When you come home at night from a long day at work, what steps do you normally take in your routine to secure yourself and your home? Do you turn your porch light on? Do you lock your doors? Do you check the locks on your windows? Do you set your security system?
Even with a standard deadbolt and integrated doorknob lock, a newbie can gain access to your home in less than ten minutes with the proper lockpicking tools. Those tools can be purchased quickly, cheaply, and anonymously over the internet.
Ten minutes, people!
If you are asleep at 2am, you aren’t likely to hear the sounds of someone messing with your front door. All it takes is for them to pick your lock, quietly enter the house, and close the door behind them without you awakening and arming yourself. You are now their bitch. It’s a very simple matter at this point for them to rob you, bind and gag you, rape you, torture you, even kill you without the neighbors suspecting a thing. Your lights are off. Your doors are closed and locked. It’s 2am, and they cannot hear what you are screaming because they’re asleep with their own doors and windows locked up for the night.
Short of building your house out of concrete and having a three-inch-thick steel plate over every door and window, no home security measure will keep out every dedicated burglar. But you want to deter them for as long as possible, and you want to make their job difficult and noisy. This way they will either give up or make such a racket that you are alerted to their presence and can arm yourself or your neighbors will wake up and call the police.
You need deadbolts on all exterior doors that do not have a keyhole on the outside. They are only intended for people to lock from the inside while they are at home. If they cannot pick the lock, they will have to bust the door down or break a window to gain entry. Other options include floor bolts and the age-old trusted method of the crossbar (like you see in movies with huge wooden doors in castles).
Once they have gained entry, you’re already awake and ready for action. So now what you need is pepper spray, OC gas, or even a spray can of bleach or deodorizer to give you enough time to kick, punch, or bludgeon your attacker and get away.
Whatever you do, don’t trust that standard lock and deadbolt to protect you, your property, or your loved ones from the evils of a home invader.
