WEBlue

My small town has seem a significant rise in house break-ins over this past winter, enough so that the Chief of Police has been on the local radio and in the newspaper telling people to keep a light & the radio/TV on when they leave their house even for a short time.

Neighbours tell us that there might have been one break-in at most per year in our area, whereas already with this year barely begun there have been three I know of. All happened when the homeowners were away for more than a few days, and it seems those houses were obviously empty, and someone noticed.

We always lock all doors/windows & put a few lights on timers when we go away from home. But that's all. Wondering what others here do to keep your property secure in your absence?

Steve_

Well according to the stats burglary is going down across the developed world but obviously you can have someone who decides to commit a crime spree.

Anyway the best methods are a monitored alarm and a webcam. Just get some wireless webcams, place them strategically and leave your wifi on, then you can remote in and check whenever you want.

SultanOfSwing

I've always left a light on from when I lived in the UK. It's now force of habit, if we're going out after dark, or will be out when it turns dark, we always leave a light on in the living room to make it look like there's someone home.

We'll be having someone come by to house-sit for us when we go away this year though.

Steve_

If you leave a light on, get a timer. If only because you save on electricity. Most houses have a photoelectric gizmo for the garage light, you can hook up a hall light to it usually without too much effort.

SultanOfSwing

We have a timer that we bought for a previous vacation but it got lost somewhere when we moved house

Nine times out of ten, it's usually just one of us going out though, there's nearly always someone at home.

Steve_

I always think house sitters are more trouble than they're worth, especially after reading Speedwell's comments the other day.

It's really really SUPER easy to break into American and Canadian houses because people use crappy locks. I can get through a Kwikset lock almost as fast as someone who has a key. You can get the skeleton keys everywhere for them.

Buy decent locks. If you really want to be clever about it use tubular locks such as the ones made by Chubb, but the only problem there (as I discovered) is that even locksmiths can't get through them, so a happy medium is a Schlage lock, which will deter a casual burglar but anyone with the right skeleton key can open them. Just not as common as Kwikset skeleton keys.

Pulaski

We have porch lights on a wired-in timer. We have several "screw over the face-plate" motorized timer switches, and a wired in timer in the small bedroom at the front of the house that we're not currently using. We also have a fake TV LED device that we leave on a timer in a room with almost-closed blinds, so it looks like a TV is on.

SultanOfSwing

This is someone we know well and it isn't family. Therefore it should be pretty painless

Plus, someone has to feed the cat. Freeloading bitch that she is. I'm not actually as worried about break-ins as they are rare by us and the police is out and about a lot in our town.

Pulaski

And deadbolts. I recently discovered the "Texas deadbolt". I ordered one and am about to install on our front door. It is a one-sided deadbolt, that is morticed into the door like a regular deadbolt, but has no outside keyhole. .... I will be placing it near the corner of the door for additional resistance to the door being broken out of it's frame.

WEBlue

Yes, our town's Police Chief addressed the lowered overall crime stats. He says they reflect the "old" reality--the new reality is a rise in heroin addiction due to a recent federal crackdown on prescribed painkillers. He says heroin-inspired burglary is hitting small towns across the US particularly hard.

Governor Schumlin of Vermont devoted his entire state of the state speech to heroin addiction, which he called a particularly urgent public emergency.

http://governor.vermont.gov/newsroom...te-speech-2013

Yes, the husband is intrigued by the remote-accessed webcam idea. Is a monitored alarm as simple?

Steve_

Well you have to get one from ADT or similar, I don't think they're worth the effort really. You can set up webcams to e-mail you at certain times of day if you want and they have motion alarms as well.

Steve_

Or the "New York wedge" which is even better if you can set it up, no idea where the name came from, I assume something to do with apartments in New York. Basically you get two steel wedges from a hardware store, screw one to the door and another to the floor and a piece of lumber, cut the ends off at angles and brace the door. Very popular among drug dealers. All you have to do is move the brace to open the door but to break down the door is very hard.

Sometimes you can just do it if you have a heavy piece of furniture in the hall, put a piece of lumber between it and the door to act as a brace.

Obviously you can't do this on all the doors, but on the remaining door you invest in a decent lock, decent door, decent hinges and frame.

French windows and other sliding windows are another thing, you can easily brace those. If the house catches fire takes a second to pull the brace out but to break in without shattering the window is very hard.

Steve_

I don't think it's anything to do with prescription drugs, it's to do with the huge opium production in Afghanistan making the stuff more available. The Afghans have huge natural resources so I think over time the farmers will become miners as there is more money in it, so that will be the end of the opium trade eventually. At least from there.

Hotscot

On a tangential note what do you guys think is the biggest attraction for a burglar?

In order of importance for us...first our cats are most valuable, then our external hard drives with 20 years of data.

I suppose then important documents and electronics, but these are replaceable.

To be honest I feel if the cats were ok and they didn't find my drives, which I hide before we leave, then nothing much else is important. We keep very little cash or expensive jewelry in the house.

Steve_

There's been a rash of burglaries in Calgary and that's what they actually look for apparently, that the TV is on. They break in through the garage, steal everything from the garage while you are distracted.