A former coworker was trapped in her own garage for one day, until one of her daughters got home from school. I have tried to figure out how this could even happen. General consensus at my office was it DIDN’T happen and she just wanted the day off work…
I just threw that in there. The real point of this reply is that a friend of ours who is an “artist” had a small house, used for awhile as a rental property, and then for awhile as a studio, which he made into a conceptional art project. He had various things inside, lots of hidden motion- and sound-activated cameras, and put a little “welcome” sign on the front sidewalk and hung the keys to the house on it. The idea being to see who picked up the keys and how they interacted with the house once they “broke” in.
Apparently every single person who walked by the house during that time thought it must have been some kind of trap. He thought he would at least get either some homeless type or some horny teenagers but, nope.
Without having seen the dormitory you’re talking about, I can’t give a definite answer. But I’ll tell you how I would design the system.
First, I wouldn’t suggest electromagnetic locks in that situation. I’d use electric strikes instead. Electromagnetic locks are a very different thing from electric strikes. EM locks are relatively large, about the size of a small loaf of bread, and they are surface mounted on the inside of the door, at the top near the jamb. They don’t use a latch at all. A strike, on the other hand, is a small metal plate (smaller than a TV remote) attached to the door frame which gives the latch something to push against. Most entry locks have a latch which is designed to engage a strike plate. But an electric strike has a solenoid which allows the back side of the plate to open up and let the latch swing free. Electric strikes can be set to either Fail Safe or Fail Secure. In this case, I’d want them Fail Secure. I would suggest that the inside of the door would have a standard panic bar attached to a latch which is holding the door closed against an electric strike. When a resident swipes a card, the card reader would release the electric strike, allowing the door to swing outward even though the latch is still extended. I would also hook up an Uninterruptable Power Supply to the card reader and electric strike. When the power goes out, the UPS kicks in for 90 minutes or so. If the power outage continues, the strike eventually fails in SECURE mode. After that point, no one can use the card reader to enter the building. But anyone who is inside could still get out by pushing on the panic bar which would retract the latch. When they let go of the bar, the latch would spring out, and when the door swung shut it would again be secure. Anyone who pulled on the door handle from the outside would find that the latch is holding it closed. When there is no power, the only way to open the door is from the inside. If you’re outside and you want in, you’d have to ask someone on the inside to open the door for you. Or wait until the power comes back and then swipe your card.
I believe these are electric strikes. I’ve seen nothing the size of a loaf of bread. They removed or rekeyed the lock cylinders. The handles and keyholes are still there, but keys do not work. I’ll forward your suggestions, but I’ll probably get another shit eating grin.
Thanks!
Doing a quick scan of the thread, was wondering if anyone else caught this. Did you notice when the cop arrived, the only thing keeping the cop from getting locked in to, was the burglar laying on the floor with the door hitting his legs? Seems like the burglar could have lifted his legs, locked in the police officer, and still got away, he still wasn’t even in handcuffs. Perhaps there was another cop on the other side too, but if so, he’s not shown.
Clearly if someone is going to use one of these burglar traps, they need to kill the perp – by waiting for him to starve or using some more immediately lethal method – then dispose of the body. Problem solved.
