My SIL had to break into his house last night. Somehow, the storm door (unkeyed) got locked and they never had a key to the back door, so he was forced to enter the house thru a window that, fortunately, had be left open a little bit. He was also fortunate that no one called the cops, tho he did have proof that he lived there.
Regardless, could you break into your house without causing much damage? You don’t need to provide details that will leave you vulnerable. I’m not planning anything here. Really!
I think the least amount of damage for me to get into my house would be one broken window pane. I suppose I could do the smart thing and ensure I have keys to all the doors, then hide them in a fake rock or something. When we bought this place (19 years ago) we had a pile of keys, several of which we never could match to anything. So far, we’ve had no need to break in. I’ve probably jinxed us now.
In the old house, I’ve had to do this several times, and it’s getting through one of the kitchen windows, which was pretty much always unlocked. You had to pull the picnic table over from the backyard to be able to climb up, but it was doable, and I’ve done it at least three or four times.
In my current house, I don’t know. I have a lockpick set in the car, and I may be able to get through the back door with it – I have opened it just as practice before, but it took five minutes or so. Otherwise, here I normally leave all my windows locked, so it would definitely be much more difficult.
There’s about a 90% chance that something will be unlocked. We have three sliding glass doors, so one of those would be the easiest way. Failing that, I could reach a window with the aid of a patio chair, slide it open, pop the screen, and climb in that way. If all the windows are somehow locked I’m pretty sure I could unlatch one with the aid of a screwdriver, providing I’m not also locked out of my truck.
If I had to actually break something, one of the single-pane, horizontally-sliding windows would be relatively cheap to replace.
I haven’t carried a house key in almost 2 decades. We have keypad locks on both the front and side doors, so not really possible to be locked out unless someone maliciously entered an incorrect code enough times to send the locks into lockout mode for 60 minutes.
Failing that, it would be a broken window or a locksmith.
I once locked myself out of my previous place leaving my keys and phone inside. Before asking one of my neighbors to let me phone a locksmith I thought that I would try the trusty movie credit card trick. I actually used some random membership card, which was lucky, as quite a bit of force was required. The card snapped but did unlock the door. I wouldn’t be able to insert a card at my current place.
We have a key hidden outside the house, but I’m pretty sure I could get through an open window if needed. I might have to damage the screen to get in but I could get in. One of the planned projects for the summer is replacing the garage deadbolt with a keypad entry.
I got locked out once after entering the garage, my GF had locked the door to the kitchen, which I never do and since I didn’t have a key on me because I usually enter into the garage we were stuck. Until I figured out I was in the garage and there were all sorts of tools available to me to break into the kitchen door. I grabbed a large axe, proceeded to knock the doorknob off the door, and then opened what was left of the door handle with a screwdriver.
Now I have a key hidden in a fake rock that is buried 6 inches under a real rock.
Not where I live now. It’s an apartment on the third floor, with the one entry being a solid-core door with a deadbolt. Breaking in would require some serious effort with large toolage.
The old house had spares. I’m trying to remember why I’ve had to break on multiple times. I assume the key wasn’t replaced. Never got around to it with the new one. It’s been six years, and no need to break in. The pick set in the car is there more by happenstance than anything else. The point wasn’t to break into my house.
My 1925 rental house has bars on all the windows, so no, I couldn’t break in through a window. The bars don’t open. There is a door to the outside in the bedroom. My next-door neighbor has house keys, so does my landlord (who lives in the next block), and I have some hidden in a locked area that I can always get into.
Lots of houses on my block have bars. I figure the burglar-bar salesman must have hit the neighborhood around 1930…
When I lived in the country for 20 years, we didn’t lock the door. We did feel safe, but the thing was, the house was so isolated that a person could have stood there and manufactured a key without being seen or heard. If someone was going to burglarize the place, I’d just as soon they didn’t break any windows. As it was, we never had a speck of trouble in all that time. When I sold the house, the new owner asked for the keys, and I shrugged and said, “There aren’t any.”
I know how. It’s a two step operation. There’s a shed with a broken door. Buried among gardening gloves and dandelion diggers and whatnot are some obsolete keyrings but one of those keys will work one of the doors to the house although technically it isn’t the correct key. Sloppy lock.
