payment, buy some drugs, pay the dealer or get gasoline for the pickup, and a couple of them will locate an apparently empty house, toss a rock through the patio door and grab what they can easily carry away and readily sell. The sales take place at flea markets, pawn shops and the improvised stores found in the more traditional neighborhoods for these poor, suffering souls.

Most of the burglaries take place in homes where the home is viewable from a public area- which is how it's selected. One exception is the day laborers used by landscape maintenance crews, painters and other contractors visiting a neighborhood. Gated communities have a slight advantage, since even if a car follows you in thorough the gate, it's something a neighbor might see. Guard gated communities have a real advantage there, along with registration of all visitors and videotapes of the people inside the autos. Nothing is perfect. For instance, we have friends in a very nice home. To get there, we have to be admitted by a guard via the guard gate and the site is videotaped from different angles. We then drive through the subdivision and are faced with an electronic second gate. There, we either have to enter the code or call the guard house to have the gate opened. Once inside that subcompound, we reach our friend's home.

Did I mention that the home backs up to a public, yes PUBLIC golf courses? Yup, we sit in our friend's back yard, by their pool, and look over the 3' wrought iron fence and speak to the golfers waiting to tee off on the 8th hole. How's that for security?

Homes in the interior of a subdivision are far less likely to be hit than a home adjoining a fence between it and a street, sidewalk, park or other accessible area. For a house to have a lock picked or even the door forced would be exceptional. Here, it's almost always a smash, grab and run situation. Usually, the burglars are too high on drugs or just too plain stupid to realize that many homeowners now have cameras. However, the physical presence of a camera or "Monitored Alarm" stickers on windows and doors probably help them decide to go see your neighbor instead of you.

We have also had a rash of home invasions in town. There, the intruders have almost universally picked homes with opened doors that were visible from driving down a street.

Personally, I follow the rule of keeping exterior doors locked and window locked, except for ventilation. We have sun screens, so opened windows are not visible. . . particularly at night. However, I don't go nuts and put on $400 locksets to the front door, since I know that any patio door or window would be the entryway of choice for a thief of opportunity. One possibility that some might consider is the heavy (tint/reflectivity optional) window films that can be applied to glass. They're just a heavier duty version of the normal window films, but WILL stop a guy using a rock or hammer to open the glass door. Nothing's perfect, but the guy's not going to want to stand there pounding on the door.

In our case, we have the typical alarm system, including IR detectors, door and window switches and fire. I personally installed several 140dBa sirens INSIDE the house. One is near electronic equipment, another in the garage where I have my tools and the third by our master BR and my office. Trust me, when those suckers sound off, nobody hangs around. They won't stop an entry, but will sure make it miserable for the burglar to go rummaging around.

[keithw86]

Are you insinuating that golfers are dishonest?

[Max]

Uh......No....she's a Latina. Marvelous cook. I call her Mahoney. I've kept her around for 45 years. She's apparently also very tolerant. {:-)

Max (tolerated)

[Max]

I'm wondering whether a "set-gun" might be a solution.

Max (if they just weren't illegal)

[Max]

[Larry Jaques]

On Mon, 3 May 2010 08:42:02 -0700, "Lobby Dosser" wrote the following:

But of course, and the practice, before it's needed.

-- Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. -- Raymond Lindquist

[Martin H. Eastburn]

A large pecan grower along the Rio Grande near El Paso had unwanted visitors coming through and foraging as well as helping themselves to equipment and tools. The dogs within were often bought off with slabs of meat. They switched to Geese and that kept out the unwanted.

It later turned out that the large population of geese brought more cash in each year than the pecans!

He kept both runn> Lew Hodgett wrote:

[Larry Jaques]

On Mon, 03 May 2010 13:37:24 -0500, Swingman wrote the following:

Isn't that what Whoopi Goldberg did in "Burglar" last century?

-- Courage is the power to let go of the familiar. -- Raymond Lindquist

[Phisherman]

I have seen a goose attacked and knocked down a woman. Found out later the goose had a nearby nest of eggs she was protecting.