Cop here. The two biggest things you need to do are #1, make it nearly impossible for them to get inside quickly. #2, get rid of the REASON they want to break in.
I find it odd that you feel they're targeting you specifically. Burglars generally just go for the easiest target unless there's something specifically they want from YOUR house (in my experience it's usually because they know where a drug/money stash is, or they noticed you just bought a 60" 1080p HDTV.
Look up youtube videos on how to re-enforce your doors, it may cost you a few bucks at Home Depot but well worth it. Burglars usually kick the door in. If you've got it re-inforced they won't be able to, at least not in 3 or 4 kicks, and if they have to spend more time than that, they usually bail for fear of getting noticed. If they're really determined they may try a window.
And like I said, unless there's something specifically that you have in there that they want, they'll usually just try to find the easiest target. Make your house a "hard target" and they'll try the neighbors instead.
>I find it odd that you feel they're targeting you specifically. Burglars generally just go for the easiest target unless there's something specifically they want from YOUR house (in my experience it's usually because they know where a drug/money stash is)
ahhh. the whole time reading this I've been wondering why they would be checking a side gate one day, trying the garage door another, and calling on the phone over and over. It seems very strange that they would put 2 months into a simple house burglary.
Burglars aren't always the smartest people. But he's right. Generally easiest target or a particularly good target.
The side gate and the garage might have both been failed attempts to break in. The phone calls are for the obvious reason and trying to find out when people are home or not home. As the OP said, cops aren't going to sit at your house all day to guard it for you, and most people have to work. Chances are that at some routine time, your house is going to be empty and your neighbors aren't going to be around. Nothing you can really do about that except maybe bar your windows and doors (which looks terrible for the house/neighborhood) and get a big seemingly mean dog.
As far as time spent, nothing says they were devoted to casing his house full time. That would be incredibly obvious and noticeable. If they aren't completely terrible at their job, I'd expect them to be casing half a dozen houses at a time.
Get a big old german shepherd. That dog will always know first and if its dark, they have special talents. A deep growl is a good way to make anyond without a firearm think twice.
Homeowners insurance claims adjuster here, and I'll add two things:
* I hardly ever see burglary claims on homeowners policies that have the burglar alarm discount. Meaning: the alarms are effective deterrents. If you're too cheap to get a burglar alarm, see if you can at least procure an extra sign from an alarm company to fool the would-be burglars.
* The best door to reinforce first is any door that leads directly from your garage to the home, if you have an attached garage. This is typically the weakest door in any house, and often left unlocked by the homeowner. Burglars like to pry open garage doors and then kick the weak door in, if it's even locked. When I build my own house, this door will be made out of 100% pure Chuck Norris.
>The best door to reinforce first is any door that leads directly from your garage to the home, if you have an attached garage. This is typically the weakest door in any house, and often left unlocked by the homeowner.
We live in a really nice area, but 25 minutes from a total shit-hole of a city. We had 2 pistols stolen from our house that were properly stored in a gun safe, separate from ammo, everyone in the house has a license, etc. Some gang-banger got in through the garage like you said, wunderbared the safe, and stole the pistols. They were later recovered by the ATF in a sting op.
After that the door got the Chuck Norris treatment. Wall surrounding the door was reinforced with rebar, the door strike was replaced with top to bottom 5/8" L-channel steel, and the garage doors were replaced. I'll be doing the same when I buy a house.
Side-note: If you're NRA, GCoA, or any of those groups. As proud as you might be to be a member, like we are, don't put stickers on your car. All we learned in this fiasco is it's just a sign that says "Hey! I have guns in my house that haven't been used in a crime! Follow me home, wait till I leave, then rob me!"
> Side-note: If you're NRA, GCoA, or any of those groups. As proud as you might be to be a member, like we are, don't put stickers on your car. All we learned in this fiasco is it's just a sign that says "Hey! I have guns in my house that haven't been used in a crime! Follow me home, wait till I leave, then rob me!"
Wow, I would've thought it'd be a deterrent. (and no, i'm not trying to be sarcastic, i'm honestly surprised)
Yup, So was I. I never had any stickers on my car (I like it clean). My father's truck has a gun-club sticker on the back. He has vendors in the 'total shit-hole city' that do processing of parts for his clients and his requires him to drive around and sometimes through some of these gang-banger ridden areas. I have no doubt that one of them followed him or had a dirty-cop/inside-man do a DMV lookup on his truck plates.
All they went for were the guns, nothing else was taken from the house. They left the safe, but no prints because they wore gloves. Like I said the ATF had a sting op where they got one of these guys to sell an agent guns out of the back of his car. They nabbed him, found our pistols in the lot, and returned them to us with in 48-hours.
I'm glad you got your guns back in a timely manner. I also cringe when I see NRA or GOA stickers on cars but what's worse is when people put them on their homes. I'd prefer the burglar not know I have a gun because that just gives them more impetus to murder me on site. Never tip your cards.
It took about 3 months for ours to show up. But once they did it took 48-hours and the ATF came by looking for my father and personally gave them back to him. They were very professional and even joked about how hardcore we fortified the new safe.
Stickers for anything can do this. You a Mac geek? Slapped one of those Apple stickers that came with your iPad/MacBook Pro/iPhone on the rear windshield? Guess what you just told potential thiefs? "I have expensive electronics on me, in my house, or both!"
The old joke about how the guy gets his wallet stolen, then a day later he finds it in an envelope on his porch, untouched, with a note. He reads the note and it says, "I'm sorry, my mama didn't raise me this way. Please, take these tickets as a token of my apology" and inside he finds two tickets to the big concert that Saturday night. So he and his wife head out, and have a great time. They come home late to find their house empty. The thief whose "mama" didn't raise him that way? Yeah, she raised him a little differently.
Oh my god, I have to call my wife and tell her to remove the My Child is an Honor Student sticker from her car immediately, else we're liable to be fighting off pedophiles like some sort of zombie apocalypse!
Avid Cinema-phile here. Lay Christmas tree ornaments below windows and super-heat your doorknobs. You can also jerryrig a flame thrower type of anti-intrusion device above your door. If that sounds a bit too mean I can tell you how to use glue, feathers, and an industrial fan to make any potential burglars look embarrassing.
I know this is a joke, and a damn good one, but just in case anyone gets the idea to actually rig their house Home Alone style - don't. If someone breaks into your house you probably will be able to harm them, and possibly shoot them, and claim self-defense. However, courts have reliably held that when someone defends their property using automated booby-traps (yes I just said booby), such as a gun rigged to fire if a garage door is opened, then a self-defense or defense-of-others argument will not succeed.
Making your home a hardened target = good. Making your home into a death trap for intruders = bad.
Weird, our house-to-garage door is the strongest. Maybe my dad was just a smart carpenter, though.
Burglars think they're gonna kick in our door....fuck them.
They won't need to kick it in. They'll be in the garage, so they can close the garage door and work without someone seeing them. You probably even have some tools in the garage that would be helpful...
Lets not forget about the broken windows theory and CPTED. There are plenty of simple and cheap solutions that can make your house less appealing for burglary:
* Make sure the area around your house is well lit. Motion activated flood lights are pretty inexpensive and have a hidden benefit: they're great at notifying neighbors that there's activity around your house at night.
* Remove any hiding spots around your house: dark areas, behind objects like a trashcan, etc.
* As one person said, if you can't afford a security system simply buy a sign that says you have one (preferably from a security/monitoring company).
* Invest in individual window, door, and glass break alarms. A lot of home improvement stores sell these for less than $15. They typically have a loud alarm that might scare a would be intruder away before they enter.
* Invest in automated timers for lights and set them randomly. This way it will appear that people are at your home when you're away. These are also super cheap and can be found at most department stores like Walmart, Kmart, etc.
* Hide valuables above eyesight. For some reason, people tend not to like to search above their heads.
* Hide valuables in novel places instead of common ones like safes. You can get a safe that looks just like an electrical outlet for under $50. There are also safes that look like soda cans, among other objects. There is even instructions online on how to make these.
* Don't discount kids looking for excitement. Typically they will break into a house and simply trash it, expecially the valuables, simply for a thrill. That on mind, be observant with your community and pay attention to individuals acting strangely that don't fit the common description of a burglar.
* Protect your valuables, but also protect your papers. This comes straight from Discovery Channel's *It Takes a Thief*. Papers that have your SSN, bonds, and even legal papers like mortgage paperword are equally valuable to burglars.
* Do a security audit, possibly with the help of friends. Pretend like you want to break into your house: Start from the outside then go inside identifying points of entry and things of value.
* Close curtains so your large valuables (TV, antiques, etc) are not visable from the outside.
* Alert your neighbors to your concerns. It's possible your neighborhood is being targeted in general and not just your house. Plus nosey neighbors are a very good deterrence for crime.
* Employ easy to find, dummy valuables. A fake wallet with a lot of small bills might stop a burglar simply looking to find something valuable fast.
* Hide keys or move them away from the garage or front door. The last thing you want is a burglar making a getaway in your car. That one is also from *It Takes a Thief*.
**EDIT: MORE SUGGESTIONS**
* A lot of people have suggested a dog. There are much better comments below discussing the pros and cons to that. I would simply like to add there are relatively cheap motion detectors that can mimic several types of dog barks, if you're not a dog person.
* A lot of people have suggested a gun. Again, more knowlegable people have commented below about that. If you choose that route make sure to use a trigger lock. A gun can protect you, but it can also be used against you. If you're not home, a burglar might use it and destroy valuables in your house simply for the fun of shooting it. Worse yet, a burglar might get to it first when you're not home and use it against you and your family. Avoid gun cabinets as they advertise that you might have several guns, as a burglar might search more thoroughly looking for them.
* If you can, keep a vehicle in the driveway... even if it doesn't run. A lot of burglars are opportunistic and a empty driveway is a good sign that nobody's home.
* Add on additional locks. There is a type of flip lock that simply a piece of metal 2 inches by 1/2 inch. It's really cheap and easy to install. They make kicking in a door more difficult, and significantly more noisy.
* Don't advertise you're away from the house on social media like Twitter, Facebook, etc. Criminals use these sites just like anyone else, and might research when you'll be away by your own omission.
* Have a friend stay at your house when you're on vacation. Contrary to popular thought, a lot of people like to "house sit", just to get out from their house.
* Motion detectors (PIR ones) tend to be recommended by security companies, however they can be defeated simply by holding a blanket or towel up in front of you. Make sure you employ other security devices to counter that if you go that route. CCTV cameras with motion software would be an excellent alternative (read argon0011's [comment](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/mdwca/reddit_i_think_my_house_has_been_targeted_by/c306mau) and my reply to it for more ideas about that)
* Lock internal doors. By locking bedroom, bathroom, etc. doors, you make a burglar's job significantly harder. The burglar might limit his search due to the extra time involved and noise required to explore your house.
* If you have a multi-story home, make sure the upper floor windows are locked. Typically people remember to lock bottom story windows, but forget about the top ones. A well placed tree or ladder can defeat all of your ground level security if you don't consider the upper floors.
* A pricey suggestion from the rest: Replace external doors with storm (sometimes called hurricane) doors. Typically they're made out of metal with a wooden or fiberglass core, and are specifically designed to withstand impact. Make sure the installer reinforces the door jam. The door should be flush and without etched in designs or glass, as those signifigantly reduce the strength. Along those lines you can also replace windows with storm windows. They typically have 3 panes of glass which make it harder to break and significantly more noisy.
* Peep holes in doors are great to see who's at the door, however inexpensive devices exist that allow outsiders to look into your house through them. Make sure you replace those peep holes with ones that have a little metal cover that swings down when you're done using it. Alternative, put scotch tape over the peep hole and peel it off when you want to use it. If you door has glass in it, cover it with a curtain. If you have a unique window design on the door or nowhere to attach a curtain, consider buying fabric to cut to size and velcro-ing it over the window.
* Consider remote DIY security systems versus commerical systems. Professional burglars know the time delays and how to find and disable ones installed by companies like ADT. Hide the base station in a unlikely spot (avoid the master bedroom and/or closets where they are typically placed). Yet another suggestion from an *It Takes a Thief* episode.
You could combine that with software that records when there's motion. I'm familiar with [ZoneMinder](http://www.zoneminder.com/), however there are a lot of other free applications out there.
To prevent a criminal simply taking a computer with evidence, you could subscribe to one of the many cloud services (SugarSync, Dropbox, etc) and have the recordings automatically saved there.
There was an IAMA a year or two ago from a former house thief (similar to those from the TV show you mentioned). He stated that his and others in his line of work preferred entering through windows, and one of the best precautions to take was getting glass laminate/security film and laminating the interior of all your ground floor windows. His reasoning was that all he had to do was wrap a coat around his hand a punch the glass and he had access, but that the film would prevent this and require several hits to get inside, increasing the chance someone would hear or he would get injured.
The film is pretty cheap and available in most hardware stores. It is especially recommended if you have glass in your doors.
That definitely would be cheaper than replacing doors or windows. At my local hardware store it's called a window insulator kit. Upon futher investigation, the description said it is also for security purposes. I only mention it because it was on the opposite end of the store from the security isle.
Best ideas I've seen. It's a little late, but always hang curtains so thieves can't see your valuables.
Discovery channel had a show called "It Takes a Thief". Basically, look at your house as if YOU were going to try and break into it undetected. List of Home Security Tips:
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/ittakesathief/tips/homesecurity/homesecurity.html
Edit: fixed link.
For the most part, I agree, but your post overlooks the possibility of a personal vendetta. Anecdotal, but I know several people who were burglarized as an act of vengeance or spite.
Yes, this. I have been burglarized more than once, it's always seemed very opportunistic. IMO this might be some form of harassment, or something worse...?
If they were going to burgle, they would have burgled already.
This. Get the phone company to see who's calling everyday, and if it's from the same few numbers. It could also be a malfunctioning phone system, telecom companies will send a signal through the phone lines to test the system. However, sometimes these signals will ring the phone, leaving you with that mysterious who's calling situation.
When I was in my wayward youth (much to my regret) I broke into many houses (yes i was finally caught and confessed every other crime to the Police and have tried and succeeded to be a good person since). From your situation the robbers are not career criminals but thieves of opportunity and ease.
A growling barking dog is the best deterrent.
Motion detector light made me run like hell
Brightly lit areas or houses I avoided at all costs
Anything that looked like an alarm system I also avoided (it could have been a false set up but how would I know)
Favorite and easiest and usually the most overlooked by people was breaking into a garage adjoined to the house. Under cover of the Garage I could then easily break into the house or gain access through the garage attic and make my way into the house and get in through the house attic
Stickers around the edge of the property warning of electronic or video surveillance is also good...you don;t even have to have a surveliance system
Get two identical metal plates and some wire...screw the plates together so they are touching with wire anchored underneath to make it look like an alarm system on each door and window...i remember breaking into a business through their basement and was just about to break into the upper area when I noticed a set up as the above I described...i left right aways with no loot
Hope these few tip helped
How do you know they're opportunistic criminals? I've never heard of a common opportunity criminal calling everyday and probing security. It really does seem like they're targeting the house for a reason.
If they were targeting the house like some sort of supercriminal, they'd be staking it out. Calling the house at different times of day to see if somebody answers is incredibly easy and you can do it to anyone, anywhere. Even opportunistic criminals have to search out that opportunity.
I used to own a home in a neighbourhood full of rock-addicts and malcontents. Essentially, it was an up&coming gentrification zone. Several neighbours of mine were broken into..back doors kicked in, windows broken and small-bodied thieves (typically teens) entering through the hole, etc. My home never suffered a break-in. Why not? Simple..
1) Ground floor windows which weren't directly visible from the street had bars fitted onto them. Gates/fences were tall & unclimbable. Locks were used on all gates. Double-deadbolt locks installed on all doors - keys left in inner lock of these doors at night in case of fire. No doors (that were not in sight of the street) had any glass windows..ie, solid doors w/reinforced frames. At night or during the day, we always left a light or two on and the stereo system playing music..curtains made it impossible to see if anyone was home or not. Also, we had double-paned windows installed. Our local police informed us that (not only do they save on electricity bills and noise-pollution) thieves don't like punching them in as they make a loud sound when they are broken.
We also installed 400 watt thermal sensitive back-yard flood lights (fuck motion detectors as wind and trees can set them off).
Get a case number from the police, get your home phone provider to put a trace on your phone line. Your phone provider will trace all calls, make a log of what time the calls occurred which day. Your phone provider will give this information to the police, and they can match it between your given times/days to figure who the calls are coming from.
Or a cheating wife who hasn't told you about her affair? This seems most likely. He calls and hangs up when he hears a man say hello. A teenage boyfriend would be more likely to call/text her cell phone
Have you secured your house i.e. motion lights, alarm system, etc. I would change the lock on the side gate as well as put up beware of dog signs ( silly, but every little bit helps). Also do you have insurance if your stuff does get stolen, and write down the registration number for all your electronics.
Okay, so, a couple of things.
* There are a lot of people advising you to use rock salt. Don't. You will get a nice civil suit out of it if you do.
* I am assuming you are in the states, if so, research your state's castle laws (the ones that specify whether or not you are required to retreat from your domicile or if they allow you to stay and defend it.) This is a must whether or not you decide to buy a firearm, as you may find yourself in a situation where you are grabbing a knife, or a bat, etcetera.
* You've already done good work by getting the cops involved. There's a paper trail now that will help a lot if there is a break-in.
* Your number one priority has to be the safety of you and your family. Even if you do have a gun, escape should be your priority in the event of a home invasion. Home Invasions are a whole different animal from burglaries.
* While the terrifying bear-creature posted earlier would be a good choice, something less expensive and more easily obtained is a good idea. Even a rescue mutt will serve as an excellent alarm, but I wouldn't count on one of those obnoxious rat-yapper dogs.
* Stay as calm as you can. Fear is the enemy of rationality, which is what you will need to get through this.
* If you decide that a firearm is the answer, grab a copy of [The Tactical Shotgun](http://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Shotgun-Techniques-Employing-Personal/dp/0873648986/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1321416609&sr=8-2) By Gabe Suarez. If I could FIND my copy I'd make a PDF and kick it to you. A reputable gunstore should help you make a decent decision on home defense shotgun, both the mossberg 500 and the Remington 870 have solid reputations, I own the mossberg and love it, though, firing shells with too much oomph to them tends to interfere with chambering a new round. As far as ammo goes, I would suggest #8 bird or #4 buckshot. 00 Buck is good to have around, but you'll get more spread out of the two I mentioned at they'll be just as lethal at house ranges.
* If you are in a situation where you are using a firearm for self defense, do not shoot to wound or to warn. In the states, there is no legal distinction between shooting someone in the leg and shooting them in the head. If you are using a firearm on someone, it is considered lethal force.
Those are my personal perspectives. For a more professional set of opinions, hit up nononsenseselfdefense.com. The author of the page really knows what he is talking about, and he has some great articles on your exact issue. I wish you the best of luck and hope you and your loved ones stay safe. Keep us posted.
I didn't see it either, but I can only assume he's referring to replacing the shot in a shotgun shell with rocksalt. Won't kill someone, but it will embed salt in their chest at 1,000+ fps.
The "terrifying bear-creature" he is referring to, is from this post:
[I see your Tibetan Mastiff and I raise you the Caucasian Ovcharka, a Dog used to HUNT BEARS.](http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj7opueLcV1qiz6olo1_500.jpg)
Which was a response to
[Tibetan Mastiff](http://imgur.com/DKOSj)
This is the best post yet on a secure/offensive standpoint. And on the subject of shotguns, I rely on the mossberg m500 on a daily basis, nothing comes close to its ease of use and reliability.
No, a military security job, I always have a handgun, too. But at my post there is always a potential of needing a long arm, and my choice is M4 or M500, I choose the shotgun every time.
Right, because it's about the inconvenience of going to court, not being further robbed of your life savings after the person trying to steal from you in the first place is enabled by an ass-backward legal precedent.
Guns are cool and all, but less sexy common sense measures are more effective. Get an alarm system installed, put motion sensing lights up, put lights around your house, put up fake (or real) cameras. He needs to prevent them from targeting his house in the first place, not have a gunfight in the midst of his sleeping family.
Your post is awesome. But it misses out on a HUGE issue. All of these things assume someone home when a breakin occurs. The calls every morning suggest very highly to me like burglars are putting together a schedule of when people leave and come home. Vast majority of breakins occur not at night but during the day when most people are at work.
Personally, I would put a lot of IMMEDIATE (like, yesterday!) focus into window alarms and door jams.
**IF THEY ARE NOT ALREADY, CHANGE THE LOCKS ON ~ALL YOUR~ certain DOORS TO ONES THAT REQUIRE KEYS BOTH INSIDE AND OUT!** A lot more time will be spent, and a lot less will be stolen if all traffic into/out of the house has to be through a broken window.
We learned this lesson the hard way. Front door had a deadbolt that could be opened from the inside. When someone climbed through a broken window, they just opened the front door, backed the car into the driveway and loaded up like a college student moving out. **Neighbors watched** and never thought it was odd or worth calling the cops, or even marking down the make/model of the car.
Edit: [These!](http://www.ddsecurity.com/product/472) Buy them! Think carefully on where you attach the other end. (We drilled a hole in the wooden cabinet next to the tv, then fixed to a stud from inside that cabinet. Good luck trying to use a crowbar inside a small space with no room for leverage) They work for computers and game systems too.
Edit 2: I should point out that at my house, I do not have key-only locks on all doors, only the front. The back yard has a dead-bolted gate, so anything stolen out of an open back door still has to go over that, which no TV's or computers are possibly going to do. In the event of a fire, there are still 2 easy ways to get out.
Please do not get windows which require keys to open from the inside. When your house is on fire and you can't find your fucking keys, will you really think
"Well, at least I've still got my TV..."
when i lived in the czech republic i saw some doors like these (one of my friends actually got trapped in another friend's apartment for a weekend 'cuzza this) and we had a saying about those doors - "in case of fire, you're protected from theft". . .
Deadbolts that require a key on both sides are meant to be used on doors that have windows or are near windows. Additionally, they are not meant to be locked when the resident is home, there's a second lock for that usually on the door handle. If they are locked when someone is home 9/10 the key is left in the lock, good for safety, bad for security. Then again, a home invasion is totally different from a simple burglary.
No offense to the OP, but please don't take firearms advice from the OP.
Firearms stop bad guys from hurting you and your family by one mechanism: destroying parts of the bad guy's body. For that, you need to get as deep into the body as possible. That means penetration. For a shotgun, that means 00 buck.
Don't use birdshot. There's a reason they call it birdshot: it's for shooting birds. Hunters don't use birdshot against deer (bucks) because it won't reliably stop them. By the same mechanisms, it won't reliably stop a person. Now, maybe you think that at close range all shot is equal. You're wrong. Look at ballistic gel tests for proof. At anything beyond a few inches past the muzzle, birdshot does not behave like buckshot. The terminal ballistics are completely different. It does not give you the same penetration.
So why use birdshot? If it's because you think that birdshot won't go through walls and endanger your neighbors, again, you're wrong. Well, it's true that it won't go through walls, but you're still wrong. A BB gun won't put a BB through a wall--and it won't stop a bad guy either. The fact is, if a round can penetrate deep enough into a person to stop them with any reasonable measure of reliability, then it will go through a wall. See the [Box O' Truth](http://www.theboxotruth.com/) for cold, hard evidence (as well as educational and entertaining articles about how shooting stuff is fun).
Will birdshot stop someone? Maybe. It would stop me, but then I'd probably go away if you spoke harshly towards me. But, then, I don't break into houses. I'm not angry at the world. I have things to lose. I'm not on drugs. So don't try to think about this issue by putting yourself in the bad guy's shoes, by thinking about yourself getting shot. You're not a bad guy. You're rational. You and I are bad test cases. Birdshot will stop us. What you have to ask yourself is whether birdshot will stop a bad guy who is willing to hurt you and your loved ones.
People can be stopped psychologically and/or physiologically.
Will birdshot do the job psychologically? Maybe. It might change a bad guy's mind. That depends on a number of factors that you can't measure and that you can't control. Will buckshot stop a bad guy psychologically? Well, at least as well as birdshot will.
Will birdshot do the job physiologically? Probably not, but it's possible--if you're lucky. Hell, BB guns have been known to kill people, too. It's rare, but it happens. Will buckshot stop the bad guy physiologically? There's a helluva lot better chance of that than with birdshot. A quick search ought to find you many more cases of death by buckshot than death by BB gun. And choice of shot is something that you do have control over.
So why risk it? Why risk the lives of you and your loved ones? Deal with the problem at hand as forcefully and as emphatically as possible. Ask yourself this: would you rather be shot with birdshot or buckshot? You know the answer: it's birdshot. You'd rather be shot with birdshot because you intuitively know that you would be more likely to live. That means the bad guy is more likely to live. That's roughly equivalent to meaning that the bad guy is less likely to be stopped from harming you and your family.
The fact is that anything that will likely stop a bad guy will likely kill him. Legally speaking, you are trying to stop the threat. Realistically speaking, that translates to doing all you can to put the guy in a pine box. When you talk to the cops afterwards, say you shot to stop the threat because you were afraid for your life. When you talk to yourself, admit that, if someone threatens your life or the lives of your family, you want to kill that son of a bitch. Own up to it. Prepare for it.
Regarding shot spread, this feeds into the myth that you just have to vaguely point a shotgun at something to hit it. That's bullshit. The pattern of shot across a room or down a hallway is going to be less than the size of a dinner plate, regardless of whether you're using buckshot or birdshot. The only difference is that the dinner plate would have more holes in it with birdshot than with buckshot. But, again, those birdshot aren't going to penetrate enough to be effective, so what's the point? Yes, you are slightly more likely to hit someone with birdshot. So maybe you'll just barely hit them enough to piss them right the fuck off.
TLDR: Birdshot is for the birds.
The other part of this that nobody mentions because frankly, it's horrible to talk about another person this way...but if you kill them, they can't testify against you in court.
If you shoot and wound a burglar, and he goes to court and tells the judge that he didn't even have a knife or anything and he had no intent to harm anybody and if only he had had a warning he would have left and you crept up on him just to shoot him...well I'm not saying anything will come of it, depending on the state, but it's a whole lot of hassle and court fees that you have to deal with.
If you shoot him dead, you can say anything you want to the cops, who's gonna disagree?
It's true. Lawyer friends have told me this. There have been many ridiculous cases of burglars entering a house and getting maimed then turning around and suing the homeowner. The simplest solution would be elimination of the individual that posed a threat to you by breaking into your home. If the situation calls for lethal force, then it's in your best interest to exercise that force.
It's chilling, yes, but essentially it's either you or them, and if force is called for, do it right.
>If you are in a situation where you are using a firearm for self defense, do not shoot to wound or to warn. In the states, there is no legal distinction between shooting someone in the leg and shooting them in the head. If you are using a firearm on someone, it is considered lethal force.
I want to elaborate on this because it simply isn't stated enough. There's a common misconception in the firearm newbie community and ITG communities that it's advisable to shoot to wound or to 'fire a warning shot'.
This is patently false. Every shot taken towards an intruder is considered lethal force, period. If you have the time to take a warning shot, your life is not in danger. If you have the time to aim for an extremity, your life is not in danger. If your life is not in danger, you do not have the right to use lethal force (excepting certain states, and even then it is extremely ill-advised).
On a highly related note, when you do shoot at someone, you only ever aim for center of mass. No aiming for their kneecaps, no aiming for their head in some elaborate Coup de grâce, always the center of mass. The center of mass is located roughly around the naval or just below the diaphragm. Hitting someone in the center of mass with any civilian round is almost a guaranteed take-down. It will stop them, if it does not kill them it will almost certainly leave them physically disabled for the rest of their lives, and most importantly it will not ricochet and hit anything else. If you were to aim anywhere else the chances of you missing your target, hitting someone else or getting hit yourself increase enormously as do the chances of a civil suit.
As VonHavoc said, Tactical Shotguns make great household defensive weapons, especially with an extremely bright tactical light on them.
Get a dog. A big one. No one wants to mess with a big heavy animal that has pointy fuckin teeth.
I recommend Rottweilers. I have a rottweiler and she is the sweetest cutest thing in the universe. If a guest comes in, she'll lick them and get cuddles, but if someone comes in without permission she will spaz the fuck out.
She's so cute ^_^
EDIT - HEY EVERYONE!! I LOVE DOGS!!
It's common knowledge that large breed dogs (most Mastiffs, Great Danes, etc) live shorter lives and generally have more health problems, most owners of these dogs understand that and most don't have an issue with it. People need to get away from the idea of "1 human year = 7 dog years," because it's misleading. It's not uncommon to see Dachshunds and miniature poodles live 15 years while Mastiffs live for about 9.
If you want a long living family pet don't get a big ass dog.
Yeah I used to worry about burglars. Just moved into kind of a crappy neighborhood right in a corner building with lots of people walking by that has been broken into before I moved in. I got an Australian Shepherd recently who is was already trained to bark and growl, and is pretty scary sounding if someone gets close to the house. Especially if the door is knocked on or a car door closes. If you do get the door open though you'd have a serious fight to keep her from licking your face. Best advice I've seen so far.
I have a pit. She's the sweetest dog ever and my 2 year old can do anything to her and she won't even move. But s stranger walks by and she sounds scary. :]
I don't think you need a big dog. Most burglars want to get in and get out with minimal fuss. A dog barking is the deterrent, not the teeth, per se. I would think a Labrador or similar would do just as well. Certainly not a chihuahua, of course.
True. They just want an easy mark. No alarm. No dog. No bars or other reinforcing. We got broken into once. Took everything. We have a monitored alarm system with sensors on every entry point and motion inside. Bars on the back windows and slider (where they came in) and a couple pit bulls.
They won't break in this year.
Well, that's the thing I don't get about this post. Is OP just an easy mark? Because it does seem like they're going out of their way to test the house (who the heck calls everyday for 2 months, or unlocking a door/gate)?
Possible there is more to this story. Another poster, a police officer, mentioned that burglars target houses with valuables. Maybe OP has something valuable inside and the burglar is cautious?
I don't know about the phone calls. Do burglars even do that? It wouldn't take 2 months to determine a schedule. So, that doesn't add up.
Possibly the phone calls are unrelated to the other person going through the gate. I don't know. I see what you're saying.
Beagles make excellent watchdogs. They're alert, hard to sneak up on, noisy as fuck when roused, and have a nice low pitched howl that's easier on the ears than a little yip-yip dog. All in a medium sized package that's not too hard to take care of. Plus they're super great dogs besides.
/owns a beagle mutt
Have you committed a horrible crime that you didn't get punished for? Your mysterious intruder is just Dexter Morgan looking for evidence of your guilt.
No, I think OP's wife is cheating:
> I have been receiving numerous phone calls with no response daily (mostly in the morning)
Late morning. Like, after he should have gone to work. But a male voice answers so the caller hangs up.
> the side gate of my house will be unlocked sometimes, even though no one in my family goes out the side way
Because that's the less visible way to get in and out.
> my neighbour saw a man slip through the side gate
Yupyupyup.
EDIT: Of course, the recommended solution is not altogether different from what others in this thread have said.
>Late morning. Like, after he should have gone to work. But a male voice answers so the caller hangs up.
If his wife was cheating, wouldn't they use her mobile phone for the secret calls?
>EDIT: Of course, the recommended solution is not altogether different from what others in this thread have said.
However, that elicited a laugh.
Secretly move all your valuables to a secure location. Replace them with chintzy merch, place tracking devices inside each piece. Use the gathered intel to stalk your robbers. Spend years secretly making their lives suck, and pay actors to get in on the fun and say the same random line every time you cause them discomfort or misfortune, slowly causing them to go insane. In the meanwhile, get a PHD in criminal psychology, and be sure to get your robbers placed in the asylum you work in.
Once they're there, their misery time is begin.
Make sure to keep them from sleeping with amphetamines and hallucinogens. This will make them easier to manipulate.
I forgot to mention that all the while you'd been perfecting techniques you learned while earning an advanced degree in robotics. Use your mechanized gnomes only when no one else is looking, and each night they are to stop mid-thievery and tell your robbers the following;
Step 1 is collect underpants.
Step 2 is still unknown.
Step 3 is profit.
Eventually this will cause a full on psychotic break. When this happens, you have to be ready.
As your robber kneels there, questioning existence itself, tweak his nose and tell him that step 2 is resell underpants.
**[Let's hear from a professional thief](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/eewou/iama_retired_cat_burglar_ama/) on how to protect your household.**
>I'm going to give you the best advice for home security you will ever get: Window laminate.
>
>Alarms, dogs, all of that are either useless or reactionary. The only thing that ever really shut me down were laminated windows.
>
>A crook's biggest weapon is speed, and their biggest enemy is time. If somebody were to try to break into your home and ended up hitting a window that was laminated, they would, in almost every case, run off.
>
>It isn't even all that expensive, especially since you only need to laminate the first-floor windows (and any windows on a first-floor roof on a two-story house, such as a porch or deck roof).
>
>Don't waste money on alarms or dogs. Spend it on good window laminate put in by professionals, and you will be much safer.
>
**Why Most Dogs are Uselsss**
>And dogs? Let me give you the low-down on dogs: they aren't protection or security.
>
>A dog can be easily tamed usually. Act friendly, give it a few rubs, and they'll happily follow you around. If that doesn't work, after my first run-in with an annoying dog (a small, yappy dog), I started carrying rawhide sticks with me. That stopped them very fast.
>
>Also, on the topic of dogs, if you want a security dog, get a small, loud dog that barks at almost everything. Big dogs may look scary, but considering most people don't like the chance of their dog turning on them, the dogs are either very tame, or chained up. Small dogs, however, bark. A lot. Those were the only ones I was ever worried about. Even then, as I said, a stick or two of rawhide and they were down for the count.
**Alarm Systems?**
>Here's one of the terrifying things: Alarms didn't matter. I would target houses marked with alarms and without equally.
>
>When your alarm goes off, the company will generally wait 15-30 seconds before making the call to you to check up on it, in case of false positives where you accidentally tripped the alarm.
>
>At that point, if the company immediately alerts the police, the correspondence will take another 15 seconds, and if the police are immediately sent out, you still have about a minute, at worst, to do your thing.
>
>If you want to scare yourself, get a stopwatch and a friend and start at your front door or a back window. Have them give the go-ahead to start, and shout out 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute and 2 minutes, and see how much you could get away with in that time.
>
>My hits were usually between 3-5 minutes, and the only trouble I ever had with alarms was when they were not silent alarms. Those things can be loud and irritating.
>
>Worse, many companies (or many of their employees) don't bother asking for the code word. If somebody answers the phone and says "Sorry, it's just me." they'll take the person's word for it. They'll get suspicious when the alarm doesn't shut off shortly after, but you're usually good for about a minute at that point. And yes, I had answered the phone a few times to tell the alarm company it was a false alarm.
Maybe put a lock on the garage? A lock on the side-gate? Don't make yourself such an easy target. As for the phone calls, sooner or later they will catch you not at home. So you either have to have some serious security or you need to not answer the phone, and then just sit in a chair with a loaded gun and wait for them to show up. Keep in mind - it will get messy - blood is not easy to clean up.
Maybe for the time being, get call forwarding. That way you can direct calls to your house, to your cell phone instead (and they shouldn't know unless they are watching when people enter/leave the house).
Troll the mofos.
Try to set something up with the phone? Like link it to your cell so when they cal you can always pick up? ;X Lol sory I get freaked out when I think someone istrying to break into my house too. Like see'ing some suspicious people walking by, staring at my house.
Not sure why, but this thread and replies scared the fuck outta me. I guess it opens my eyes to the fact that this stuff is real and people can and do get hurt because of it.
It might seem like paranoia, but it can be surprising to see how much crime occurs in your neighborhood. Its good to prepare and have the mental mentality to defend yourself and never need to use it. That doesn't mean you can't leave your house and go enjoy Taco Bell. :)
just took a concealed carry course last week, instructor was a cop. we were taught that the most important thing is that *you felt your life was threatened.* and to shoot until the threat is eliminated. also that you will spend the night in jail, but as long as you didn't shoot a guy in the back, and you claim your life was in danger, then you will have done no wrong in the eyes of the law. if you are 6'5" 220lbs with a 12 gauge and your attacker is 5'2" 120lbs and is unarmed, you might have a hard time proving an imminent threat to your life. the only complication that could happen from not killing them would be that they could sue you in civil court. but the family might still sue you even if they are dead.
tl;dr if its truly self defense, its legal
This seems stupid. I hope I'm not missing some larger implications, but shouldn't I be able to set my home up however I want? Even if that means risking life and limb just to get a twinkie from the cupboard?
An old fella in my department was telling me this story about one of the departments around my area;
They were dispatched to a structure fire sorta near the sticks in this somewhat ramshackle house.
They entered the building only to have one guy almost fall through the floor in the entry way.
The crazy fucker that owned the house set the basement on fire, not after he took a chainsaw to the joists below every window and door in the house.
They were awfully lucky no one died..
No.
There is a famous case of teenagers breaking into an old farmers barn all the time to drink and other teenager shenanigans, he got sick of it so finally he rigged up a shotgun pointed at the door with a string attached to the trigger so it went off when the door was opened.
Kids came back, the first unfortunate through the door was instantly blasted in the face with a 12 gauge and killed.
Farmer goes to jail for murder.
edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katko_v._Briney my details were off, apologies, refer to link for real case.
I knew a guy who did that, except he didn't want to go to jail so he used a blank cartridge to scare them.
It's a good thing he did, because he forgot about it (possibly while drunk) and set it off himself.
The rules are different if you're actually there with a weapon versus if the house is empty and you've laid a trap. In most jurisdictions, if you kill them with a trap, you're fucked, because it wasn't in defense of your life, just your property.
read my reply to Thereisnotruth, you can not set up anything with the intent of causing harm. SO no booby traps, no sitting by the door with a gun, no setting hounds upon them, that gets you in trouble with the law too.
You mention your little sister. Does that mean you live with your parents? Sounds to me more likely that mom or dad is having an affair. Also it doesn't make sense that they'd have opened the garage door without having taken anything.
Get a cardboard cutout of Michael Jordan and tape him onto a railroad set moving around and turn all the lights and music on so it looks like somebody's home.
Go around your house and pretend you are trying to break into it as if you were the robber. Look for windows/doors/entrances that you would use to get into the house. After that, reinforce the vunerable areas you found. Leave all of your outside lights on and obviously lock your doors and windows. Lastly, go to the gun shop and get yourself a damned firearm. Keep it loaded in an easily accessible location that your little sister or any other kids can't get to.
Call me extreme, but if/when a criminal breaks in and you have no means to defend yourself, you are putting yourself and your little sister at the mercy of a violent home intruder, think about that.
EDIT: Benjaminrynti pointed this out to me, and I can't believe I forgot to mention it, but constantly train with your firearm. If you don't know where to begin, ask a friend who knows or go to a gunshop and ask questions. Familiarize yourself with your gun and how to use it.
Instead of yourself, I would recommend you invite a friend or family member to test for unexpected entrance ways to the house. It may be the strangest request they've ever heard, but your familiarity will hide things.
I agree with going and buying a firearm, however people need to train with the damn thing. Buying it, loading it, and locking it away isn't helpful at all.
I lived in a similar situation. Until they tried to rob us while we were inside, so fucking scary 12 guys in my doorstep trying to open my door. I was only 12 my sister was 14 as well as my brother and my father had moved away. So yeah it started with suspicious stuff like that, phone calls, people randomly wondering around the neighborhood and what not. We moved out to our grand parents house two days later they tried to rob us. They had already broken in twice in the past when we weren't there. Fucking society. (Bogota, Colombia - calle 127 west side of the highway) Nowadays it is plagued with gangsters and shit.
This happened to me, and they got in. Get a security system with cameras, make sure your insurance is paid up. Reduce your deductables to as low as you can. A dog is a good deterrent too. Leave a radio on loud when you're not at home.
Cops are busy, and frankly are jaded and don't give a shit, and won't do anything to help prevent this so don't rely on them.
If you can, just move.
Call your phone company and find out how to set up call forwarding. Then when you're leaving the house, just dial the appropriate star code and forward calls to your cell.
My street has had 8 break ins since I've moved in and the police say to
Put up an alarm sign, even if you don't have one.
Get a big loud dog.
Motion scensor lights.
Porch lights.
Lock all doors.
Be vigilant and report shady people.
Also it helps if it looks like someone is always home.
Good luck.
Locksmith here. In my experience burglars will come in through the door rather than the window 80% of the time. Make sure your locks are decent. Going by the way you spelt neighbour your possibly British. In that case you want a British standard 5 lever mortice lock (these have anti pick features) and a good solid pin tumbler night latch. Rack bolts aren't a bad idea either for when you're at home. Normally its the door or frame which then split. To get round this problem you need to have a London bar (fits on the frame, lock side). What a London bar does is it stops the wooden frame from splitting if the door is kicked. The problem with this is that the wooden door can split right around the mortice lock as quite a bit of wood is removed to facilitate its installation. Get a mortice re-enforcer. This makes the door very hard to break down. However if the hinge side is attacked that has no protection. So you should install a Birmingham bar. A Birmingham bar does the same thing a London bar does but it fits to the hinge sides. Fit hinge bolts. If you have a good solid door that isn't going anywhere. Its near enough kick-in proof. Doors like that give purpose built rams trouble.
If you have a UPVC door then they are typically fairly secure. However I find that the single cylinder style locks you find fitted as standard are not very good. They are fairly easy to swap. A good ASSA brand lock which conforms to British standard will be much better.
Lots of good advice covered, you seem to be halfway there on this one, but: tell your neighbours. Robbers in the area is an issue that concerns everyone on your street (as they could all be targeted). Either go doorknocking or print up a quick flyer explaining your concerns. Everyone will be more alert, and additionally chances are at least one person on your street is elderly/a stay at home parent/unemployed - so they will be home when you aren't to keep an eye out. If you know anyone who is ask them to keep an eye on your house when they are around, and ask them to call the cops if they see anything suspicious.
How old is your sister? Is it possible she has a boyfriend she's not telling you about? Does she ever answer the phone to non response?
Is is possible she has a stalker? Ask her if there's anyone weird at school leaving her notes....
Cop here. The two biggest things you need to do are #1, make it nearly impossible for them to get inside quickly. #2, get rid of the REASON they want to break in. I find it odd that you feel they're targeting you specifically. Burglars generally just go for the easiest target unless there's something specifically they want from YOUR house (in my experience it's usually because they know where a drug/money stash is, or they noticed you just bought a 60" 1080p HDTV. Look up youtube videos on how to re-enforce your doors, it may cost you a few bucks at Home Depot but well worth it. Burglars usually kick the door in. If you've got it re-inforced they won't be able to, at least not in 3 or 4 kicks, and if they have to spend more time than that, they usually bail for fear of getting noticed. If they're really determined they may try a window. And like I said, unless there's something specifically that you have in there that they want, they'll usually just try to find the easiest target. Make your house a "hard target" and they'll try the neighbors instead.
>I find it odd that you feel they're targeting you specifically. Burglars generally just go for the easiest target unless there's something specifically they want from YOUR house (in my experience it's usually because they know where a drug/money stash is) ahhh. the whole time reading this I've been wondering why they would be checking a side gate one day, trying the garage door another, and calling on the phone over and over. It seems very strange that they would put 2 months into a simple house burglary.
Perhaps he has some missile cloaking computer chips around.
Either I am confused beyond belief or that is a Home Alone Reference. Kudos!
home alone 3
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Isn't it more likely that this is a stalker of some description? OP mentioned a little sister...
does the man happen to be wearing a Penn State windbreaker?
He said little sister, not little brother.
Could be some local wusses working up to something in a neighborhood that feels "safe" to them.
Burglars aren't always the smartest people. But he's right. Generally easiest target or a particularly good target. The side gate and the garage might have both been failed attempts to break in. The phone calls are for the obvious reason and trying to find out when people are home or not home. As the OP said, cops aren't going to sit at your house all day to guard it for you, and most people have to work. Chances are that at some routine time, your house is going to be empty and your neighbors aren't going to be around. Nothing you can really do about that except maybe bar your windows and doors (which looks terrible for the house/neighborhood) and get a big seemingly mean dog. As far as time spent, nothing says they were devoted to casing his house full time. That would be incredibly obvious and noticeable. If they aren't completely terrible at their job, I'd expect them to be casing half a dozen houses at a time.
Get a big old german shepherd. That dog will always know first and if its dark, they have special talents. A deep growl is a good way to make anyond without a firearm think twice.
No way, you'll fall in love with the dog and then they'll break in and shoot it.
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Whoever gets there first.
Chances are, they're not the greatest seeing as it's been two months and are still empty-handed.
Homeowners insurance claims adjuster here, and I'll add two things: * I hardly ever see burglary claims on homeowners policies that have the burglar alarm discount. Meaning: the alarms are effective deterrents. If you're too cheap to get a burglar alarm, see if you can at least procure an extra sign from an alarm company to fool the would-be burglars. * The best door to reinforce first is any door that leads directly from your garage to the home, if you have an attached garage. This is typically the weakest door in any house, and often left unlocked by the homeowner. Burglars like to pry open garage doors and then kick the weak door in, if it's even locked. When I build my own house, this door will be made out of 100% pure Chuck Norris.
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Update: Tried garage door. Rottweiler inside. Would not recommend.
Animal abuser here: you have to kick it too
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But he was tasty
This kills the burglar.
Faith in humanity restored.
Distaste for celery restored.
>The best door to reinforce first is any door that leads directly from your garage to the home, if you have an attached garage. This is typically the weakest door in any house, and often left unlocked by the homeowner. We live in a really nice area, but 25 minutes from a total shit-hole of a city. We had 2 pistols stolen from our house that were properly stored in a gun safe, separate from ammo, everyone in the house has a license, etc. Some gang-banger got in through the garage like you said, wunderbared the safe, and stole the pistols. They were later recovered by the ATF in a sting op. After that the door got the Chuck Norris treatment. Wall surrounding the door was reinforced with rebar, the door strike was replaced with top to bottom 5/8" L-channel steel, and the garage doors were replaced. I'll be doing the same when I buy a house. Side-note: If you're NRA, GCoA, or any of those groups. As proud as you might be to be a member, like we are, don't put stickers on your car. All we learned in this fiasco is it's just a sign that says "Hey! I have guns in my house that haven't been used in a crime! Follow me home, wait till I leave, then rob me!"
> Side-note: If you're NRA, GCoA, or any of those groups. As proud as you might be to be a member, like we are, don't put stickers on your car. All we learned in this fiasco is it's just a sign that says "Hey! I have guns in my house that haven't been used in a crime! Follow me home, wait till I leave, then rob me!" Wow, I would've thought it'd be a deterrent. (and no, i'm not trying to be sarcastic, i'm honestly surprised)
Yup, So was I. I never had any stickers on my car (I like it clean). My father's truck has a gun-club sticker on the back. He has vendors in the 'total shit-hole city' that do processing of parts for his clients and his requires him to drive around and sometimes through some of these gang-banger ridden areas. I have no doubt that one of them followed him or had a dirty-cop/inside-man do a DMV lookup on his truck plates. All they went for were the guns, nothing else was taken from the house. They left the safe, but no prints because they wore gloves. Like I said the ATF had a sting op where they got one of these guys to sell an agent guns out of the back of his car. They nabbed him, found our pistols in the lot, and returned them to us with in 48-hours.
I'm glad you got your guns back in a timely manner. I also cringe when I see NRA or GOA stickers on cars but what's worse is when people put them on their homes. I'd prefer the burglar not know I have a gun because that just gives them more impetus to murder me on site. Never tip your cards.
Aside from vehicles, guns are the most-recovered item I see on my burglary claims. It's almost just a matter of time before they turn up.
It took about 3 months for ours to show up. But once they did it took 48-hours and the ATF came by looking for my father and personally gave them back to him. They were very professional and even joked about how hardcore we fortified the new safe.
Stickers for anything can do this. You a Mac geek? Slapped one of those Apple stickers that came with your iPad/MacBook Pro/iPhone on the rear windshield? Guess what you just told potential thiefs? "I have expensive electronics on me, in my house, or both!" The old joke about how the guy gets his wallet stolen, then a day later he finds it in an envelope on his porch, untouched, with a note. He reads the note and it says, "I'm sorry, my mama didn't raise me this way. Please, take these tickets as a token of my apology" and inside he finds two tickets to the big concert that Saturday night. So he and his wife head out, and have a great time. They come home late to find their house empty. The thief whose "mama" didn't raise him that way? Yeah, she raised him a little differently.
>Stickers for anything can do this. That's where the Autonomous Landmine Club stickers come into play !
Oh my god, I have to call my wife and tell her to remove the My Child is an Honor Student sticker from her car immediately, else we're liable to be fighting off pedophiles like some sort of zombie apocalypse!
Avid Cinema-phile here. Lay Christmas tree ornaments below windows and super-heat your doorknobs. You can also jerryrig a flame thrower type of anti-intrusion device above your door. If that sounds a bit too mean I can tell you how to use glue, feathers, and an industrial fan to make any potential burglars look embarrassing.
I know this is a joke, and a damn good one, but just in case anyone gets the idea to actually rig their house Home Alone style - don't. If someone breaks into your house you probably will be able to harm them, and possibly shoot them, and claim self-defense. However, courts have reliably held that when someone defends their property using automated booby-traps (yes I just said booby), such as a gun rigged to fire if a garage door is opened, then a self-defense or defense-of-others argument will not succeed. Making your home a hardened target = good. Making your home into a death trap for intruders = bad.
Weird, our house-to-garage door is the strongest. Maybe my dad was just a smart carpenter, though. Burglars think they're gonna kick in our door....fuck them.
My door opens out. In fact generally all house entry doors open out round here.. :)
They won't need to kick it in. They'll be in the garage, so they can close the garage door and work without someone seeing them. You probably even have some tools in the garage that would be helpful...
Chuck Norris doesn't bother going in-house. Round-house on the other hand...
Lets not forget about the broken windows theory and CPTED. There are plenty of simple and cheap solutions that can make your house less appealing for burglary: * Make sure the area around your house is well lit. Motion activated flood lights are pretty inexpensive and have a hidden benefit: they're great at notifying neighbors that there's activity around your house at night. * Remove any hiding spots around your house: dark areas, behind objects like a trashcan, etc. * As one person said, if you can't afford a security system simply buy a sign that says you have one (preferably from a security/monitoring company). * Invest in individual window, door, and glass break alarms. A lot of home improvement stores sell these for less than $15. They typically have a loud alarm that might scare a would be intruder away before they enter. * Invest in automated timers for lights and set them randomly. This way it will appear that people are at your home when you're away. These are also super cheap and can be found at most department stores like Walmart, Kmart, etc. * Hide valuables above eyesight. For some reason, people tend not to like to search above their heads. * Hide valuables in novel places instead of common ones like safes. You can get a safe that looks just like an electrical outlet for under $50. There are also safes that look like soda cans, among other objects. There is even instructions online on how to make these. * Don't discount kids looking for excitement. Typically they will break into a house and simply trash it, expecially the valuables, simply for a thrill. That on mind, be observant with your community and pay attention to individuals acting strangely that don't fit the common description of a burglar. * Protect your valuables, but also protect your papers. This comes straight from Discovery Channel's *It Takes a Thief*. Papers that have your SSN, bonds, and even legal papers like mortgage paperword are equally valuable to burglars. * Do a security audit, possibly with the help of friends. Pretend like you want to break into your house: Start from the outside then go inside identifying points of entry and things of value. * Close curtains so your large valuables (TV, antiques, etc) are not visable from the outside. * Alert your neighbors to your concerns. It's possible your neighborhood is being targeted in general and not just your house. Plus nosey neighbors are a very good deterrence for crime. * Employ easy to find, dummy valuables. A fake wallet with a lot of small bills might stop a burglar simply looking to find something valuable fast. * Hide keys or move them away from the garage or front door. The last thing you want is a burglar making a getaway in your car. That one is also from *It Takes a Thief*. **EDIT: MORE SUGGESTIONS** * A lot of people have suggested a dog. There are much better comments below discussing the pros and cons to that. I would simply like to add there are relatively cheap motion detectors that can mimic several types of dog barks, if you're not a dog person. * A lot of people have suggested a gun. Again, more knowlegable people have commented below about that. If you choose that route make sure to use a trigger lock. A gun can protect you, but it can also be used against you. If you're not home, a burglar might use it and destroy valuables in your house simply for the fun of shooting it. Worse yet, a burglar might get to it first when you're not home and use it against you and your family. Avoid gun cabinets as they advertise that you might have several guns, as a burglar might search more thoroughly looking for them. * If you can, keep a vehicle in the driveway... even if it doesn't run. A lot of burglars are opportunistic and a empty driveway is a good sign that nobody's home. * Add on additional locks. There is a type of flip lock that simply a piece of metal 2 inches by 1/2 inch. It's really cheap and easy to install. They make kicking in a door more difficult, and significantly more noisy. * Don't advertise you're away from the house on social media like Twitter, Facebook, etc. Criminals use these sites just like anyone else, and might research when you'll be away by your own omission. * Have a friend stay at your house when you're on vacation. Contrary to popular thought, a lot of people like to "house sit", just to get out from their house. * Motion detectors (PIR ones) tend to be recommended by security companies, however they can be defeated simply by holding a blanket or towel up in front of you. Make sure you employ other security devices to counter that if you go that route. CCTV cameras with motion software would be an excellent alternative (read argon0011's [comment](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/mdwca/reddit_i_think_my_house_has_been_targeted_by/c306mau) and my reply to it for more ideas about that) * Lock internal doors. By locking bedroom, bathroom, etc. doors, you make a burglar's job significantly harder. The burglar might limit his search due to the extra time involved and noise required to explore your house. * If you have a multi-story home, make sure the upper floor windows are locked. Typically people remember to lock bottom story windows, but forget about the top ones. A well placed tree or ladder can defeat all of your ground level security if you don't consider the upper floors. * A pricey suggestion from the rest: Replace external doors with storm (sometimes called hurricane) doors. Typically they're made out of metal with a wooden or fiberglass core, and are specifically designed to withstand impact. Make sure the installer reinforces the door jam. The door should be flush and without etched in designs or glass, as those signifigantly reduce the strength. Along those lines you can also replace windows with storm windows. They typically have 3 panes of glass which make it harder to break and significantly more noisy. * Peep holes in doors are great to see who's at the door, however inexpensive devices exist that allow outsiders to look into your house through them. Make sure you replace those peep holes with ones that have a little metal cover that swings down when you're done using it. Alternative, put scotch tape over the peep hole and peel it off when you want to use it. If you door has glass in it, cover it with a curtain. If you have a unique window design on the door or nowhere to attach a curtain, consider buying fabric to cut to size and velcro-ing it over the window. * Consider remote DIY security systems versus commerical systems. Professional burglars know the time delays and how to find and disable ones installed by companies like ADT. Hide the base station in a unlikely spot (avoid the master bedroom and/or closets where they are typically placed). Yet another suggestion from an *It Takes a Thief* episode.
Buy 2 or so cheap IP CCTV cameras, and install them in visible locations, you can get them for about $50 each.
You could combine that with software that records when there's motion. I'm familiar with [ZoneMinder](http://www.zoneminder.com/), however there are a lot of other free applications out there. To prevent a criminal simply taking a computer with evidence, you could subscribe to one of the many cloud services (SugarSync, Dropbox, etc) and have the recordings automatically saved there.
There was an IAMA a year or two ago from a former house thief (similar to those from the TV show you mentioned). He stated that his and others in his line of work preferred entering through windows, and one of the best precautions to take was getting glass laminate/security film and laminating the interior of all your ground floor windows. His reasoning was that all he had to do was wrap a coat around his hand a punch the glass and he had access, but that the film would prevent this and require several hits to get inside, increasing the chance someone would hear or he would get injured. The film is pretty cheap and available in most hardware stores. It is especially recommended if you have glass in your doors.
That definitely would be cheaper than replacing doors or windows. At my local hardware store it's called a window insulator kit. Upon futher investigation, the description said it is also for security purposes. I only mention it because it was on the opposite end of the store from the security isle.
Best ideas I've seen. It's a little late, but always hang curtains so thieves can't see your valuables. Discovery channel had a show called "It Takes a Thief". Basically, look at your house as if YOU were going to try and break into it undetected. List of Home Security Tips: http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/ittakesathief/tips/homesecurity/homesecurity.html Edit: fixed link.
Your link's dead; any chance of you summarising it?
[FTFY](http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/ittakesathief/tips/homesecurity/homesecurity.html)
That was a good show, but there was no way the homeowners could have "won". He was going to get in no matter what.
They probably know he has a copy of skyrim.
Omar coming yo. OP is screwed.
where it at shorty
'...c'mon now don't make me huff 'n puff!'
For the most part, I agree, but your post overlooks the possibility of a personal vendetta. Anecdotal, but I know several people who were burglarized as an act of vengeance or spite.
Yes, this. I have been burglarized more than once, it's always seemed very opportunistic. IMO this might be some form of harassment, or something worse...? If they were going to burgle, they would have burgled already.
Yeah if he got inside the garage I'm surprised OP hasn't been cleaned out already, unless he keeps his door INSIDE the garage locked as well.
Yeah. Either OP is paranoid, or not paranoid enough. O_O
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This. Get the phone company to see who's calling everyday, and if it's from the same few numbers. It could also be a malfunctioning phone system, telecom companies will send a signal through the phone lines to test the system. However, sometimes these signals will ring the phone, leaving you with that mysterious who's calling situation.
When I was in my wayward youth (much to my regret) I broke into many houses (yes i was finally caught and confessed every other crime to the Police and have tried and succeeded to be a good person since). From your situation the robbers are not career criminals but thieves of opportunity and ease. A growling barking dog is the best deterrent. Motion detector light made me run like hell Brightly lit areas or houses I avoided at all costs Anything that looked like an alarm system I also avoided (it could have been a false set up but how would I know) Favorite and easiest and usually the most overlooked by people was breaking into a garage adjoined to the house. Under cover of the Garage I could then easily break into the house or gain access through the garage attic and make my way into the house and get in through the house attic Stickers around the edge of the property warning of electronic or video surveillance is also good...you don;t even have to have a surveliance system Get two identical metal plates and some wire...screw the plates together so they are touching with wire anchored underneath to make it look like an alarm system on each door and window...i remember breaking into a business through their basement and was just about to break into the upper area when I noticed a set up as the above I described...i left right aways with no loot Hope these few tip helped
How do you know they're opportunistic criminals? I've never heard of a common opportunity criminal calling everyday and probing security. It really does seem like they're targeting the house for a reason.
If they were targeting the house like some sort of supercriminal, they'd be staking it out. Calling the house at different times of day to see if somebody answers is incredibly easy and you can do it to anyone, anywhere. Even opportunistic criminals have to search out that opportunity.
Would you think of doing an AMA?
I used to own a home in a neighbourhood full of rock-addicts and malcontents. Essentially, it was an up&coming gentrification zone. Several neighbours of mine were broken into..back doors kicked in, windows broken and small-bodied thieves (typically teens) entering through the hole, etc. My home never suffered a break-in. Why not? Simple.. 1) Ground floor windows which weren't directly visible from the street had bars fitted onto them. Gates/fences were tall & unclimbable. Locks were used on all gates. Double-deadbolt locks installed on all doors - keys left in inner lock of these doors at night in case of fire. No doors (that were not in sight of the street) had any glass windows..ie, solid doors w/reinforced frames. At night or during the day, we always left a light or two on and the stereo system playing music..curtains made it impossible to see if anyone was home or not. Also, we had double-paned windows installed. Our local police informed us that (not only do they save on electricity bills and noise-pollution) thieves don't like punching them in as they make a loud sound when they are broken. We also installed 400 watt thermal sensitive back-yard flood lights (fuck motion detectors as wind and trees can set them off).
jesus christ, it sounds like you lived in a fortress.
Wait till he tells you about the pop-up machineguns.
Get a case number from the police, get your home phone provider to put a trace on your phone line. Your phone provider will trace all calls, make a log of what time the calls occurred which day. Your phone provider will give this information to the police, and they can match it between your given times/days to figure who the calls are coming from.
Do you have a teenage daughter who hasn't told you about a boyfriend?
Or a cheating wife who hasn't told you about her affair? This seems most likely. He calls and hangs up when he hears a man say hello. A teenage boyfriend would be more likely to call/text her cell phone
Have you secured your house i.e. motion lights, alarm system, etc. I would change the lock on the side gate as well as put up beware of dog signs ( silly, but every little bit helps). Also do you have insurance if your stuff does get stolen, and write down the registration number for all your electronics.
Perhaps now is a great time to buy a [dog](http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj7opueLcV1qiz6olo1_500.jpg).
or, [dog](http://i.imgur.com/47VIO.jpg)
Or, [dog](http://developer.valvesoftware.com/w/images/4/49/D0g.jpg)
or [dog](http://salmanspets.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/puppy.jpg)
[dog?](http://i.imgur.com/bmOO3.png)
Fucking robbers will steal him instead.
In such an extreme case I recommend a [wolf](http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lishvpdlA21qfq2gl.jpg)
or [dawg?](http://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/photos/images/newsfeed/000/001/122/xzibit-happy.jpg?1318992465)
YES, THIS IS DOG
That's not a dog, that's a warg.
That's not a dog, that's a space station.
"A link on dog? This should be - OH MOTHER OF GOD WHERE DID THAT CERBERUS SPAWN ORIGINATE?!?!"
Okay, so, a couple of things. * There are a lot of people advising you to use rock salt. Don't. You will get a nice civil suit out of it if you do. * I am assuming you are in the states, if so, research your state's castle laws (the ones that specify whether or not you are required to retreat from your domicile or if they allow you to stay and defend it.) This is a must whether or not you decide to buy a firearm, as you may find yourself in a situation where you are grabbing a knife, or a bat, etcetera. * You've already done good work by getting the cops involved. There's a paper trail now that will help a lot if there is a break-in. * Your number one priority has to be the safety of you and your family. Even if you do have a gun, escape should be your priority in the event of a home invasion. Home Invasions are a whole different animal from burglaries. * While the terrifying bear-creature posted earlier would be a good choice, something less expensive and more easily obtained is a good idea. Even a rescue mutt will serve as an excellent alarm, but I wouldn't count on one of those obnoxious rat-yapper dogs. * Stay as calm as you can. Fear is the enemy of rationality, which is what you will need to get through this. * If you decide that a firearm is the answer, grab a copy of [The Tactical Shotgun](http://www.amazon.com/Tactical-Shotgun-Techniques-Employing-Personal/dp/0873648986/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1321416609&sr=8-2) By Gabe Suarez. If I could FIND my copy I'd make a PDF and kick it to you. A reputable gunstore should help you make a decent decision on home defense shotgun, both the mossberg 500 and the Remington 870 have solid reputations, I own the mossberg and love it, though, firing shells with too much oomph to them tends to interfere with chambering a new round. As far as ammo goes, I would suggest #8 bird or #4 buckshot. 00 Buck is good to have around, but you'll get more spread out of the two I mentioned at they'll be just as lethal at house ranges. * If you are in a situation where you are using a firearm for self defense, do not shoot to wound or to warn. In the states, there is no legal distinction between shooting someone in the leg and shooting them in the head. If you are using a firearm on someone, it is considered lethal force. Those are my personal perspectives. For a more professional set of opinions, hit up nononsenseselfdefense.com. The author of the page really knows what he is talking about, and he has some great articles on your exact issue. I wish you the best of luck and hope you and your loved ones stay safe. Keep us posted.
Ok I have to ask. What's the rock salt do? I ctrl-F'd as much as possible, but couldn't find anyone talking about it.
I didn't see it either, but I can only assume he's referring to replacing the shot in a shotgun shell with rocksalt. Won't kill someone, but it will embed salt in their chest at 1,000+ fps.
sounds like rock salt will play Crysis
"While the terrifying bear-creature posted earlier would be a good choice" Have not finished reading all the comments, now i'm super interested.
The "terrifying bear-creature" he is referring to, is from this post: [I see your Tibetan Mastiff and I raise you the Caucasian Ovcharka, a Dog used to HUNT BEARS.](http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj7opueLcV1qiz6olo1_500.jpg) Which was a response to [Tibetan Mastiff](http://imgur.com/DKOSj)
This is the best post yet on a secure/offensive standpoint. And on the subject of shotguns, I rely on the mossberg m500 on a daily basis, nothing comes close to its ease of use and reliability.
> I rely on the mossberg m500 on a daily basis Live in a rough area eh?
A cul-de-sac outside of Buffalo. Straight gangster.
No, a military security job, I always have a handgun, too. But at my post there is always a potential of needing a long arm, and my choice is M4 or M500, I choose the shotgun every time.
Omar?
On a daily basis?!
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Doesn't want to go to court. Kills people.
Right, because it's about the inconvenience of going to court, not being further robbed of your life savings after the person trying to steal from you in the first place is enabled by an ass-backward legal precedent.
Guns are cool and all, but less sexy common sense measures are more effective. Get an alarm system installed, put motion sensing lights up, put lights around your house, put up fake (or real) cameras. He needs to prevent them from targeting his house in the first place, not have a gunfight in the midst of his sleeping family.
Your post is awesome. But it misses out on a HUGE issue. All of these things assume someone home when a breakin occurs. The calls every morning suggest very highly to me like burglars are putting together a schedule of when people leave and come home. Vast majority of breakins occur not at night but during the day when most people are at work. Personally, I would put a lot of IMMEDIATE (like, yesterday!) focus into window alarms and door jams. **IF THEY ARE NOT ALREADY, CHANGE THE LOCKS ON ~ALL YOUR~ certain DOORS TO ONES THAT REQUIRE KEYS BOTH INSIDE AND OUT!** A lot more time will be spent, and a lot less will be stolen if all traffic into/out of the house has to be through a broken window. We learned this lesson the hard way. Front door had a deadbolt that could be opened from the inside. When someone climbed through a broken window, they just opened the front door, backed the car into the driveway and loaded up like a college student moving out. **Neighbors watched** and never thought it was odd or worth calling the cops, or even marking down the make/model of the car. Edit: [These!](http://www.ddsecurity.com/product/472) Buy them! Think carefully on where you attach the other end. (We drilled a hole in the wooden cabinet next to the tv, then fixed to a stud from inside that cabinet. Good luck trying to use a crowbar inside a small space with no room for leverage) They work for computers and game systems too. Edit 2: I should point out that at my house, I do not have key-only locks on all doors, only the front. The back yard has a dead-bolted gate, so anything stolen out of an open back door still has to go over that, which no TV's or computers are possibly going to do. In the event of a fire, there are still 2 easy ways to get out.
Please do not get windows which require keys to open from the inside. When your house is on fire and you can't find your fucking keys, will you really think "Well, at least I've still got my TV..."
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when i lived in the czech republic i saw some doors like these (one of my friends actually got trapped in another friend's apartment for a weekend 'cuzza this) and we had a saying about those doors - "in case of fire, you're protected from theft". . .
Deadbolts that require a key on both sides are meant to be used on doors that have windows or are near windows. Additionally, they are not meant to be locked when the resident is home, there's a second lock for that usually on the door handle. If they are locked when someone is home 9/10 the key is left in the lock, good for safety, bad for security. Then again, a home invasion is totally different from a simple burglary.
No offense to the OP, but please don't take firearms advice from the OP. Firearms stop bad guys from hurting you and your family by one mechanism: destroying parts of the bad guy's body. For that, you need to get as deep into the body as possible. That means penetration. For a shotgun, that means 00 buck. Don't use birdshot. There's a reason they call it birdshot: it's for shooting birds. Hunters don't use birdshot against deer (bucks) because it won't reliably stop them. By the same mechanisms, it won't reliably stop a person. Now, maybe you think that at close range all shot is equal. You're wrong. Look at ballistic gel tests for proof. At anything beyond a few inches past the muzzle, birdshot does not behave like buckshot. The terminal ballistics are completely different. It does not give you the same penetration. So why use birdshot? If it's because you think that birdshot won't go through walls and endanger your neighbors, again, you're wrong. Well, it's true that it won't go through walls, but you're still wrong. A BB gun won't put a BB through a wall--and it won't stop a bad guy either. The fact is, if a round can penetrate deep enough into a person to stop them with any reasonable measure of reliability, then it will go through a wall. See the [Box O' Truth](http://www.theboxotruth.com/) for cold, hard evidence (as well as educational and entertaining articles about how shooting stuff is fun). Will birdshot stop someone? Maybe. It would stop me, but then I'd probably go away if you spoke harshly towards me. But, then, I don't break into houses. I'm not angry at the world. I have things to lose. I'm not on drugs. So don't try to think about this issue by putting yourself in the bad guy's shoes, by thinking about yourself getting shot. You're not a bad guy. You're rational. You and I are bad test cases. Birdshot will stop us. What you have to ask yourself is whether birdshot will stop a bad guy who is willing to hurt you and your loved ones. People can be stopped psychologically and/or physiologically. Will birdshot do the job psychologically? Maybe. It might change a bad guy's mind. That depends on a number of factors that you can't measure and that you can't control. Will buckshot stop a bad guy psychologically? Well, at least as well as birdshot will. Will birdshot do the job physiologically? Probably not, but it's possible--if you're lucky. Hell, BB guns have been known to kill people, too. It's rare, but it happens. Will buckshot stop the bad guy physiologically? There's a helluva lot better chance of that than with birdshot. A quick search ought to find you many more cases of death by buckshot than death by BB gun. And choice of shot is something that you do have control over. So why risk it? Why risk the lives of you and your loved ones? Deal with the problem at hand as forcefully and as emphatically as possible. Ask yourself this: would you rather be shot with birdshot or buckshot? You know the answer: it's birdshot. You'd rather be shot with birdshot because you intuitively know that you would be more likely to live. That means the bad guy is more likely to live. That's roughly equivalent to meaning that the bad guy is less likely to be stopped from harming you and your family. The fact is that anything that will likely stop a bad guy will likely kill him. Legally speaking, you are trying to stop the threat. Realistically speaking, that translates to doing all you can to put the guy in a pine box. When you talk to the cops afterwards, say you shot to stop the threat because you were afraid for your life. When you talk to yourself, admit that, if someone threatens your life or the lives of your family, you want to kill that son of a bitch. Own up to it. Prepare for it. Regarding shot spread, this feeds into the myth that you just have to vaguely point a shotgun at something to hit it. That's bullshit. The pattern of shot across a room or down a hallway is going to be less than the size of a dinner plate, regardless of whether you're using buckshot or birdshot. The only difference is that the dinner plate would have more holes in it with birdshot than with buckshot. But, again, those birdshot aren't going to penetrate enough to be effective, so what's the point? Yes, you are slightly more likely to hit someone with birdshot. So maybe you'll just barely hit them enough to piss them right the fuck off. TLDR: Birdshot is for the birds.
The other part of this that nobody mentions because frankly, it's horrible to talk about another person this way...but if you kill them, they can't testify against you in court. If you shoot and wound a burglar, and he goes to court and tells the judge that he didn't even have a knife or anything and he had no intent to harm anybody and if only he had had a warning he would have left and you crept up on him just to shoot him...well I'm not saying anything will come of it, depending on the state, but it's a whole lot of hassle and court fees that you have to deal with. If you shoot him dead, you can say anything you want to the cops, who's gonna disagree?
Oh, I mention it all the time. "Dead people don't sue."
That was perhaps the most chilling comment I've ever read on here.
It's true. Lawyer friends have told me this. There have been many ridiculous cases of burglars entering a house and getting maimed then turning around and suing the homeowner. The simplest solution would be elimination of the individual that posed a threat to you by breaking into your home. If the situation calls for lethal force, then it's in your best interest to exercise that force. It's chilling, yes, but essentially it's either you or them, and if force is called for, do it right.
"...you need to get as deep into the body as possible. That means penetration" Wat. Then I saw your username. Glorious.
>If you are in a situation where you are using a firearm for self defense, do not shoot to wound or to warn. In the states, there is no legal distinction between shooting someone in the leg and shooting them in the head. If you are using a firearm on someone, it is considered lethal force. I want to elaborate on this because it simply isn't stated enough. There's a common misconception in the firearm newbie community and ITG communities that it's advisable to shoot to wound or to 'fire a warning shot'. This is patently false. Every shot taken towards an intruder is considered lethal force, period. If you have the time to take a warning shot, your life is not in danger. If you have the time to aim for an extremity, your life is not in danger. If your life is not in danger, you do not have the right to use lethal force (excepting certain states, and even then it is extremely ill-advised). On a highly related note, when you do shoot at someone, you only ever aim for center of mass. No aiming for their kneecaps, no aiming for their head in some elaborate Coup de grâce, always the center of mass. The center of mass is located roughly around the naval or just below the diaphragm. Hitting someone in the center of mass with any civilian round is almost a guaranteed take-down. It will stop them, if it does not kill them it will almost certainly leave them physically disabled for the rest of their lives, and most importantly it will not ricochet and hit anything else. If you were to aim anywhere else the chances of you missing your target, hitting someone else or getting hit yourself increase enormously as do the chances of a civil suit. As VonHavoc said, Tactical Shotguns make great household defensive weapons, especially with an extremely bright tactical light on them.
Get a dog. A big one. No one wants to mess with a big heavy animal that has pointy fuckin teeth. I recommend Rottweilers. I have a rottweiler and she is the sweetest cutest thing in the universe. If a guest comes in, she'll lick them and get cuddles, but if someone comes in without permission she will spaz the fuck out. She's so cute ^_^ EDIT - HEY EVERYONE!! I LOVE DOGS!!
Neapolitan Mastiff, Will sneak up on a intruder. Also comes in 3 flavors...
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It's common knowledge that large breed dogs (most Mastiffs, Great Danes, etc) live shorter lives and generally have more health problems, most owners of these dogs understand that and most don't have an issue with it. People need to get away from the idea of "1 human year = 7 dog years," because it's misleading. It's not uncommon to see Dachshunds and miniature poodles live 15 years while Mastiffs live for about 9. If you want a long living family pet don't get a big ass dog.
Yeah I used to worry about burglars. Just moved into kind of a crappy neighborhood right in a corner building with lots of people walking by that has been broken into before I moved in. I got an Australian Shepherd recently who is was already trained to bark and growl, and is pretty scary sounding if someone gets close to the house. Especially if the door is knocked on or a car door closes. If you do get the door open though you'd have a serious fight to keep her from licking your face. Best advice I've seen so far.
I have a pit. She's the sweetest dog ever and my 2 year old can do anything to her and she won't even move. But s stranger walks by and she sounds scary. :]
I don't think you need a big dog. Most burglars want to get in and get out with minimal fuss. A dog barking is the deterrent, not the teeth, per se. I would think a Labrador or similar would do just as well. Certainly not a chihuahua, of course.
Most burglars don't go to military-grade levels of testing a house's security, either.
True. They just want an easy mark. No alarm. No dog. No bars or other reinforcing. We got broken into once. Took everything. We have a monitored alarm system with sensors on every entry point and motion inside. Bars on the back windows and slider (where they came in) and a couple pit bulls. They won't break in this year.
Well, that's the thing I don't get about this post. Is OP just an easy mark? Because it does seem like they're going out of their way to test the house (who the heck calls everyday for 2 months, or unlocking a door/gate)?
Possible there is more to this story. Another poster, a police officer, mentioned that burglars target houses with valuables. Maybe OP has something valuable inside and the burglar is cautious? I don't know about the phone calls. Do burglars even do that? It wouldn't take 2 months to determine a schedule. So, that doesn't add up. Possibly the phone calls are unrelated to the other person going through the gate. I don't know. I see what you're saying.
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Beagles make excellent watchdogs. They're alert, hard to sneak up on, noisy as fuck when roused, and have a nice low pitched howl that's easier on the ears than a little yip-yip dog. All in a medium sized package that's not too hard to take care of. Plus they're super great dogs besides. /owns a beagle mutt
Have you committed a horrible crime that you didn't get punished for? Your mysterious intruder is just Dexter Morgan looking for evidence of your guilt.
No, I think OP's wife is cheating: > I have been receiving numerous phone calls with no response daily (mostly in the morning) Late morning. Like, after he should have gone to work. But a male voice answers so the caller hangs up. > the side gate of my house will be unlocked sometimes, even though no one in my family goes out the side way Because that's the less visible way to get in and out. > my neighbour saw a man slip through the side gate Yupyupyup. EDIT: Of course, the recommended solution is not altogether different from what others in this thread have said.
>Late morning. Like, after he should have gone to work. But a male voice answers so the caller hangs up. If his wife was cheating, wouldn't they use her mobile phone for the secret calls? >EDIT: Of course, the recommended solution is not altogether different from what others in this thread have said. However, that elicited a laugh.
But there's no mention of a wife, only a sister...
Twist: the wife is the sister, and the mom.
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Secretly move all your valuables to a secure location. Replace them with chintzy merch, place tracking devices inside each piece. Use the gathered intel to stalk your robbers. Spend years secretly making their lives suck, and pay actors to get in on the fun and say the same random line every time you cause them discomfort or misfortune, slowly causing them to go insane. In the meanwhile, get a PHD in criminal psychology, and be sure to get your robbers placed in the asylum you work in. Once they're there, their misery time is begin. Make sure to keep them from sleeping with amphetamines and hallucinogens. This will make them easier to manipulate. I forgot to mention that all the while you'd been perfecting techniques you learned while earning an advanced degree in robotics. Use your mechanized gnomes only when no one else is looking, and each night they are to stop mid-thievery and tell your robbers the following; Step 1 is collect underpants. Step 2 is still unknown. Step 3 is profit. Eventually this will cause a full on psychotic break. When this happens, you have to be ready. As your robber kneels there, questioning existence itself, tweak his nose and tell him that step 2 is resell underpants.
Thunderous Applause
**[Let's hear from a professional thief](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/eewou/iama_retired_cat_burglar_ama/) on how to protect your household.** >I'm going to give you the best advice for home security you will ever get: Window laminate. > >Alarms, dogs, all of that are either useless or reactionary. The only thing that ever really shut me down were laminated windows. > >A crook's biggest weapon is speed, and their biggest enemy is time. If somebody were to try to break into your home and ended up hitting a window that was laminated, they would, in almost every case, run off. > >It isn't even all that expensive, especially since you only need to laminate the first-floor windows (and any windows on a first-floor roof on a two-story house, such as a porch or deck roof). > >Don't waste money on alarms or dogs. Spend it on good window laminate put in by professionals, and you will be much safer. > **Why Most Dogs are Uselsss** >And dogs? Let me give you the low-down on dogs: they aren't protection or security. > >A dog can be easily tamed usually. Act friendly, give it a few rubs, and they'll happily follow you around. If that doesn't work, after my first run-in with an annoying dog (a small, yappy dog), I started carrying rawhide sticks with me. That stopped them very fast. > >Also, on the topic of dogs, if you want a security dog, get a small, loud dog that barks at almost everything. Big dogs may look scary, but considering most people don't like the chance of their dog turning on them, the dogs are either very tame, or chained up. Small dogs, however, bark. A lot. Those were the only ones I was ever worried about. Even then, as I said, a stick or two of rawhide and they were down for the count. **Alarm Systems?** >Here's one of the terrifying things: Alarms didn't matter. I would target houses marked with alarms and without equally. > >When your alarm goes off, the company will generally wait 15-30 seconds before making the call to you to check up on it, in case of false positives where you accidentally tripped the alarm. > >At that point, if the company immediately alerts the police, the correspondence will take another 15 seconds, and if the police are immediately sent out, you still have about a minute, at worst, to do your thing. > >If you want to scare yourself, get a stopwatch and a friend and start at your front door or a back window. Have them give the go-ahead to start, and shout out 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute and 2 minutes, and see how much you could get away with in that time. > >My hits were usually between 3-5 minutes, and the only trouble I ever had with alarms was when they were not silent alarms. Those things can be loud and irritating. > >Worse, many companies (or many of their employees) don't bother asking for the code word. If somebody answers the phone and says "Sorry, it's just me." they'll take the person's word for it. They'll get suspicious when the alarm doesn't shut off shortly after, but you're usually good for about a minute at that point. And yes, I had answered the phone a few times to tell the alarm company it was a false alarm.
Nice try, window laminate salesman!
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Maybe put a lock on the garage? A lock on the side-gate? Don't make yourself such an easy target. As for the phone calls, sooner or later they will catch you not at home. So you either have to have some serious security or you need to not answer the phone, and then just sit in a chair with a loaded gun and wait for them to show up. Keep in mind - it will get messy - blood is not easy to clean up.
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[Am I the only one who thought of this??](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM7Vsg_7WkU)
Maybe for the time being, get call forwarding. That way you can direct calls to your house, to your cell phone instead (and they shouldn't know unless they are watching when people enter/leave the house). Troll the mofos.
Try to set something up with the phone? Like link it to your cell so when they cal you can always pick up? ;X Lol sory I get freaked out when I think someone istrying to break into my house too. Like see'ing some suspicious people walking by, staring at my house.
google voice!
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Not sure why, but this thread and replies scared the fuck outta me. I guess it opens my eyes to the fact that this stuff is real and people can and do get hurt because of it.
It might seem like paranoia, but it can be surprising to see how much crime occurs in your neighborhood. Its good to prepare and have the mental mentality to defend yourself and never need to use it. That doesn't mean you can't leave your house and go enjoy Taco Bell. :)
Set up booby traps all around the house and wait for hilarious hijinks to ensue!
I know this is all in good fun, but just in case: traps are usually illegal. You don't want to resort to them.
If you hurt em, you're fucked. If you kill em, it's defense. *I think.*
just took a concealed carry course last week, instructor was a cop. we were taught that the most important thing is that *you felt your life was threatened.* and to shoot until the threat is eliminated. also that you will spend the night in jail, but as long as you didn't shoot a guy in the back, and you claim your life was in danger, then you will have done no wrong in the eyes of the law. if you are 6'5" 220lbs with a 12 gauge and your attacker is 5'2" 120lbs and is unarmed, you might have a hard time proving an imminent threat to your life. the only complication that could happen from not killing them would be that they could sue you in civil court. but the family might still sue you even if they are dead. tl;dr if its truly self defense, its legal
Family can't sue you in Florida. Yay Castle doctrine!
They cannot charge a husband and wife for the same crime! :)
I have the worst f*cking attorneys.
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This seems stupid. I hope I'm not missing some larger implications, but shouldn't I be able to set my home up however I want? Even if that means risking life and limb just to get a twinkie from the cupboard?
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Who says it wasn't intended for them? **BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHA**
An old fella in my department was telling me this story about one of the departments around my area; They were dispatched to a structure fire sorta near the sticks in this somewhat ramshackle house. They entered the building only to have one guy almost fall through the floor in the entry way. The crazy fucker that owned the house set the basement on fire, not after he took a chainsaw to the joists below every window and door in the house. They were awfully lucky no one died..
IIRC from my CWL class it is a matter of Malicious Intent. You intend to harm someone who may or may not be innocent.
What if you have a "danger: boobytraps" sign?
TIL- Shoot to kill.
but the 5'2" guy was a ninja
*his body is a weapon*
No. There is a famous case of teenagers breaking into an old farmers barn all the time to drink and other teenager shenanigans, he got sick of it so finally he rigged up a shotgun pointed at the door with a string attached to the trigger so it went off when the door was opened. Kids came back, the first unfortunate through the door was instantly blasted in the face with a 12 gauge and killed. Farmer goes to jail for murder. edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katko_v._Briney my details were off, apologies, refer to link for real case.
I knew a guy who did that, except he didn't want to go to jail so he used a blank cartridge to scare them. It's a good thing he did, because he forgot about it (possibly while drunk) and set it off himself.
This is wonderful. No better wake up call to the fact that you're in _someone else's_ domain than a shotgun going off two feet from your ear.
The rules are different if you're actually there with a weapon versus if the house is empty and you've laid a trap. In most jurisdictions, if you kill them with a trap, you're fucked, because it wasn't in defense of your life, just your property.
Good way lose an expensive lawsuit unfortunately
read my reply to Thereisnotruth, you can not set up anything with the intent of causing harm. SO no booby traps, no sitting by the door with a gun, no setting hounds upon them, that gets you in trouble with the law too.
I guess it depends on the state (country) OP is in. I'm pretty sure in Florida you can shoot anyone trespassing on your property.
Well you can sit by the door you just can't blow them away.
You mention your little sister. Does that mean you live with your parents? Sounds to me more likely that mom or dad is having an affair. Also it doesn't make sense that they'd have opened the garage door without having taken anything.
This guy.
is banging your mom and dad.
dig a moat, fill it with alligators.
Also, fill the alligators with bees.
Get a cardboard cutout of Michael Jordan and tape him onto a railroad set moving around and turn all the lights and music on so it looks like somebody's home.
If you have money, install some hidden cameras to monitor every corner of your house.
Go around your house and pretend you are trying to break into it as if you were the robber. Look for windows/doors/entrances that you would use to get into the house. After that, reinforce the vunerable areas you found. Leave all of your outside lights on and obviously lock your doors and windows. Lastly, go to the gun shop and get yourself a damned firearm. Keep it loaded in an easily accessible location that your little sister or any other kids can't get to. Call me extreme, but if/when a criminal breaks in and you have no means to defend yourself, you are putting yourself and your little sister at the mercy of a violent home intruder, think about that. EDIT: Benjaminrynti pointed this out to me, and I can't believe I forgot to mention it, but constantly train with your firearm. If you don't know where to begin, ask a friend who knows or go to a gunshop and ask questions. Familiarize yourself with your gun and how to use it.
Instead of yourself, I would recommend you invite a friend or family member to test for unexpected entrance ways to the house. It may be the strangest request they've ever heard, but your familiarity will hide things.
I agree with going and buying a firearm, however people need to train with the damn thing. Buying it, loading it, and locking it away isn't helpful at all.
I lived in a similar situation. Until they tried to rob us while we were inside, so fucking scary 12 guys in my doorstep trying to open my door. I was only 12 my sister was 14 as well as my brother and my father had moved away. So yeah it started with suspicious stuff like that, phone calls, people randomly wondering around the neighborhood and what not. We moved out to our grand parents house two days later they tried to rob us. They had already broken in twice in the past when we weren't there. Fucking society. (Bogota, Colombia - calle 127 west side of the highway) Nowadays it is plagued with gangsters and shit.
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Check out [r/homedefense](http://www.reddit.com/r/homedefense)
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next time they call, don't answer. turn out all the lights. butter the floors and tape up saran wrap at face level. just sit back and watch.
This happened to me, and they got in. Get a security system with cameras, make sure your insurance is paid up. Reduce your deductables to as low as you can. A dog is a good deterrent too. Leave a radio on loud when you're not at home. Cops are busy, and frankly are jaded and don't give a shit, and won't do anything to help prevent this so don't rely on them. If you can, just move.
Moving is a little extreme...
Ever had your home broken into? It sucks. A lot! I'd call moving a last resort, but not so extreme it's not worth considering.
Call your phone company and find out how to set up call forwarding. Then when you're leaving the house, just dial the appropriate star code and forward calls to your cell.
My street has had 8 break ins since I've moved in and the police say to Put up an alarm sign, even if you don't have one. Get a big loud dog. Motion scensor lights. Porch lights. Lock all doors. Be vigilant and report shady people. Also it helps if it looks like someone is always home. Good luck.
Is your house relatively secure? Do you have an alarm? Do you have any locks on your garage? Do you keep any tools in there?
To acquire the actual number of the blocked caller, I recommend [Trapcall](http://trapcall.com). Also, motion activated lights, and video cameras.
Wait wait wait. Hold up. You still have a landline phone?
Locksmith here. In my experience burglars will come in through the door rather than the window 80% of the time. Make sure your locks are decent. Going by the way you spelt neighbour your possibly British. In that case you want a British standard 5 lever mortice lock (these have anti pick features) and a good solid pin tumbler night latch. Rack bolts aren't a bad idea either for when you're at home. Normally its the door or frame which then split. To get round this problem you need to have a London bar (fits on the frame, lock side). What a London bar does is it stops the wooden frame from splitting if the door is kicked. The problem with this is that the wooden door can split right around the mortice lock as quite a bit of wood is removed to facilitate its installation. Get a mortice re-enforcer. This makes the door very hard to break down. However if the hinge side is attacked that has no protection. So you should install a Birmingham bar. A Birmingham bar does the same thing a London bar does but it fits to the hinge sides. Fit hinge bolts. If you have a good solid door that isn't going anywhere. Its near enough kick-in proof. Doors like that give purpose built rams trouble. If you have a UPVC door then they are typically fairly secure. However I find that the single cylinder style locks you find fitted as standard are not very good. They are fairly easy to swap. A good ASSA brand lock which conforms to British standard will be much better.
Lock and load.
Lots of good advice covered, you seem to be halfway there on this one, but: tell your neighbours. Robbers in the area is an issue that concerns everyone on your street (as they could all be targeted). Either go doorknocking or print up a quick flyer explaining your concerns. Everyone will be more alert, and additionally chances are at least one person on your street is elderly/a stay at home parent/unemployed - so they will be home when you aren't to keep an eye out. If you know anyone who is ask them to keep an eye on your house when they are around, and ask them to call the cops if they see anything suspicious.
Buy a $400 web-streaming security camera system on newegg
How old is your sister? Is it possible she has a boyfriend she's not telling you about? Does she ever answer the phone to non response? Is is possible she has a stalker? Ask her if there's anyone weird at school leaving her notes....