Home Security On my mind again

[pennwalk]

Erik, I don't know what this means, but I asked the locksmith about bumping and he said it is a lot harder than it looks. They have bump resistant locks which probably cost more. I have seen those videos too and it sure looks easy. Do they have bump keys for all the different locks? Wouldn't the bump key have to fit into the lock to start with? As I understand it you are trying to slow the bad guy down so he gets scared or nervous and moves on.

Chris

 

[pennwalk]

The police arrested a 16 year old boy who lives in the condos on the back side of the hill we live on. The boys dad had to turn his son in. Talk about tough duty. I guess if the Police arrested the boy they have good reason to believe he was the one. Very sad all around. The reports are on WGAL and Lancasteronline if you want to read about it.

Chris

 

[RoyJackson]

This should be interesting...

 

[dmccarty]

Jack,

The golden is a nice dog. We picked her up Saturday after returning from a short trip away from home. Her old owner kept our GSD so they had time to get aquainted which has help her move into our house. Both dogs had us up three times last night to go outside.... Not real happy about the lack of sleep but the GSD generally has gotten me up 2:00ish since the day I brought her home as a puppy. But three times in one night is too much.

Sorry to hear your IW only lasted 6 years. That was the number that was in my head for how long they lived. Six years is just not long enough...

I have never used a laser sight. I don't know of any local PD or SO that issues them to any officer with the exceptions of SET/SWAT members. My guess is that its too expensive to retrofit the lasers into existing holsters, its expensive to buy the lasers in the first place, it adds time/money to constrained training budgets, and its one more thing to break at the wrong time.

Even in pitch dark, at close ranges, its very easy to hit a target with just a wee amount of training with or without a flashlight. We leave task lighting on in our kitchen so we have light when we have to get up in the middle of the night. Its flouresent lighting that has been running for 30 months 24x7. Cost pennies to run. Those lights, while muted and low, provide enough illumination to make anyone in the house visible. Flashlight is not even needed.

About the murders in PA. Sure is a strange story. Lots unanswered questions.

Later,
Dan

 

[AlanB]

I am sure most thieves do not do it, but when they came out and replaced my windows, it literally took the guy about 1 minute to pull the window out and set it on the ground.

He had a 1" wood chisel and a standard hammer. It was reasonably quiet, and quite quick.

Kind of made me think back to what someone posted earlier, locks keep honest folks out.

 

[Soundguy]

Have you ever seen the locksmith drive out to a parking lot to help someone with their locked vehicle.. walk over and open the door in 10 seconds with a slim jim.. I've seen it enough to also believe the locks/honest phrase.. etc..

Soundguy

 

[swiftboot]

This thread was started re: Pa murders. Of course all are presumed innocent, however; in this scenario it appears all the locks, alarms and lights availble would not have prevented this horrible scene. I must add tho, that if the homeowner was armed with a gun concealed on his person, this may have had different results.

 

[MossRoad]

Have you ever seen the locksmith drive out to a parking lot to help someone with their locked vehicle.. walk over and open the door in 10 seconds with a slim jim.. I've seen it enough to also believe the locks/honest phrase.. etc..

Soundguy

Agreed. Back in High School, a friend was given a car by his grandpa. Only grandpa didn't have a trunk key. We drove to a locksmith. Old guy with gnarly hands and a hunched back. He walked out to the car, looked at it, opened a leather pouch, took out two pieces of spring steel. One was straight and one was bent like an allen wrench. He used the bent one to put some rotational pressure on the lock cylinder and took the straight one and in one motion slid it in and out. The lock went click and turned open and the trunk popped up. It took longer for him to get his tools out of his pocket than it did to pop that lock. He then showed us how locks worked by taking the lock out and disassembling it. He showed us the pins and how the key lines them up. He made us a new key and off we went.

Using that one lesson, I have successfully picked many a lock with paper clips... one bent to put pressure on the cylinder and another bent with a tooth to push the lock pins. It takes me a few minutes, but I get the job done. File cabinets, lockers, desk drawers etc... are the easiest. Good quality locks are tough, though, and I haven't been very successful on them. It would be faster and easier to bust the door frame rather than picking the lock.

Anyone remember those expensive bicycle locks with the round keys that were supposed to be the best you could buy until a couple years ago when someone took a plastic ball point pen tube, shoved it in the round lock, spun it around a couple times and popped the locks? Unbelievable, but true!
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Penjacking

 

[Soundguy]

Yep.. At work sometimes for fun I bend up a few paper clips.. one for a tension bar and hte other for a pic.. and sometimes spend my time inbetween work to pop master locks and similar padlocks open.. not very hard.. just takes a little patience.

Depending on t he lock style.. there are many ways to open them.. Shim picks work good on some shackle style locks.. some cheaper bik cyl locks that have the number dials on them can be opened by putting hte lock in tension and spinning the dials till you feel pressure... then going to the next dial.. etc..

Locks are just for honest people... as was stated..

Soundguy

 

[pennwalk]

This thread was started re: Pa murders. Of course all are presumed innocent, however; in this scenario it appears all the locks, alarms and lights availble would not have prevented this horrible scene. I must add tho, that if the homeowner was armed with a gun concealed on his person, this may have had different results.

Swiftboot, I believe that the doors at the Haines house were not locked, I'm not sure if anyone in the family was prepared to defend themselves from a murderous attack. I think just having the doors locked would have saved our neighbors. I have been thinking about it and I have come to the conclusion that to have a basic level of security you need several layers of security. That would include basic physical security of the house. Locked doors and windows. Some motion activated outside lighting is helpful. Something to wake you up if someone gets through your doors or windows. Some way to defend yourself if confronted by an intruder in your home. Pepper spray, tazer, baseball bat, big mag light, or firearms. To make use of any weapon you definitely need training and continued practice and you need your head screwed on right. A lot of the reason that the the right to have weapons is under attack is people who are not in control of themselves. People should be sure that they can use weapons responsibly. I know that the guns shops around here have been selling a lot of guns and I'm not sure it is a good thing. People ought to check their heads and get the training or leave weapons alone.

Chris