No, i don’t mean “how heavily armed is your apartment”, rather, how far do you live from the local law enforcement/fire station?
my apartment is about 3 minutes (worst case) from the town police and fire departments, and my next-door neighbor is a volunteer fireman, i think i’m safe
what the heck, lets do the armed thing as well, just for kicks
i have in my apartment, the following things that can be used as weaponry;
(from least to most dangerous)
my pet “attack” tarantula
my 6 D-cell Mag Lite
a 12" dagger
my paintball marker (Tippmann Custom 98 with expansion chamber and 16" and 8" barrels)
Ruger Mark II Target .22
Taurus 669 .357 Magnum revolver
Mossberg 500 12-gauge pump
Parker VH 12 gauge side-by-side
i use the firearms for target shooting at the local rod and gun club, when they’re in the apartment they’re unloaded and stored safely out of reach of kids (of which i have none, nor want any) just in case Mom comes up to visit with my 2 yr old nephew, he’s too smart for his own good and i dont want him knowing i have firearms, he’s still far too young to learn firearm safety (aside from “leave it alone and find an adult” that is)
We have four ravenous attack kitties and two deadly baby attack turtles.
Of course, we also have police and fire stations very close by, and according to the FBI, we live in the second safest town in America (pop. +75,000). So I feel pretty good about living here.
Well, since Harvey the Attack Hamster died, all we have is 2 fraidy-cats
No police station anywhere in town, but there is always a sherriff car or two driving around. Fire Department is about a mile away. Hospital is only 4 blocks away.
And we’re across the river from the Tornado warning siren.
My apartment is very safe, I think. It’s about 1/4 of a mile from the nearest police station.
Also, there are heat-activated fire sprinklers in every room and closet, four smoke detectors (this is a one bedroom apartment with a den), and a separate whole building fire alarm should things really get out of hand in the building.
Yeah, I don’t really worry about burning up in my sleep or anything.
We’re two minutes from the local fire station, and about the same from the nearest police “substation”. The nearest actual police station is about 10 minutes away.
But I think our two 50+ pound dogs provide more protection than anything else.
EnginNerd is blessed to be in a sprinklered occupancy.
Test your smoke detectors, now. If you don’t have one on every level of your dwelling, you’re underprotected. Better yet, have one inside each sleeping area.
Have you practiced an escape drill with your family? What do you do if the stairway is blocked by heavy smoke or fire?
Do you have a plan to get out when things turn ugly? If not, you’re likely going to become a statistic.
I live in a 530 square foot one-bedroom apartment with a wired-in (no battery, so it never goes dead) smoke alarm that will go off whenever I cook bacon unless I open all the windows and turn on the living room fan. Outside on the balcony there is a large fire extinguisher in a case on the outdoor wall.
The cops are less than five minutes away, but they’re always cruising around here because there’s a major intersection, like, 60 yards away - take a left out of the parking lot of my building, you’re at the traffic light, and it’s a good place to catch speeders. We also have our very own patrol car that comes and rides through all the parking lots of the complex to check on things.
There are two major hospitals in town, reachable with less than a ten-minute drive in all but the worst rush-hour traffic.
I keep a gun in the house, but it is useless for defense. It is an archaic flintlock pistol (single-shot muzzleloader), and although I have shot and patches on hand, I keep the (highly explosive) powder in Gunslinger’s shed, out in the country on the other side of town, so it cannot be made to fire without a ten-minute drive to pick up the powder and a minimum of 30 seconds per shot to measure and reload. As it stands, my pistol is useful only as a club (although it’s VERY handy at that; it has prodigious heft).
Yeah, I have 2 Fraidy-Cats, too. Not much use in case of burglars.
I do have Molly the Wonder Dog, though. She’ll drool them to death.
We’re probably less than two minutes from the combination fire station and police station, running lights and sirens.
We have several smoke detectors - one in the kitchen, one in the living room, two in the basement and one in each bedroom; my husband is a volunteer firefighter, so we’re prepared. We also have two fire extinguishers.
As for guns, we have two hunting rifles. Again, not much use against burglars. Just one shot. BOOM! “Wait, I have to reload!”
And unless said burglars are ‘the broad side of a barn,’ I have no hope of hitting them. I’m a lousy shot.
We had two break-ins in one week’s time. They took all the good stuff: CDs, knives, leather jackets, beer, cigs, the change bucket. Now we have a security system. I don’t feel we need it, but the ol’ man is happier with it.
We have a bunch of guns (all locked in a combination/key safe…couldn’t get in quickly if my life depended on it).
A bunch of knives (all but a couple are locked up and virtually inaccessible to me).
Four cats that would not only open the door for an intruder, but they’d probably pour drinks and hand them the remote.
We are 1.5 mi. from the fire dept. and 1 mi. from the police. Unfortunately, we’re unincorporated, so the cops won’t come to our house…they dispatch the sherriff and he’ll take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to show up. The fire dept can (and has) serviced us in short order.
About 6-7 blocks from the fire department and police station, and the nearest hospital is a couple more blocks further away. (However, I’d prefer not to go to that hospital unless going to another, more distant one would be too great of a risk.) Smoke detector in our house that detects both the flare-up fires and the slow, smouldering ones. Plug-in carbon monoxide detector.
As for being “armed” - various sharp kitchen knives, a couple of swords, a couple hardwood practice “swords” that are still good at breaking bones, a couple butterfly knives. Ferrets that would… erm, nevermind. Small dog in the upstairs apartment that serves as a good early warning system. Very strong husband with a high pain tolerance, and sleeps lightly.
Best of all - we’re the poorest-looking house in our neighborhood, so you’d have to be pretty desperate to break in here.
We live 3 1/2 blocks from the police station… which is convienently located next to the only bar in town! The firestation located on beside the police station so it’s just as close.
We have smoke detectors in the bedrooms and throughout the house and I have a carbon monoxide detector as well. Fire extinguisher is located in the laundry room which is right by the kitchen. We also have deadbolt locks and chain locks on the front and back doors.
As for protection… we have a vicious Jack Russell terrier that would bark at any intruder and promptly piss on the floor and run away and hide. We have a handgun and several rifles and shotguns in the closet… locked in the gunsafe but easily accessible if we needed them. There are also knives in the kitchen and I have a lot of heavy shit (knick-knacks and such) sitting all around the house that I could throw at someone and render them unconscious if need be.
The town I live in is large enough to have its own police department, but it doesn’t, and it has grown to the point that it needs one. Instead, the county sherriff just has an office staffed by a few patrolman out where I live. The office is about two miles away and I usually see the police driving around, so I feel pretty safe in spite of the limited police presence we have here. The fire station is also in the same area as the police headquarters, but it used to be right across the street from the entrance to the townhouse complex I live in.
As for safety within my house, there’s a smoke/fire alarm at the top of the stairs, and I know it works since it will go off when there’s too much smoke from the kitchen. There are no guns in my house but there are a few kitchen knives, and I keep a baseball bat underneath my bed. I always make sure the doors are locked each night and of course every time I leave. In fact, I keep them locked any time I am home just to be safe. I have two cats, no dogs, so I can’t really rely on the pets other than to meow and alert me to suspicious activity outside the windows. I’ve lived where I am at for nearly seven years and I am not aware of any burglaries, car break-ins or other crimes ever happening in my immediate neighborhood.
Let’s see. I don’t know where the nearest actual Police station is to me, but there’s the massive Police training college 5 minutes drive away. The Fire station’s just up the road.
In house armaments:
• a short sword
• a heavy metal bar that used to be a rail in a wardrobe
• my bad self
• biscuit cannon
No animals, but i’m thinking about getting a white tiger that could be fairly handy when it comes to house invasion time, which would appear inevitable at some point.
Hm. I’m about two miles, roughly, from the nearest fire station. (A ‘mini’ station: the kind with one medium-small truck, a small truck, and an ambulance tucked in by the small truck. The type of station that’s meant to take care of small stuff, or keep larger stuff from getting too out of hand before backup arrives.)
The closest regular police station/substation is… Hm. Five miles, I belive. There is also the University cops that are about two and a half miles away, give or take (not much further past that ‘mini’ fire station). They’re full fledged police officers, not glorified security guards, and they have permission to respond to incidents close-by.
Usually though, there’s a cop about… oh… less than a mile away, manning a speed trap. (There are two places I know that they will hang out at. One seems to be a spot they chose since they can do other kinds of work while checking their radar. The other is for a more ‘offical’ speed trap where there will be two or three, with one spotting and the other(s) grabbing.)
As for the house itself:
[ul]
[li]None of the windows are attractive to theives. Either they’re painted shut, too small, or too inaccessable for speed/quietness.[/li][li]Yard-working stuff and car stuff are in areas that aren’t visible from outside the property.[/li][li]There is one anal-retentive obsessive-compulsive kitty cat who has been known to hiss and growl at strangers when she belives They Are Up To No Good ™ from the safety of the house. I have no clue what she’d do if such a person actually got in.[/li][li]Lots of doggies nearby, including ones in the yard next door that cover the most vunerable approach to the house.[/li][li]Lots of things in the house that could serve as a decent weapon in a pinch, and a few that are meant to be weapons (and have been used as such in the past). A few daggers (RenFaire type), a bayonet (this one was used, back in the late 1800’s and is still a deadly item today even if it isn’t sharp), dance swords, heavy furniture, etc.[/li][li]And the best? Neighbors that keep an eye for for odd stuff, and won’t hesitate to come out and see what is going on. Combine this with unpredictable schedules (for us, and our neighbors), and it is a nightmare for people trying to case the place for a good time to ‘drop by’. [/li][/ul]
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I live ca. 1 km from a large compound shared by the state ministry of the interiour, the “LKA” (state FBI-surrogate) and the state police headquarters. That should be enough to handle anything that is likely to threaten me in my peaceful neighborhood.
We have two cops in our apt complex, and we live on the third floor.
We are less than a mile from the fire department, and two to two and a half miles from the Police Shed.
The hospital is a mile away.
The Makarov is holstered near the bed, magazine in pouch on holster (wife not comfy with magazine inserted, I had a round in the chamber before she moved in).
My wife is almost as good a shot as I am.
I have a Marine Officer’s Sword in the closet, blade not sharp, but plenty pointy.
There is a cricket bat somewhere, as well.
Don’t make me angry. You would not like it when I am angry.
I could literally hit the nearest police station with a thrown rock, pretty close (not that I’d try. Two less than ferocious attack cats, one four foot barbarian sword, a small one handed battle axe, and a fairly potent pellet gun round out my arsenal. I used to own a glock but I sold it years ago. Never felt right having it and other less than savory substances around, cops would have a field day if something bad happened.
Here, the local police and fire station are about 5 mins away. As for security, people around this area rarely lock their doors or even draw their blinds at night and no, we don’t have any weapons in the house. We do however, have two killer papillons.
