A home security system (and advertise that you have one through signs)
A dog.
Keep the outside of your house well-lit. If you live in an apartment, keep the hallway well lit, and talk to the landlord to make the front entrance well-lit.
Always keep the door locked.
Neighborhood watch/know the resident busybodys.
A dog.
A dog.
A home security system and a dog.
Assuming you can have a dog, nothing beats a dog. Almost any kind of dog will do (as long as it’s the barking kind). A pair of dogs is even better.
Yes. Guns are a highly sought after theft item. Advertising would be a big mistake. The alarm is a good idea and lets you know when to get your gun out.
I live in a valley way, way up in the mountains. Everyone around here owns guns. And most of us have dogs.
All of our homes are cracker boxes to robbers. There is just no way around it unless you want to live in a safe without windows. If my wife and I went away for a month, you could rent a bulldozer, clean the lot, carry away the debris and we would not know until we got home. Break a window, force a door? It’s a laugh.
Frankly, I don’t think any robber wants anything to do with people that know how to self sustain and protect themselves. It has very little to do with locks.
I’m not sure if this was intended to be a thread about firearms, but anyway, I recall reading that the majority of home invasions take place while the occupants are awake; that the bad guys typically gain entrance by convincing the occupant to open the door for them.
So probably the single most important thing to do is not to open the door for strangers and to teach your family members to do the same. If the person knocking on the door claims to need some kind of emergency assistance, you tell them to wait while you call 911 for them. Even if the person knocking on the door seems harmless, there could be a few thugs waiting to jump you.
I do agree that having a dog and a firearm can be useful. The problem is that a dog is a lot of work and a lot of people feel uncomfortable keeping a loaded firearm, easily accesible around if they have children. I’m pretty confident that my own children would not screw around with a gun, but I am not so sure about any friends they might have over.
So my non-expert advice is to keep a cell phone handy. I would guess that with your heart pounding at 120, it’s about as easy to call 911 on a cell phone as it is to grab the automatic pistol out of your nightstand and rack the slide.
Any experts out there, please feel free to correct me.
Best way , ask an ex thief. I worked with a guy who gave me a lesson in which windows were the safest and how to burglar proof your home. He knew so much, I asked him how he knew. He admitted he had a mis- spent youth and used to B&E . He knew which homes were the hardest to break into.
He said you could beat a dog if you were forced to, but they are after money not challenges. They would skip a home with a loud dog.
I doubt is. Careful criminals aren’t going to be doing home invasions in the first place. A careful criminal would be sneaking in at night or when you are away. If anything, a sign like you describe sounds like it would attract gang initiations or other criminals who want to prove their bravery. All you are doing is warning them they should shoot first.
My guess would be that choosing what neighborhood to plunk your house down in is going to be the aspect which most affects the rate of intrusions.
Overall this seems like it would have been better as a GQ thread. I’m sure there are surveys which review the effectiveness of various things like pet ownership, gun laws, neighborhood, alarm systems, fake alarm systems, etc.
It’s definitely not a good idea to advertise that you have a gun in your house… you could end up dead like this mother and son in Dale City, VA, who were recently killed by their own gun, after the son’s classmate broke into the house to steal the gun, and was confronted by the mother and son, and killed them to avoid identification. The killer knew there was a gun in the house because years before, the son showed it to him or another friend (unclear). So the guy breaks in the house with the sole purpose of stealing it, and ends up murdering the mother and son with their own gun. News links here and here.
I asked a cop this once, when I lived in a fairly bad neighborhood. His advice: Get a gun, and get a dog.
I got a dog.
I have no problems with gun ownership, and have owned them, and I’m a good shot. But at the time I also had small children. I figured locking up the guns to the extent that the kiddies couldn’t accidentally get hold of them would make them inaccessible to me in an emergency, too.
Along with the Beware of Dog sign on the door, I had another sign just inside that said, “These Premises Protected By Highly Specialized Guard Cat!”
No further problems.
When I moved to a better neighborhood, I lived next door to an ex-cop. He had all kinds of signs on his windows. “This home guarded by Smith & Wesson,” and “Nothing on these Premises is worth your life!” and that ilk.
It’s funny that I forgot this. We’d been living there about two years when ex-cop and his son, who had boomeranged back for a few years, heard something in the alley at about three a.m. They went out to check, and as they were opening the gate, the ex-cop (not as agile as he used to be) shot himself in the thigh.
Don’t know if they’re still around, but I recall reading of a Brazilian company that trained and sold guard jaguars. “Intruders enter, but they do not leave” was their slogan.
Pretty much. But with diminishing returns. Most people that live in rural areas are armed to some degree. Some are armed to the teeth. Be it for hunting, varmint control, protection or fun. I suspect that even the stupidest criminal understands that.
Now you’re just being silly. Criminals aren’t going to go out of their way to invade a home in which they know a gun-owner to be present; they are, after all, a cowardly (and superstitious) lot.
How about a squad car in the driveway? Bad guys might think the cops are already there and stay away.
Buy a Ford Crown Vic that’s in decent shape, install some red and blue lights in the grill and back window to give it the “unmarked” squad look. Buy a used radar gun on Ebay and install it on the dash.
The reason I bring this up is, some departments allow officers to take their squads home. All Wisconsin State Troopers do. I wonder if theres any statistic regarding break in’s for those officers homes.
What is a potential burglar thinking when he sees a squad car in the drive way? Maybe “there’s someone in the house that’s armed, trained with those arms, and has the authority to arrest me. They also can get 30 of their best friends to show up faster than the average person can calling 911”.
